Music Visualizer Pro Documentation

Compatibility

• Blender 4.3 or newer

• Tested with Blender 5.2

• Supports Cycles and Eevee

• Windows, macOS and Linux

• No external Python packages required

Music Visualizer Pro uses Blender’s built-in audio tools. Audio format support may vary by Blender installation, but common WAV, MP3, FLAC and OGG files should work.

Installation

1. Download Music_Visualizer_Pro_v1_2.zip.

2. Do not extract the ZIP.

3. Open Blender.

4. Go to Edit → Preferences → Add-ons.

5. Open the Add-ons menu and choose Install from Disk.

6. Select the downloaded ZIP.

7. Enable Music Visualizer Pro.

8. Return to the 3D Viewport and press N.

9. Open the Music Video tab.

When updating from an older version, save your project, disable the previous version, install the new ZIP and restart Blender before enabling it.

Quick Start

Simple Mode is enabled by default and organizes the process into four steps.

1. Choose a Look

Select one of the production recipes or choose a visualizer and color palette manually.

The included production recipes are:

• Neon Tunnel Fly-Through

• Realistic Metal Spectrum

• Liquid Dream

• Performer Orbit

• Orbital Swarm

• Bass Dolly Corridor

• Blood Eclipse

• Fast Kaleidoscope

A recipe changes the current settings but does not immediately rebuild or delete your scene.

2. Load Your Song

Choose an audio file from your computer.

You can also adjust:

• Starting point

• Analysis duration

• Audio sensitivity

• Attack and release

• Frequency response

• Motion speed

For your first test, use a short section of the song. This makes it much faster to experiment with different visualizers and settings.

3. Create the Music Video

Press Quick Create.

This will:

• Create a separate Blender scene

• Build the selected visualizer

• Analyze the chosen song

• Set the animation length

• Generate the selected camera movement

Each new build is created as a separate scene inside the same .blend file. Previous scenes can be accessed through Blender’s scene selector.

Gravity visualizers require one additional step: Bake Gravity Simulation.

4. Preview and Render

Press the Spacebar to preview the animation.

Use Numpad 0 to look through the active camera.

Before rendering:

1. Save the Blender project.

2. Choose an output location.

3. Select a render profile.

4. Configure MP4 output or a PNG frame sequence.

5. Go to Render → Render Animation.

Simple Mode and Advanced Mode

Simple Mode

Simple Mode is intended for quickly building a complete visualizer without opening every available setting.

It includes:

• Production recipes

• Song selection

• Visualizer selection

• Color selection

• Quick Create

• Camera selection

• Render profiles

• Project Check

• Custom presets

Advanced Mode

Advanced Mode exposes the complete toolset, including:

• All 68 visualizer styles

• 96 color palettes

• Material controls

• Audio-frequency controls

• Reactive lighting

• Atmospheric effects

• Procedural generation

• Gravity simulation

• Camera choreography

• Grease Pencil camera paths

• Performer staging

• Green-screen controls

• Detailed render and output settings

Switching between Simple and Advanced Mode does not remove generated objects or reset the scene.

Audio Analysis

Music Visualizer Pro analyzes the song across 32 frequency bands. This allows different parts of the visualizer to react to bass, mids and higher frequencies instead of reacting only to overall volume.

Sensitivity

Controls the overall strength of the audio reaction.

Increase it when the movement is too subtle. Reduce it if objects are moving too far or the animation feels unstable.

Attack

Controls how quickly the visualizer responds when the music becomes louder.

Lower attack values create sharper hits. Higher values create softer transitions.

Release

Controls how quickly the visualizer settles after a hit.

Short release values work well for fast percussion. Longer values produce smoother, flowing motion.

Analysis Duration

Limits how much of the song is analyzed.

Short durations are useful while testing. Analyze the complete track once you are happy with the design.

Changes to the song, frame rate, trim range, attack or release require the song to be analyzed again.

Audio analysis is limited to 12 minutes per pass.

Visualizer Styles

Music Visualizer Pro includes 68 visualizer styles covering clean equalizers, cinematic environments, realistic materials, abstract designs and physics-inspired motion.

