Using the Visualizers

Visualizers are special shaders designed to directly respond to audio input, unlike regular shaders which can only be controlled by modulators (like AMs or LFOs).

Load your music

Open the Audio Player by clicking its icon in the left sidebar.
Load your music file (wav, mp3, etc.) by dragging it onto the panel or through the browser.
Start playback by clicking the Play icon or clicking the waveform.
Your song should now be playing.

Load a visualizer shader onto a layer

Open the Mixer panel and select Layer 1. Right click it and open the Material Browser.
Navigate to Visualizers → Shaders. You should see a selection of factory visualizers.
Select Bars Spectrum 1 and load it.

Set the audio input

With your layer selected, go to the Layer Properties on the right and open the Input tab.
Scroll to the Audio section and set Source to ‘Player’ so it listens to your music.
Adjust the Gain to change how loud the audio appears to the visualizer.
You should now see your visualizer react to your music.

Important Note: Some visualizers are waveform-based, while others are spectrum-based. The factory visualizers are named accordingly, including 'waveform' or 'spectrum' in their names. The difference between them is that waveform visualizers will display the audio waveform, while spectrum visualizers display the frequency data (FFT bins).

The Buffer Size control under Layer Properties → Input applies only to waveform shaders. It controls how much of the waveform is shown, up to 2 seconds. It has no effect on spectrum visualizers.

Likewise, the Spectrum Speed control applies only to spectrum visualizers, and controls how quickly the visual reacts to incoming audio. It has no effect on waveform visualizers.

For this example, we’ve used a spectrum-based visualizer. Explore both types and the Buffer Size / Spectrum Speed controls to understand them better.

Optional: Modulate other parameters

Visualizers, like regular shaders, may also have additional parameters — position, height, etc. These can still be modulated through the Matrix. See Loading your track and making visuals react to it for more details on how to use the Matrix.

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