Particles
Particle Equalizer
Watch living particle spheres swirl to your music: bass, mid and treble shells that each move with their own band and drum, a single organic cell, a nebula born on the waveform, or a vortex, tunnel and supernova that breathe and scatter on the beat.
Particle Equalizer fills the screen with tens of thousands of fine particles carried on swirling noise. In Strata three nested shells split the mix: the bass shell in the center swells and is thrown out by the kick, the mid shell answers the snare, and the outer treble shell answers the hi-hat, so each layer moves on its own. Cell is one living sphere whose flow re-forms on every beat. Nebula is a cloud born on the sound itself: new particles land on the shape an oscilloscope draws from your music's left and right channels, then drift off on swirling noise that tears them into filaments, harder on every kick. The Vortex, Quantum, Supernova and Hyperspace shapes keep their music-driven motion, and Organic lets their particles drift away, scatter on the beat and return home.
Open Particle Equalizer
Launch the visualizer with its matching left-nav entry selected.
Move the particles with your hand
- Switch to Performer and pick Particle Equalizer from Visualizers, then choose the Hand Stir look.
- Set Background Opacity to 0 so only the particles show.
- Open the FX Rack, add Visual Source with your camera (or a video), and set its Visualizer to Over so the shells float in front of you.
- Raise a hand and point. The shells follow it around the frame, the bass shell a beat behind the treble, and come closer as you reach toward the camera. Lift your hand to let them dissolve into flowing particles, open your palm to make them boil, and pinch to twist them.
Under Hand Tracking, Hand switches between Follow, Scatter (the particles flee your hand) and Draw Path (point and draw a curve in the air for the shells to travel along), and Hand Strength sets how quickly they keep up. Any Organic, Turbulence, Twist or Beat Push slider can follow your hand too: open its modulation picker and choose a hand signal such as Hand Y, Hand open or Pinch.
Quick start
- Start the demo track, choose a local audio file, or enable a live input.
- Try a preset or style first, then open the section for the part of the image you want to change.
- On a control with Assign modulation, open the source picker, choose a signal, and watch the slider's live fill.
- Use Reset to Defaults whenever you want to return to the original look.
Presets and styles
Core Strata · Hand Stir · Nebula · Band Strata · Living Cell · Sand Wind · Organic Vortex · Drifting Tunnel · Classic Vortex · Quantum Cloud · Supernova Burst · Neon Tunnel · Deep Bass · Cosmic Fire
Audio modulation
On a control with Assign modulation, select the activity icon to open Modulate with. Choose a named source, or choose — None to leave the control unmodulated. After you assign one, its name appears below the slider; select that name to edit the route, or use Clear modulation to remove it. The slider track shows the live signal reaching the control.
| Modulated control | Section | What the route changes |
|---|---|---|
| Organic | Flow | Blends from a rigid shape to living flow; at 0 every particle sits on the shape, and higher values let particles drift on the noise, scatter on beats and return home at the end of their life. |
| Turbulence | Flow | Sets how strongly the swirling noise pushes particles around. |
| Noise Speed | Flow | Sets how fast the swirl pattern itself changes; louder passages speed it up further. |
| Edge Tear | Flow | Makes the swirl stronger toward the edge than in the center, so the core flows smoothly while the outside shreds; 0 is even everywhere. |
| Twist | Flow | Spins particles around the vertical axis, strongest near the center, so the cloud keeps turning even in quiet passages; assign it to a pinch in the FX Rack to twist the cloud with your fingers. |
| Beat Push | Flow | Sets how hard each hit throws particles outward; in STRATA the bass shell is thrown by the kick, the mid shell by the snare and the treble shell by the hi-hat. |
| Glow Intensity | Material | Sets how soft each particle is; low values give a broad haze, high values a tight bright point. |
| Motion Blur | Material | Stretches fast particles into streaks along the way they travel. |
| Bloom Strength | Material | Sets how much light spills around the brightest particles. |
