Mute the drums. An audio-reactive visualizer should notice.
An audio-reactive visualizer moves its picture from the sound. Most read the finished mix, either its loudness or its bass, mid and treble bands, so a kick drum and a bass note push the same thing. Loopwalk separates the song into six stems first, then finds the kick, snare and hi-hat hits, the notes, the bars and the sections. Each instrument drives its own part of the picture, and the chorus changes the scene.
Below are three real renders of the same six bars in the Halo template: with all of them playing, with the drums at zero, and with the bass at zero. Switch between them, or play them with the song's own stems.
Updated 3 October 2026 · 6 stems · Kick · snare · hi-hat · Beats · bars · sections
Mute one
Everything on: the kick punches the centre and flashes the backdrop, the bass burns in the ring, and at the chorus the ring opens up.
Three real renders of one song: Halo with Extra moves from the studio's Music tab. Muted means that instrument's strength is at 0. The piano roll is what the analysis found in these six bars.
What it heard · 0:07–0:19
What it heard in those six bars.
The piano roll under the video is the analysis itself. Counted out, this is what the drums, the bass and the lead gave the template to work with, on our demo song.
- Bars
- 6 at 125 BPM
- Kicks
- 13
- Snares
- 13
- Hi-hats
- 46
- Bass notes
- 18
- Bass range
- 35–98 Hz
- Lead notes
- 32
- Chorus
- Starts on bar 3
The bass notes here sit between 35 and 98 Hz, the same low band where a kick drum's body lands. A visualizer that only sees that band sees one pulse. With the stems apart, the 13 kicks punch the cover and flash the backdrop, and the 18 bass notes feed the fire round the ring. That's why muting the drums stops the punch but leaves the fire burning.
Three ways a visualizer can listen.
They differ in what they can tell apart. Each step costs more work up front and gives the picture more to follow.
01
Mix level
One loudness number per frame
The simplest kind reads the amplitude of the whole mix, often smoothed into an envelope, and maps it to size, brightness or speed. Anything loud moves everything: a kick, a crash and a shouted chorus all look alike.
It runs anywhere, live, at no cost, which is why music players and phone apps use it.
02
Frequency bands
An FFT of the mix, split into bands
A fast Fourier transform turns each slice of the mix into a spectrum. Bars and rings draw that spectrum directly, or the spectrum is grouped into bass, mid and treble, each driving its own effect.
It's better, but instruments share frequencies. The kick and the bass share the low band; vocals, guitar and keys share the mids; hi-hats share the top with the hiss of the voice. The band knows how loud it is now, not which instrument made it, and it has no idea where the bar or the chorus is.
03
Stems and structure
Six stems · hits · notes · bars · sections
The song is separated into stems before anything is drawn. The drums become kick, snare and hi-hat events, the bass and the lead become notes, and the beat tracker and the section labels give the picture a sense of where it is in the song.
Now a kick can punch while the bass bends, the hi-hats can sparkle without the voice setting them off, and the scene can change at the chorus. The cost: the split takes a few minutes, once per song.
What it hears
Stems and structure
Each instrument, its hits and notes
- Mix levelHow loud the mix is
- Frequency bandsHow loud each band is
A kick and a bass note
Stems and structure
Two separate signals
- Mix levelThe same pulse
- Frequency bandsThe same low band
Knows the bar and the chorus
Stems and structure
Yes: beats, bars and sections
- Mix levelNo
- Frequency bandsNo
Works live
Stems and structure
Separated from a file; estimated live
- Mix levelYes
- Frequency bandsYes
Up-front cost
Stems and structure
A few minutes of analysis, once
- Mix levelNone
- Frequency bandsNone
| Compared on | Mix level | Frequency bands | Stems and structure |
|---|---|---|---|
| What it hears | How loud the mix is | How loud each band is | Each instrument, its hits and notes |
| A kick and a bass note | The same pulse | The same low band | Two separate signals |
| Knows the bar and the chorus | No | No | Yes: beats, bars and sections |
| Works live | Yes | Yes | Separated from a file; estimated live |
| Up-front cost | None | None | A few minutes of analysis, once |
Loopwalk uses the spectrum too, where a shape is a spectrum: the heights in Bars, the ring in Halo, the LED panels in Tunnel. The stems decide everything else. The YouTube visualizer page shows what this looks like in a full 16:9 export.
What happens to your song.
The track starts playing in the studio from the mix within seconds. The stems swap in at the playhead once they're separated, which takes a few minutes the first time and never again for that song.
01 Split
The song is separated into six stems: drums, bass, vocals, guitar, piano and other (Demucs, the six-stem htdemucs_6s model).