Classic and Cinematic

Examples include:

• Spectrum Bars

• Neon Tunnel

• Orbital Rings

• Spiral Galaxy

• Waveform Ribbons

• Cyber City

• Laser Cathedral

• Aurora Curtains

• Portal Stack

• Ripple Grid

Realistic Styles

The realism-focused designs include:

• Brushed Metal Bars

• Illuminated Glass

• Liquid Mercury

• Water Ripples

• Speaker Membranes

• Quartz Garden

For glass, water and reflective materials, use Cycles and the Realistic render profile when creating the final result.

Procedural and Abstract Styles

Examples include:

• Mobius Ribbon Choir

• Lissajous Loom

• Superformula Bloom

• Torus Knot Web

• Fibonacci Light Garden

• Hypercube Projection

• Ferrofluid Spike Carpet

• Glass Jellyfish

• Neon Circuit Terrain

• Voxel Pulse Mountains

• Eclipse Ring Theatre

Procedural Hybrid

Procedural Hybrid creates variations using a random seed, harmonic complexity, element count and other controls.

Use Generate Procedural Hybrid to create another variation. This changes the seed, palette and harmonic settings before building a new scene.

Gravity Visualizers

Nine visualizers use baked gravitational motion:

• N-Body Orbital Swarm

• Binary Star Slingshot

• Saturn Ring Shear

• Collapsing Dust Cloud

• Comet Slingshot Stream

• Gravity Fountain

• Three-Body Chaos

• Tidal Spiral Disruption

• Polar Orbit Shell

Bass Dolly Zoom Corridor is included in the gravity-themed category, but it is a camera and perspective effect rather than a gravity simulation.

Baking Gravity

1. Select a gravity visualizer.

2. Choose the body count.

3. Create the visualizer scene.

4. Analyze the song.

5. Open Gravity & Bass Dolly Zoom.

6. Adjust the gravity settings.

7. Press Bake Gravity Simulation.

8. Generate or rebuild the camera.

9. Save the project before rendering.

Press Esc while baking to cancel.

Gravity Controls

Central Mass

Controls the strength of the main gravitational source.

Bass Mass Boost

Controls how strongly bass changes the gravitational pull.

Higher settings can produce tighter, faster and more chaotic movement. Very high settings may throw objects away from the center.

Softening

Reduces extreme forces when objects pass very close to each other. Increase this if the simulation becomes unstable.

Simulation Accuracy

Controls how precisely the motion is calculated. Higher settings may improve difficult simulations but take longer to bake.

Mutual Body Gravity

Allows the smaller bodies to attract one another instead of responding only to the main source.

Gravity animation is baked into normal Blender keyframes. After baking, the scene can be scrubbed and rendered without relying on a live Python simulation.

The system is intended for artistic motion. It does not include collisions, merging objects or scientifically calibrated real-world units.

Bass Dolly Zoom

Bass Dolly Zoom Corridor creates a coordinated camera and lens effect.

When the bass hits, the camera moves while its focal length changes in the opposite direction. The subject near the focal plane remains roughly the same size while the corridor perspective expands and contracts.

Use:

• Dolly Rest Distance to set the camera’s starting distance

• Bass Push / Zoom to control the strength of the effect

• Audio attack and release to smooth the response

The intended focal plane is located at world Y=0.

Generating a different camera preset or rebuilding a drawn camera path removes the coordinated dolly-zoom setup.

Camera Presets

The add-on includes 20 camera movements:

• Orbit

• Reverse Orbit

• Half Orbit

• Spiral In

• Spiral Out

• Crane Rise

• Crane Descent

• Dolly In

• Dolly Out

• Side Slider

• Figure Eight

• Overhead Orbit

• Low Sweep

• Helix Climb

• Tunnel Fly Through

• Tunnel Corkscrew

• Tunnel Reverse

• Pendulum

• Reveal Arc

• Static Portrait

Generate the camera after analyzing the song so the movement matches the complete animation length.

Tunnel camera presets are intended for tunnel-style visualizers. Automatic framing chooses a suitable starting angle for flat, vertical and tunnel-based scenes.