| Hand Strength | Hand Tracking | How hard your hand, or the drawn path, pulls or pushes the shells. |
| Path Speed | Hand Tracking | How fast the shells stream along the drawn path. |
Settings reference
Core
| Setting | Available values | What it changes |
|---|---|---|
| Mode | STRATA, CELL, NEBULA, VORTEX, QUANTUM, SUPERNOVA, HYPERSPACE | Chooses the shape: STRATA nests three shells (bass inside, mids in the middle, treble outside) that each move only with their own band, CELL is a single living sphere, NEBULA is a cloud whose particles are born on the waveform of the music, and the other four are the vortex knot, quantum band, supernova ball and hyperspace tunnel. |
| Particle Count | 1000–200000 | Sets how many particles are drawn; the spheres look silkiest with tens of thousands of fine points, and lower counts suit slower machines. |
| Particle Size | 0.5–5 | Sets the size of each particle; the spheres use fine points, the other shapes use larger glowing dots. |
| Size Multiplier | 0.5x–3x | Scales every particle on top of PARTICLE SIZE. |
| Spiral Tightness | 0–2 | Sets how many loops the swirling arms trace in Vortex mode; higher values wind the particles into a tighter, more intricate knot. |
| Sphere Radius | 0.3–1.6 | Sets how large the sphere is; particles that fly past its edge are pulled back, so this is also how far a beat can throw them. In NEBULA a particle that drifts past it is born again on the waveform. |
| Birth Radius | 0–1 | Sets how deep inside the sphere new particles are born; low values grow the cloud from a dense core, high values fill the whole sphere. |
| Start Speed | 0x–3x | Sets how fast new particles leave the waveform they are born on; low values keep the shape of the sound visible, high values scatter it into the cloud at once. |
| Shell Spread | 0–0.9 | Sets how far apart the bass, mid and treble shells sit; 0 stacks them at one size, higher values shrink the bass and mid shells toward the center. |
Flow
| Setting | Available values | What it changes |
|---|---|---|
| Organic | 0–1 | Blends from a rigid shape to living flow; at 0 every particle sits on the shape, and higher values let particles drift on the noise, scatter on beats and return home at the end of their life. Use Assign modulation to choose a source. |
| Turbulence | 0x–3x | Sets how strongly the swirling noise pushes particles around. Use Assign modulation to choose a source. |
| Noise Scale | 0.5–8 | Sets the size of the swirls; low values make broad slow currents, high values make fine tangled filaments. |
| Noise Speed | 0–1 | Sets how fast the swirl pattern itself changes; louder passages speed it up further. Use Assign modulation to choose a source. |
| Beat Reshape | 0–1 | Sets how far the swirl size jumps on each hit, so the flow visibly re-forms with the rhythm; in STRATA the bass shell re-forms on the kick, the mid shell on the snare and the treble shell on the hi-hat. 0 keeps it fixed. |
| Edge Tear | 0–1 | Makes the swirl stronger toward the edge than in the center, so the core flows smoothly while the outside shreds; 0 is even everywhere. Use Assign modulation to choose a source. |
| Twist | 0–3 | Spins particles around the vertical axis, strongest near the center, so the cloud keeps turning even in quiet passages; assign it to a pinch in the FX Rack to twist the cloud with your fingers. Use Assign modulation to choose a source. |
| Beat Push | 0x–3x | Sets how hard each hit throws particles outward; in STRATA the bass shell is thrown by the kick, the mid shell by the snare and the treble shell by the hi-hat. Use Assign modulation to choose a source. |
| Life Span | 1s–20s | Sets the longest time a particle drifts before it fades and returns home (in NEBULA, before it is born again on the waveform); short lives keep the shape crisp, long lives let it dissolve. |
Material
| Setting | Available values | What it changes |
|---|---|---|
| Glow Intensity | 0x–3x | Sets how soft each particle is; low values give a broad haze, high values a tight bright point. Use Assign modulation to choose a source. |
| Motion Blur | 0–1 | Stretches fast particles into streaks along the way they travel. Use Assign modulation to choose a source. |
| Bloom Strength | 0–3 | Sets how much light spills around the brightest particles. Use Assign modulation to choose a source. |