02 Hits
The drum stem is split again into kick, snare and hi-hat events, each with its own time and strength.
03 Notes
The bass and the lead lines are transcribed into notes with a pitch, so a bass note can light one groove and a high note can lift a light.
04 Beats and bars
A beat tracker (Beat This, with librosa as a fallback) finds the beats and the downbeats; the bars come from the downbeats.
05 Sections
Each stretch is labelled intro, verse, chorus, breakdown, bridge or outro, by its energy.
06 Render
A 3D engine draws each frame from those events, in your browser. The same song and settings always give the same file.
What each instrument drives, template by template.
Eight of the 18 templates, read from each one's source. The Music tab sets how strongly each instrument moves its part, from Calm to Wild overall, or one by one.
Halo
- Kick
- Punches the cover toward you; the frame zooms 2–4 %
- Snare
- A ripple out of the cover
- Hi-hats
- A wave of light round the ring
- Bass
- The ring breathes; the flames lengthen
- Vocals
- A soft backlight behind the cover
- Melody
- Spins the ring
- Sections and drop
- Chorus fuller and wider, breakdown thinner; the drop sends shockwaves
Vinyl
- Kick
- Bounces the platter and the tonearm
- Snare
- Flashes the strobe lamp and the platter dots
- Hi-hats
- Dust specks glint
- Bass
- Lights the grooves; each bass note sends a ring across them
- Vocals
- The label's edge glows
- Melody
- Swings the key light
- Sections and drop
- The tempo sets the speed; the drop brakes the record, then whips it round
Hi-Fi Deck
- Kick
- The cabinet bounces on its feet
- Snare
- The display flares
- Hi-hats
- The indicator lamps twinkle
- Bass
- Its own VU needle
- Vocals
- Its own VU needle
- Melody
- The fourth needle, with everything else
- Sections and drop
- The display changes mode; the drop pins the needles in the red for two bars
Tunnel
- Kick
- Camera lunge, lens punch, speed lines
- Snare
- Every third ring and the wall panels flash
- Hi-hats
- The rings sparkle
- Bass
- Radius, twist and bend
- Vocals
- The walls light up
- Melody
- The ring's side count; the camera sways
- Sections and drop
- Travel speed doubles or halves; the drop sends light down the walls
Cosmic
- Kick
- Shock rings through the disk; the camera nudges in
- Snare
- Bright stars flare
- Hi-hats
- The star field twinkles
- Bass
- Spins the galaxy's arms; heats the disk
- Vocals
- Light the nebula and the jets
- Melody
- Drives the gas
- Sections and drop
- Each section is a new shot and set piece; the drop dives toward the black hole
Lofi Room
- Kick
- Nudges the steam and the dust
- Snare
- A drop runs down the glass
- Hi-hats
- Lights switch on in far windows
- Bass
- The desk lamp breathes
- Vocals
- Warm the lamp and the fairy lights
- Melody
- Fairy-light bulbs by pitch, low left to high right
- Sections and drop
- The hour and the weather: rain in the chorus, snow in a breakdown, dawn at the end
Stage
- Kick
- Fires the strobes
- Snare
- Fires lightning
- Hi-hats
- The LED wall glints
- Bass
- The haze thickens
- Vocals
- The follow spot finds the cover
- Melody
- Moving heads sweep
- Sections and drop
- A lighting cue and a camera move per section; lasers and blinders on the drop
Lyric Video
- Kick
- Punches the word being sung
- Snare
- Flashes the line's glow
- Hi-hats
- Dust motes light
- Bass
- The backdrop breathes
- Vocals
- The sung word swells and lights; pitch lifts it
- Melody
- The backdrop's flow speed
- Sections and drop
- The chorus goes bigger and switches layout; the drop bursts the words
| Template | Kick | Snare | Hi-hats | Bass | Vocals | Melody | Sections and drop |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Halo | Punches the cover toward you; the frame zooms 2–4 % | A ripple out of the cover | A wave of light round the ring | The ring breathes; the flames lengthen | A soft backlight behind the cover | Spins the ring | Chorus fuller and wider, breakdown thinner; the drop sends shockwaves |
| Vinyl | Bounces the platter and the tonearm | Flashes the strobe lamp and the platter dots | Dust specks glint | Lights the grooves; each bass note sends a ring across them | The label's edge glows | Swings the key light | The tempo sets the speed; the drop brakes the record, then whips it round |
| Hi-Fi Deck | The cabinet bounces on its feet | The display flares | The indicator lamps twinkle | Its own VU needle | Its own VU needle | The fourth needle, with everything else | The display changes mode; the drop pins the needles in the red for two bars |
| Tunnel | Camera lunge, lens punch, speed lines | Every third ring and the wall panels flash | The rings sparkle | Radius, twist and bend | The walls light up | The ring's side count; the camera sways | Travel speed doubles or halves; the drop sends light down the walls |
