From Upload to Export: A Complete Novus Editor Walkthrough

The Novus editor takes a song and a scene and gives you a finished video — no software to install, no watermark, and you own the export. This walkthrough follows the whole path once, end to end, so you know where every control lives. Keep the editor open in another tab and follow along.

1. Opening the editor

You can enter the editor three ways: straight from the main editor page with a blank scene, by opening any scene from the template gallery, or via Quick Start, a guided flow that picks sensible defaults for you. If you are new, Quick Start is the fastest way to a good-looking result; if you know the look you want, open it from the gallery. (There is also Creator Studio, a deeper layers-and-nodes editor that opens the very same project — this walkthrough sticks to the classic editor.)

2. Uploading your audio

Drop in an MP3, WAV or most common audio file and the editor analyzes it locally in your browser — nothing is uploaded to a server, which is why it is fast and private. Do not have a track handy? The Audio Library has copyright-free music you can use commercially. Once the track is in, the editor detects a beat grid you can correct by hand — BPM, offset, even individual markers — which is what keeps every hit on time; the first visualizer guide covers the details.

3. Picking a template

With audio loaded, choose a scene. If you came in blank, open the engine picker and browse the nine engines — the same nine covered in Choosing the Right Visualizer Engine. Every engine offers six modes; switch between them live and watch the preview update against your track.

4. The settings panel

The settings panel is where a scene becomes yours. Some controls are engine-specific, but every engine shares a core set: Beat response (how hard each detected beat hits — see How Music Visualizers Work for the theory), Sensitivity, Pulse intensity, Beat shake, Rotation and a Color mode that switches between a duo palette, a gradient and a full-spectrum rainbow. Small nudges go a long way; change one thing at a time and let the preview tell you if it helped.

5. Text overlays and layers

Novus scenes are built from toggleable layers — background, the visualizer itself, an optional logo, an overlay, a song title and author text. Turn on the ones you need and position them to taste. Text layers are perfect for a track title, artist name or handle; the titles, text and logo tutorial covers fonts, sizing and placement. You can also add synced lyric captions here (more in the lyric video guide).

1. Background — a solid color, gradient or image behind everything.
2. Visualizer — the reactive engine itself.
3. Logo / overlay — brand marks or a framing overlay on top.
4. Song title & author — text layers for titles, artist name or a handle.

6. Effects and polish

Every engine carries a set of effect controls — Glow, motion echo, blur and more — for a richer, more produced look, and Creator Studio goes further, letting you wire LFO, math and effect nodes into any property on its node graph. Use it all deliberately: a little glow adds depth, a lot turns everything to mush. If a scene feels flat, a touch of Glow and a Color mode tweak usually fixes it faster than any single parameter.

7. Choosing resolution and aspect ratio

Before exporting, set your canvas to match where the video is going. 16:9 for YouTube and desktop, 9:16 for Shorts / Reels / TikTok, 1:1 for feed posts. Picking the aspect ratio before you fine-tune framing saves rework, because text and logo positions are relative to the canvas.

8. Exporting MP4 or WebM

Hit export and Novus renders your video locally — no watermark, no export cap, no account required. MP4 is the safe, universal choice for social platforms; WebM is smaller and great for the web when you control playback. Higher resolutions take longer to render, so a 4K export of a long track will need patience. The export guide covers formats, quality settings and device limits.

9. Reusing your look

Once you have a scene dialed in, you can reuse it across a whole release so every video shares an identity — the heart of building a brand, which we cover in Designing Cover Art & Spotify Canvas Loops. Making a full set of visuals for an album? The Cover Art & Canvas Studio is built for exactly that. Still stuck on something? The FAQ answers the most common questions.