Drawing a Custom Camera Path

Custom camera routes can be drawn using a Grease Pencil object.

Creating the Path

1. Build the visualizer.

2. Analyze the song.

3. Choose a useful top or side viewport angle.

4. Press Create Grease Pencil Drawing.

5. Draw one continuous stroke.

6. Select the Grease Pencil object.

7. Choose the desired stroke number.

8. Press Use Selected Drawing Stroke.

Use a Grease Pencil object rather than Blender viewport annotations.

Smoothing the Camera

Press Smooth Path & Rebuild Camera to reduce sharp turns and uneven travel.

The path is resampled and the camera moves at a more consistent speed. The endpoints remain in place.

You can press the smoothing button again for a softer result. Use Blender’s Undo command if the path becomes too smooth.

Editing Camera Angles

The camera’s position and angle are controlled separately.

To create custom angles:

1. Move to the desired frame.

2. Adjust Tilt, Pan, Roll and Lens.

3. Press Key Angle & Lens.

4. Repeat at other points in the timeline.

Smoothing or rebuilding the travel path preserves these angle and lens keyframes.

Camera Orientation

• Look Along Path points the camera in the direction of travel.

• Look at Target points the camera toward a selected target position.

Always preview the complete camera move before rendering. Camera paths do not include automatic collision avoidance.

Performer and Green-Screen Scenes

Music Visualizer Pro includes staging options designed for music videos featuring a performer.

Performer Layouts

Behind Performer

Places the main visualizer behind the performer.

Orbiting Hologram

Creates a smaller visualizer that moves around the performer position.

Handheld Hologram

Places a small visualizer near hand height.

Abstract Music Video

Creates a full visualizer scene without performer staging.

Importing Footage

Use Import Performer Plane to place a movie or transparent image sequence in the scene.

For green-screen footage:

1. Import the performer footage.

2. Select the screen color.

3. Adjust the threshold.

4. Adjust edge softness.

5. Import the plane again if you need to apply changed key settings.

The built-in key is intended for straightforward footage. Difficult hair detail, strong green spill and unevenly lit screens may require Blender’s compositor or external keying software.

The imported performer remains a flat plane. Static shots, dolly shots and small camera movements usually work best. Large camera orbits will reveal that the footage is two-dimensional.

Performer footage does not automatically supply the project’s music. Load the song separately in the Song & Reaction section.

Colors, Materials and Effects

The add-on includes 96 palettes, including neon, metallic, cinematic, horror, vaporwave, pastel, monochrome and high-contrast looks.

A custom two-color gradient is also available.

Optional effects include:

• Reactive lighting

• Emission

• Bloom

• Reflective stage

• Rain

• Stardust

• Bass halos

• Volumetric fog

Most visual, material and effect settings are applied while the scene is being created. Choose these options before building the visualizer.

Sensitivity and motion speed can be adjusted after creation.

Performance Advice

The following options have the largest effect on render time:

• Volumetric fog

• Glass and reflective materials

• Rain with high object counts

• Large numbers of visualizer elements

• High Cycles sample counts

• Gravity simulations with many bodies

Begin with Preview quality, 32–48 elements and fog disabled. Increase the quality after the composition and camera are working.

Render Profiles

Preview

Uses Eevee at 720p for quicker testing.

Final

Uses Cycles at 4K as a high-quality starting point.

Cycles 720p Fast

• 1280 × 720

• Up to 64 samples

• Adaptive sampling

• Denoising

• Reduced light-bounce settings

• Intended for faster final renders and testing

Cycles 720p Realistic

• 1280 × 720

• Up to 1024 samples

• Adaptive sampling

• Denoising

• Higher reflection, transmission and indirect-light settings

• Intended for glass, water, metal and detailed final renders

The quality button changes render settings on the current scene. It does not rebuild the visualizer or remove its animation.

Render time depends on the visualizer, effects, song length and computer hardware. You can make additional sample adjustments through Blender’s normal Render Properties.

The add-on does not automatically select a GPU. Configure your preferred Cycles device in Blender Preferences.