| Cosmic | Shock rings through the disk; the camera nudges in | Bright stars flare | The star field twinkles | Spins the galaxy's arms; heats the disk | Light the nebula and the jets | Drives the gas | Each section is a new shot and set piece; the drop dives toward the black hole |
| Lofi Room | Nudges the steam and the dust | A drop runs down the glass | Lights switch on in far windows | The desk lamp breathes | Warm the lamp and the fairy lights | Fairy-light bulbs by pitch, low left to high right | The hour and the weather: rain in the chorus, snow in a breakdown, dawn at the end |
| Stage | Fires the strobes | Fires lightning | The LED wall glints | The haze thickens | The follow spot finds the cover | Moving heads sweep | A lighting cue and a camera move per section; lasers and blinders on the drop |
| Lyric Video | Punches the word being sung | Flashes the line's glow | Dust motes light | The backdrop breathes | The sung word swells and lights; pitch lifts it | The backdrop's flow speed | The chorus goes bigger and switches layout; the drop bursts the words |
Hi-Fi Deck makes the stems visible as they are: its four VU needles read the drums, the bass, the vocals and everything else, each with real VU ballistics. The Lyric Video template adds a seventh input, the sung words, each landing on its own time; the lyric video maker page covers it.
What it can't do.
Separation and section finding are good, not perfect. These are the limits you'll meet.
Stems bleed
A separated stem carries a little of the others: a loud snare can leak into the vocals, a kick into the bass. Mostly you won't see it; on a dense mix, lower that instrument's strength in the Music tab.
Six stems, not every part
Drums, bass, vocals, guitar, piano, and the rest in "other". Strings, synths and pads land in other. Guitar and piano get their own stem only when the song has them.
Sections are labelled by energy
The labels come from how loud and full each stretch is, not from finding the repeat. A quiet chorus can read as a verse, a big bridge as a chorus.
The analysis takes a few minutes, once
It runs on GPUs in the US, in a folder made for the job and deleted afterwards. The preview plays from the mix meanwhile.
Flashes are slowed, not banned
The export's Flash-safe switch slows flashing to under three a second (WCAG 2.3.1); a Canvas always has it on. It's a guard, so check your render.
Live: a browser tab or a microphone.
The templates also run on sound as it plays, with no file to upload. Live, there's no time to separate stems, so the analysis estimates them.
- Another tab or app
- Chrome or Edge on a desktop; system sound on Windows and ChromeOS. Not Firefox, Safari or phones.
- Microphone or line-in
- With voice processing off, so the music isn't treated as speech.
- Templates
- All 18
- Analysis
- In the browser: kick, snare and hi-hat onsets, beat tracking, and bars and sections estimated as it plays.
- Stems
- Estimates from a harmonic and percussive split, not the separation used for files.
- Saving
- Stills only. Live mode makes no video file.
For a video, upload the file: the stems are separated properly and the export renders frame by frame.
Other tools that react per instrument.
We aren't the only ones. Here is what each says on its own site, read on 3 October 2026, and when it's the better pick.
SYQEL
“finds the kick, snare, hats, and bassline separately and drives every frame from them”, live, for DJs, VJs, venues and listeners.
The better pick when: You play live sets and need visuals in the booth or on a stream. Loopwalk's live mode saves stills only.
Source · read 3 October 2026
Visualinst
Reads “tempo, beats, downbeats, transients in five frequency bands” and finds the sections; you capture video with a screen recorder. Pro is $9.99 a month.
The better pick when: You want a song map that draws the arrangement, at a lower price, and don't mind recording it yourself.
Source · read 3 October 2026
Neural Frames
Lists stem extraction (“split any upload into stems”) and audio-reactive effects on generated AI video. From $26 a month billed yearly.
The better pick when: You want generated footage, scenes or characters, with effects that pulse to the stems.
Source · read 3 October 2026
Where Loopwalk differs: it renders a finished video of the whole song from separated stems, frame by frame, with a map per template that you can see and set, and it exports 16:9, 9:16 and a Canvas loop from one upload. Nothing in the picture is generated footage.
Hear each instrument move its own part.
Upload a track and mute the drums yourself in the Music tab. The preview is free at full quality, with the stems; video files come with Unlimited.
Sources · read 3 October 2026
The templates' maps are read from the Loopwalk engine's source on 3 October 2026.
YouTube is a trademark of Google LLC. Loopwalk is not affiliated with it.