| Depth Fade | 0–1 | Fades the particles behind the center into the background, which gives the cloud depth; 0 shows the back as brightly as the front. |
Colors
| Setting | Available values | What it changes |
|---|---|---|
| Background Opacity | 0–1 | Fades the black backdrop behind the particles so they float over whatever sits behind the visualizer; 1 keeps the solid black background and 0 leaves only the glowing particles. |
| Color Speed | 0x–3x | Sets how quickly the hue animation moves around the color wheel. |
| Hue Animation | On / Off | Turns the slow cycling of hue with the music on or off. |
| Hue Speed | 0.01–1 | Sets the base rate of the hue cycle. |
| Accent Color | Color | Sets the first color: the bass shell in STRATA and one end of the CELL gradient; the other shapes are tinted by it. |
| Auto Hue | On / Off | Cycles the accent color around the color wheel on its own. |
| Hue Speed | 0.01–1 | Sets how fast the accent color cycles. |
| Mid Color | Color | Sets the color of the middle (mids) shell in STRATA; the bass shell wears the accent color and the treble shell the secondary color. |
| Secondary Color | Color | Sets the second color: the treble shell in STRATA and the other end of the CELL gradient. |
| Auto Hue | On / Off | Cycles the secondary color around the color wheel on its own. |
| Hue Speed | 0.01–1 | Sets how fast the secondary color cycles. |
Hand Tracking
| Setting | Available values | What it changes |
|---|---|---|
| Hand | FOLLOW, SCATTER, DRAW PATH, OFF | In Performer with your camera on, FOLLOW draws the shells to your hand, SCATTER makes them flee, and DRAW PATH lets you point and draw a curve in the air (or drag with the mouse) for the shells to stream along; with no hand in view they stay centered. Each layer follows at its own pace, bass slowest and treble fastest, so the colors trail one another. |
| Hand Strength | 0–3 | How hard your hand, or the drawn path, pulls or pushes the shells. Use Assign modulation to choose a source. |
| Hand Depth | 0–3 | How far the shells move toward you or away as you hold your hand nearer the camera than your face, or farther back; with DRAW PATH, how deep the drawn curve runs. 0 keeps the shells on one plane. |
| Path Speed | 0–1 | How fast the shells stream along the drawn path. Use Assign modulation to choose a source. |
| Path Life | 2–30 | How long a drawn stroke stays before it fades; holding up an open palm for a moment clears it. |
| Show Path | ON, OFF | Draws the path itself as a trail of dots while you draw it, larger where it comes toward you, then fades it out as the shells take it over. |
Audio
| Setting | Available values | What it changes |
|---|---|---|
| Master Gain | 0.5x–5x | Sets how strongly the whole input drives the particles. |
| Bass Intensity | 0–3 | Sets how strongly the bass moves the shape, and in STRATA the inner bass shell. |
| Mid Intensity | 0–3 | Sets how strongly the midrange moves the shape, and in STRATA the middle shell. |
| High Intensity | 0–3 | Sets how strongly the treble moves the shape, and in STRATA the outer treble shell. |
| Smoothing | 0–0.99 | Sets how smoothly the levels follow the music; higher values glide, lower values snap to every hit. |
Animation
| Setting | Available values | What it changes |
|---|---|---|
| Rotation Speed | 0x–2x | Sets how fast the shape turns; the spheres spin faster as the music gets louder, and the STRATA shells turn in alternating directions, each at the speed of its own band. |
Some controls appear only after you enable a related mode or style. The settings panel always reflects the options available for the current selection.
Tips for a better audio visualization
- Start with Core Strata, Band Strata or Living Cell for the organic spheres, or Organic Vortex to see a classic shape come alive.
- Set Organic to 0 for the crisp, rigid shape, and raise it to let the particles flow; assign it to the bass to make the shape dissolve on every drop.
- For fine tangled filaments, raise Noise Scale and lower Noise Speed; for broad slow currents, do the opposite.
- Raise Beat Push to throw the cloud outward on each kick, and Beat Reshape to make the whole flow re-form with the rhythm.
- In Strata, raise Shell Spread to pull the bass, mid and treble shells apart, and use Bass, Mid and High Intensity to balance them; drag the view to look through the layers.
- Lower Particle Count on a slower computer; the spheres still read well with fewer, brighter particles.