HOW TO MAKE A MUSIC VISUALIZER

The first step is to find a template which fits the song. It's a chill song, so I’ll try typing “chill” in the search bar. Since I'm teaching you how to make a visualizer, I’ll change the video type filter to Music Visualization templates.

I like Rain - LoFi Chill Viz, it’s soothing with a rain effect overlaid on top of a customizable background. There are several available formats, which is useful when making music videos for YouTube shorts or visuals for social media. You can also change the “Format” filter to only see videos in a particular aspect ratio. I'm making a landscape video, so just click Edit to replace the song and make the video.

Uploading a song is easy, just click the song placeholder in the sidebar (clicking the music note icon in the video would do the same), then select Upload. You can also pick a previously uploaded song by choosing Media Library, or import directly from SoundCloud.

As soon as the upload finishes, a preview video starts rendering. When creating music visualizers, the previews show the middle 15 seconds of the song. In order to monitor an earlier section, just move the preview slider to your desired time.

Now that my song is in place, I should change the background. For that I’ll use some stock footage, there’s a huge library of licensed stock built right into Videobolt. Browse it by clicking the “Background Media” placeholder and selecting “Stock Videos”. By default it searches for “nature”, which actually gives me some great options since I’m looking for something tranquil to go with my music video visuals. I picked some nice footage of sea waves. Having waves in the background combined with the rainy effect in the visualizer should give the impression the camera is suspended just above sea level. Click the plus sign to import the footage into the video.

Since my stock is 30 seconds long and my song is 3 min 26, the background footage will loop. There’s an automatic crossfade effect applied at the end of a loop and it’s a happy accident that without any further editing my footage will loop seamlessly.

The automatically generated preview video should be finished by now, so it's the perfect time to check if everything is set up correctly. I mostly got the effect I was going for and the footage loop is invisible. You probably noticed how pixelated the video is, and that’s because it’s a preview, which is generated at low resolution for the sake of faster renders. Looking at it, I noticed I could also do away with the logo, fill in proper song info and lessen the background blur effect.

To disable the logo, I’ll just click the placeholder button then click the eye icon to hide it. After that I'll fill out the text field.

To decrease the amount of blur, I’ll head over to Customize in the sidebar and change the Blur Background option, from 10 (default) to 0. This will effectively disable the blur effect. The difference is too fine to notice in the preview, but I can generate a high resolution image preview by clicking “Produce HQ Image” and compare the before and after.

With everything set-up, click “Produce & Download” to render the full length visualizer at 1440p. The final video resolution depends on the template, most are 1080p HD, though they can go up to 4K UHD. The render could take a while, but it’s all done on Videobolt’s servers so it’s safe to close the tab and you’ll get an email when the video is done.

While exploring the artistic avenues of music representation, it's essential to understand what is a visualizer and how it differentiates from music videos in general, as each serves unique creative purposes.

Music visualizers are automated graphics that respond to the audio's frequency and amplitude. This digital symbiosis creates a visual narrative driven purely by the music's tempo, pitch, and intensity. The beauty of a music visualizer lies in its simplicity and the effortless connection it forges between sound and sight. They are particularly effective for ambient, instrumental, or electronic music where the visual elements can enhance the listening experience without the need for narrative storytelling.

Music visualizers are a stellar choice for artists on a budget as they require significantly less production effort than full-blown music videos. Videobolt streamlines this process further, enabling creators to produce music visualizations online, quickly and with professional flair.