AVTouchBar For Mac

The MacBook Pro Touch Bar hasn't won everyone over, and it probably won't any time soon. However, if you do have a MacBook Pro and can't find too many uses for the Touch Bar, AVTouchBar might give you some ideas.

This app puts a classic audio visualizer in the laptop's OLED strip, allowing you to enjoy your music in an entirely new way. It is possibly the best alternative use for the Touch Bar I've seen so far, and it offers extensive customization options for all kinds of user preferences.

AVTouchBar can use either microphone input or system audio to generate the visualization, but it will need some help with the latter. Since macOS does not allow you to access the system audio, a third-party audio driver is needed, such as SoundFlower, Loopback, Boom3D, or BlackHole. Install one of these, and then select it as the audio source from the app's preferences.

AVTouchBar is controlled from the menu bar, and the default color scheme can be tweaked easily. You can also add a set of custom colors by downloading the optional color pack and importing one of the contained files from the color manager.

If you run into any kind of trouble setting things up, don't hesitate to consult the very detailed documentation available on the app's website.