Photism
by Photism · Visualizer · Audio-reactive visualizer
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Photism is an audio-reactive music visualizer with 24 scenes, 24 palettes and five big macro controls, which records MP4 video up to 4K with the track's audio.
One $29 purchase covers the VST3/AU plugin, standalone app, Max for Live device and browser version; Photism Online and Photism Lite are free with three scenes.
Best for: Mix Bus, Sound Design. Genres: all genres.
Keywords: audio visualizer, macro controls, VJ & live visuals, standalone app, video export, MIDI-controllable, sound design.
What it does
Photism is a solo project by Alec Hollingsworth (illoh): a visualizer that reads the full frequency spectrum of whatever you play and drives a scene from it in real time, with kicks triggering structural changes in every scene. It is built around a few big controls rather than a node editor.
- Scenes: 24 scenes, among them Ink (fluid smoke), Relic and Citadel (raymarched fractals), Sand (a Chladni plate driven by the spectrum), Signal (audio meters with five modes) and Limitless (an image engine with about 21 modes that also takes video and camera input).
- Macros: React (sensitivity), Chaos, Trails, Heat (bloom and flash) and Bright (exposure), plus Decay and Input Gain.
- Frame and lens: stackable Symmetry (a kaleidoscope of up to 12 segments), Tiles, Twist and Slice, and a lens with seven styles such as glass ribs, anamorphic, melt, glitch and fly eye.
- Colour and media: 24 palettes in four groups, Hue Drift, and a palette taken from any photo you drop in; images and 3D models (.glb, .gltf, .fbx, .obj, .stl, .ply) can be loaded into scenes.
- Presets and control: presets store the whole look and Morph glides between them; the Max for Live device exposes 16 macro knobs for automation, and MIDI Learn maps hardware knobs.
- Recording: MP4 with the track's audio at 1080p, 1440p or 4K, 30 or 60 fps, in 16:9, 9:16 or 1:1, plus PNG stills; the standalone and browser versions can render a loaded track offline.
- VJ output: Syphon on macOS and Spout on Windows (beta), up to 3840 x 2160.
One purchase covers the plugin, standalone app, Max for Live device and browser version, with free v1.x updates and new scenes. Photism Online (three scenes) and Photism Lite for Ableton Live are free. The manual warns that the flashing visuals can affect people with photosensitive epilepsy; there is no automatic flash limiter.
When to use it
Photism is the pick for polished, painterly visuals with very little setup: a handful of macros give strong results, and the 4K MP4 recorder makes release clips straight from the DAW. Compared with Visual Lab Pro, it has fewer modes but richer 3D, fluid and fractal scenes, costs less, and adds Max for Live and browser versions; it has no lyric syncing. Next to VS 2 it gives up layer stacking and shader editing for speed, at about a fifth of the price. Unlike SEER, it doesn't double as a loudness meter.
- Best for: visualizer videos for releases, vertical clips for social media, and live VJ feeds over Syphon or Spout.
- Genres: any; especially electronic, ambient and experimental music.
- Look elsewhere if: you want lyrics and text on screen (Visual Lab Pro) or full layer and shader control (VS 2).
- Tip: try three scenes free in Photism Online in the browser before buying.
Where to buy
- Photism: $29
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