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Live visuals

A visual that listens to your set

It reads the sound of a live set and draws it on a screen behind you, as it happens. No pre rendered loop. It listens and never plays any sound.

What it looks like

The first one was built for a DJ friend, for his sets. It is the working version every custom visual starts from.

One steel drum turns slowly under one lamp. Light passes through a stencil of your name, so the letters are the only lit thing. Kicks hammer marks into the steel, a drop cuts a groove across the name, held bass presses a long dent into it, chords ring the surface and highs throw sparks. By the end of the night the drum is a record of the set.

The only text on screen is your name. No date, no logo, no second line.

A custom one, built for you

A custom visual is the same engine reworked around your name and a look you choose. It is hand work, so I take a small number of jobs.

1. You answer a short brief: your name, your screen, your laptop, three words for the look and one thing you do not want.
2. I send one still frame. No build starts before you say yes to it.
3. I build the look and set up a folder with your name in it.
4. We run a rehearsal call: a test signal, a test strike, then one real track through your real cable.
5. You receive the folder, a checklist for the hour before doors, and a backup screen recording to play if anything fails.

The price is quoted after the brief, so you know the cost before the still frame is made.

What you need

• A Windows laptop with the free Node.js runtime, and Edge or Chrome. A Mac version has not been tested.
• A way to get your mix into the laptop. A USB audio interface or a record out from the booth is best. A 3.5 mm line input works. The laptop microphone is the last resort and gives a looser picture.
• An HDMI cable to the screen or projector, with the display set to extend, not mirror.
• The venue's permission to run a laptop feed to its screen. Ask before the night.

Safety and control

The lamp is the only thing that changes brightness, and the code refuses a fourth large step inside one second. The lit area stays under a third of the frame and there is no saturated red. A key blacks the screen out, another holds it still for a speech, and another undoes a wrong automatic call.

What is proven, and what is not

• Proven: it runs on my own computer against a test signal and against one finished track, with its own checks passing.
• Not proven: a real room, a real wall, a crowd, a full set, any other computer, any frame rate on a named machine, and a Mac.
• Setup is not yet a product. Expect a call. That is part of the job.
• The venue decides whether your laptop can feed its screen. The music rights for any video of your set are yours and the venue's.

Tell me your name, your screen and your next set in the Discord, or write through the contact page.