Video Output

MP4 with Song Audio

Choose an output folder and use Configure MP4 + Song Audio.

This prepares Blender’s output settings for a standard video render with the selected song.

Render through:

Render → Render Animation

PNG Frame Sequence

PNG frames are recommended for important or longer renders.

If Blender closes or the render is interrupted, previously completed frames remain available. The finished frames can be assembled with the song using Blender’s Video Sequencer or another video editor.

Make sure the output location has enough free storage before rendering.

Project Check

Project Check looks for common missing steps and provides a scene-complexity estimate.

It checks for:

• A valid song file

• A generated visualizer scene

• Completed audio analysis

• An active camera

• A gravity cache when required

• A selected output path

Complexity is displayed as Light, Medium or Heavy.

This is a general workload estimate rather than an exact render-time prediction.

Saving Custom Presets

The My Presets section stores your current creative settings inside the .blend file.

To save a preset:

1. Enter a preset name.

2. Press Save Preset.

3. Select it later from the preset list.

4. Press Load Preset.

Presets store settings such as the visualizer, palette, effects and camera choices.

They do not embed:

• Audio files

• Performer footage

• Generated objects

• Gravity caches

• Rendered videos

Keep external media files together with the Blender project when moving it to another computer.

Troubleshooting

The Music Video tab is missing

Make sure the add-on is enabled in Blender Preferences. Return to the 3D Viewport, press N, and select the Music Video tab.

The song will not load

Confirm that the file still exists and is supported by your Blender installation.

If necessary, convert it to a standard WAV file. DRM-protected audio is not supported.

The visualizer is not moving

Make sure you pressed Analyze Song after creating the scene.

Also check:

• The correct scene is active

• Sensitivity is not too low

• The selected part of the song is not silent

• The timeline is inside the analyzed frame range

The gravity visualizer is not moving

Gravity scenes require both audio analysis and Bake Gravity Simulation.

If you change the song, frame rate, gravity settings, seed or animation length, bake the simulation again.

The camera movement is too short

Analyze the complete song before generating the camera. Camera movement uses the current scene frame range.

The drawn camera path is shaky

Use Smooth Path & Rebuild Camera. If the path still has sudden turns, edit its points in Blender’s Edit Mode or draw a cleaner stroke.

The camera passes through objects

Custom routes do not include collision avoidance. Adjust the path points or increase the distance from the visualizer.

The render is black

Run Project Check and confirm that:

• A camera exists

• The correct scene is active

• Lights are enabled

• The output frame is inside the animation range

• Objects have not been disabled for rendering

The render is too slow

Try the following:

• Use Cycles 720p Fast

• Reduce the element or body count

• Disable volumetric fog

• Reduce rain

• Avoid glass-heavy styles

• Lower the Cycles samples

• Render a short section first

• Use Eevee for preview renders

The interface becomes busy during analysis

Audio analysis runs as a bounded process and may temporarily occupy Blender, especially with long tracks.

Analyze a shorter section while testing, then analyze the full song before the final render.

Important Project Notes

Generated objects, lights, materials and animation remain editable using Blender’s normal tools.

The add-on avoids permanent frame-change Python handlers. Generated animation is stored as standard Blender actions, drivers and keyframes.

Audio and performer footage remain external files. Use Blender’s File → External Data → Pack Resources where supported, or keep the media files beside the saved project.

Rain is a decorative looping effect. It does not create physical collisions or wet surfaces.

Liquid visualizers use procedural animated shapes rather than Blender fluid simulations.

The gravity system is an artistic numerical simulation. It is not intended for scientific calculations.

No music, footage, HDRIs, third-party textures or fonts are included.

Recommended First Project

For a quick first result:

1. Select Neon Tunnel Fly-Through.

2. Load a short section of your song.

3. Press Quick Create.

4. Preview through the camera.

5. Run Project Check.

6. Select Cycles 720p Fast.

7. Set an output folder.

8. Render a short test.

9. Adjust the colors and audio sensitivity.

10. Analyze the full song and render the finished version.

This workflow gives you a complete starting scene while leaving every generated object, material, light and camera available for further editing.