How to make a music visualizer
Eight steps from an audio file to a finished video. No video editing experience needed.
Step by step
- 1
Load your track
Drag an audio file onto the editor or use the button. It is checked, decoded and analysed in your browser. Nothing uploads, so there is no waiting on a queue.
- 2
Pick a starting point
Either choose a style from the left panel and build from its defaults, or apply a template for a complete look you can then adjust.
- 3
Set the canvas size
Choose from the dropdown in the toolbar before you spend time on layout. Switching from landscape to vertical later usually means redoing the composition.
- 4
Choose colours
Start from one of the presets, then adjust. Gradient mode blends two colours across the shape. Spectrum mode maps them across the frequency range instead.
- 5
Position it
Drag the visualizer on the canvas. It snaps to centres, thirds and quarters. For precision, the position section has numeric controls and nine anchor points.
- 6
Add a background
Solid colour, gradient, or your own image. For cover art, blur it and drop the brightness so the visualizer has something to read against.
- 7
Tune the response
Play the track and watch. If it is twitchy, raise smoothing. If it feels disconnected, raise attack and lower decay. If the bass dominates, lower bass sensitivity.
- 8
Export
Choose a normal video with the track included, or a transparent video to composite over footage. The video export renders offline, usually faster than the length of the track.
Start from a template
The fastest route: apply one, swap the colours, export.
Minimal Wave
A single quiet line on near-black. Leaves room for a title.
Neon Spectrum
Gradient bars with a soft glow, sitting on the lower third.
Dark Pulse
Radial bars that swell on the beat. Built for heavier tracks.
Circular Energy
A rotating ring of frequency bars centred over the frame.
Parallax Voyage
A circular spectrum wrapping a planet over a scrolling alien horizon that drifts through colour.
Smooth Pulse
A smooth glowing spectrum ring that swells gently around a centre logo, over a whole frame of soft particles that flare on every beat.
All ninety are on the templates page.
Things worth avoiding
Turning every effect on. Glow, trail, blur, grain and beat reaction all interact. Two of them together is usually the limit before the shape stops being readable. They are off by default for a reason.
Leaving the background at full brightness. A photo or cover at full contrast will fight the visualizer. Blur it and drop the brightness, or add a dark overlay at around 0.3.
Maximum sensitivity. If everything is pinned at the top of its range constantly, the visualizer stops responding to the music because there is nowhere left to move. Back it off until the loud parts reach the top and the quiet parts do not.
Choosing the canvas size last. Composition does not survive an aspect ratio change. Decide landscape or vertical first.