The difference between a generic bouncing visual and one that feels mixed to your song — Sensitivity, Reactivity, Response Style, Frequency Focus and beat motion, in the right order.
Before you start
Every engine reacts automatically, but a handful of controls decide whether it feels mixed to your song or just generically bouncy. They live across three sections — Visualizer Controls (Audio Reaction Style), Engine Parameters, and Beat FX — and every one applies identically to the preview and the export, so what you tune is what you render. Want the theory first? See How Music Visualizers Work.
These get confused constantly. Sensitivity (under Engine Parameters, ~0.5–3, default 1.2) is input gain: how far the visual moves for a given audio level. Raise it if a quiet track barely moves; lower it if a loud master pins everything at maximum. Reactivity (in Audio Reaction Style, 0–1, default 0.20) is how hard and fast shapes chase the audio. A big cinematic look is high Sensitivity with low Reactivity; an aggressive EDM look flips that.
The Response Style dropdown (Balanced, Smooth, Pulse, Burst) sets how quickly the visual tracks the audio. Smooth is flowing and ambient; Pulse and Burst track faster and unlock their matching intensity sliders. Treat them as genre dials: a lo-fi track wants Smooth with everything near 0; hip-hop and house want Balanced with some Pulse and Transient emphasis so kicks and snares land; reserve Burst for drops.
Frequency Focus decides which part of the spectrum drives the visual: Full Spectrum, Bass Heavy (kick and bassline — the usual choice for beat music), Mid Focus (vocals and leads), or Treble Focus (hi-hats and air). For surgical reactions, the 32-band group locks the visual to one narrow band — for example Band 4 (Kick body) so it moves only on the kick, ignoring the bassline. Narrowing the focus is also the fix when Full Spectrum feels mushy on a dense mix.
Beat detection is automatic — Novus estimates BPM from the bass onsets, so beats stay steady through breakdowns. You decide how much each beat moves the whole frame with the Frame motion sliders: Beat screen shake, Beat pulse (scale), Beat tilt, Beat glow and Beat drift, all governed by a Motion smoothing slider. Prefer presets? The Beat FX section applies coordinated looks (Camera Shake, Scale Pulse, Glow Pulse, Cinematic, Rave Mode…) in one click, and you can trim the sliders afterward.
Flashing sensitivity
Use Beat Strobe and heavy full-frame flashing sparingly on published videos — rapid flashing can be uncomfortable for some viewers.
Change one thing at a time
Sensitivity, Response Style and Reactivity multiply each other — moving two at once makes it impossible to tell what did what. If the visual looks jittery, lower Reactivity before touching anything else.
Ready to try it?
Open the editor and follow along — free, no account, watermark-free exports.
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