What it is
Soates is a premium desktop music client that streams audio only from YouTube. Search any track, queue it, EQ it, visualize it — the app stays lightweight because video is never downloaded or rendered.
How streaming works
The renderer loads tracks through a local soates://stream/<videoId> protocol. The Electron main process resolves a direct audio-only stream URL via YouTube's InnerTube API and relays the bytes in bounded chunks. Because the proxy adds CORS headers, audio flows through a full Web Audio graph — EQ, effects, limiter, analyser — which powers both the equalizer and every visualizer.
Features
Music
- YouTube search, audio-only, through a local stream proxy
- Queue with drag-reorder, shuffle and repeat (off / all / one)
- Auto-radio — related tracks keep the queue alive when it runs out
- Crossfade (0–12s), playback speed, sleep timer, likes and history
- Local playlists with import/export, full data backup and restore
- Session restore — reopens exactly where you left off
Audio engine
- 10-band equalizer with presets and user presets
- Bass boost, treble boost, vocal enhance, stereo widener
- Loudness normalization using YouTube's per-track loudness metadata
- A transparent master limiter
Visualizers
Spectrum, Circular, Waveform, Particle Field, Neon Rings, Oscilloscope, Floating Dots, Matrix, Galaxy and Dev Grid — each with custom color, sensitivity, trail, FPS, opacity and glow controls.
Customization
Accent color, aurora/grid backgrounds, custom wallpapers with blur and dimming, audio-reactive ambient effects, panel transparency, sidebar width, UI scale, fonts and rebindable hotkeys.
Developer flair
A dedicated Dev Console page with live CPU, RAM, FPS and audio-latency telemetry, sparklines and an event log.
Extras
Discord Rich Presence, tray controls, global media keys, taskbar progress, toast notifications, and an always-on-top mini player with its own theming.
Status
Soates is an actively developed Windows desktop application, built with Electron. It ships as an NSIS installer and a portable build; user data lives locally and is shared between the development and installed versions.
