Sources and saved looks

BeamTracer FX Rack can use your camera, a screen, an uploaded video, or an image as its picture. Add Visual Source before the other effects, select the source, and choose how the visualizer sits over it. Save the stack in LOOKS when you want to recall its settings later.

How do I put my camera, a video or an image under the effects?

SOURCE at the top of the rack is the one place to change the picture: press CAMERA, SCREEN or VIDEO · IMAGE, or try an example (TRINA, TRINA · HANDS to see TRACK and HAND FRAME follow her hands, or VAN GOGH). Picking one puts VISUAL SOURCE at the head of the list, so it shows under whatever look is on. The first time you open Performer mode, a hint points there.

VISUAL SOURCE puts a picture on the canvas under every effect below it: your camera, a shared screen or window, or a video or image file. It always sits first in the list.

1. Add VISUAL SOURCE from ADD AN EFFECT, then press CAMERA, SCREEN or VIDEO · IMAGE at the top of its controls. The browser asks for the camera or the screen the first time; allow it. With more than one camera connected, WHICH CAMERA picks one (a capture card works too). A video loops (SPEED plays it from a quarter speed to four times faster); an image drifts slowly so the effects have something to move with.
2. PICTURE at 1 covers the visualizer; lower it to blend the picture over whatever is playing underneath. HIT punches it up for a moment, so a beat assigned to it flashes the camera in on the kick.
3. MIRROR shows you as in a mirror, which is easier to perform with. CAMERA ONLY (the default) mirrors a camera and nothing else; turn it off for a camera that faces the crowd.
4. STOP switches the picture off and releases the camera or the screen. Removing VISUAL SOURCE from the list does the same, so nothing keeps recording out of sight. TRACK and HAND FRAME follow whatever is on screen: they read the camera only while VISUAL SOURCE is in the list.

VIDEO SOUND starts on for each uploaded video, preserving its original sound in playback and rendered exports. Its sound also drives the visuals. Switch it off to mute the video or use a separate track. A playing audio track, radio station, microphone, virtual device or shared tab takes priority and mutes the video. Pause the track or stop the live input to hear the video again. STOP, an image or a camera turns VIDEO SOUND off; loading another video restores it. Videos without an audio track remain silent. RECORD includes the sound you hear. RENDER can include an uploaded video and its original sound at SPEED 1.

VISUALIZER: OVER turns the layers round: the visualizer flies over your picture wherever its own background is transparent, so with a visualizer's Background Opacity at 0 only its subject sits on your camera (try Birds, whose flock can follow your hand). The first time these controls appear, a few tips walk you through the camera; skip them with Skip all tips and bring them back under Settings → Display → Tips. An uploaded video can be rendered with its effects and tracking. To keep a live performance with your camera in it, press RECORD (Record a live take).

How do I save a stack of effects as a look?

A look is the whole rack saved in one press: which effects are on, their order, every setting, and every control you assigned to the music. Recalling a look brings all of it back over whatever visualizer is showing, still moving with the music, and every slider stays live to tweak or assign afterwards.

1. Switch on and shape the effects you want.
2. Under LOOKS, type a name and press SAVE LOOK.
3. Tick KEEP VISUALIZER first if the look belongs to the visualizer under it: recalling the look then switches to that visualizer too. These looks show VIZ after their name.
4. Press a look to recall it, or PREV and NEXT to step through them. While a look is lit, UPDATE saves the rack over it instead of adding a new one (type a name first to rename it); this works on the eight looks that come with the rack too. An overwritten default look shows a reset arrow: press it, then RESET, to bring the original back. Performer Settings → DISPLAY → FX LOOKS lists every overwritten default look with RESET, and RESET ALL brings all eight back; your own saved looks stay. Press the lit look again to turn it off: every effect switches off. Press × and then DELETE to remove one of yours; the eight looks that come with the rack cannot be deleted.

The first eight factory looks are SCREEN PRINT, POP FRAME, HAND FRAME, DATA HANDS, PINCH SWEEP, MATRIX RAIN, BABY TRACK, and SPARK DRUMS. SCREEN PRINT starts with CONTOURS over Studio Portrait. HAND FRAME, MATRIX RAIN and BABY TRACK load the TRINA · HANDS demo when no source is selected; your chosen camera, screen or file stays in place. POP FRAME puts a magenta, cyan and yellow print inside a hand window; DATA HANDS draws a tracking HUD; PINCH SWEEP follows pinch and hand height; MATRIX RAIN pours green text down glowing edges; BABY TRACK boxes the picture's shapes and plays a different effect in each box; SPARK DRUMS emits sparks from your hand. The remaining looks are INFINITE TUNNEL, TIME SMEAR, RISO, HIVE MIND, SIGNAL LOSS, THERMAL BODY, KICK FLIP, FLOWER WAVES, POINT CLOUD, SONAR CROSS, and LOGO ECHO. FLOWER WAVES loads FLOWER when no source or another example is showing and sends ripples through its colored petals. POINT CLOUD turns the picture into glowing points that the music pushes toward you, low notes on the left and high notes on the right (PARTICLES with GLOW and PUSH; PUSH LAYOUT turns it to rows or a ripple from your face, hands or an object). SONAR CROSS draws rings around whatever is bright in the current visualizer, such as a logo or text, and folds them four ways into a cross; every beat sends a pulse outward and flashes the edge. LOGO ECHO switches to Audioreactive Logo and echoes its mark outward in rings, with the logo still showing through; the bass speeds the rings and every beat flashes the edge. Your saved looks remain available after the factory looks.

The number keys play looks: 1 to 9 recall looks 1 to 9 and 0 recalls look 10, and pressing the lit look's number again turns it off. Looks are numbered in the order shown. LOOK 1 to LOOK 24, NEXT LOOK and PREVIOUS LOOK can each be learned to a MIDI pad, and /beamtracer/viz/fx/look/<n> recalls look n over OSC (1 is the first).

Where do I go next?

Return to the FX Rack overview to choose another task. Compare controls in the effects reference, or follow the rendering guide to save your result.