Audio Setup

Filament listens to audio and turns the sound into visual movement. Louder bass makes things bigger, beats trigger flashes, and different frequencies light up different elements.

Option 1 - Play a file

Option 2 - Live audio input

Adjusting sensitivity

• Gain - turn this up if the visuals feel too subtle, or down if they're too jumpy
• Scale - changes how much the frequency analysis spreads out
• Bass / Mid / High (in the H panel under Reactivity) - controls how much each frequency range affects the visuals

Recommended audio interfaces

Visuals

Filament has 48 visual modes organized into four types. Each one reacts to your audio differently.

Particles (modes 1-14)

3D shapes made of thousands of glowing points. Sacred geometry forms like spheres, toruses, flower of life, and merkabas. These react strongly to bass - the particles spread apart and pulse with the beat.

Kaleidoscopes (modes 15-21)

Full-screen mirrored patterns that shift and morph with the music. Think of a real kaleidoscope, but the colors and shapes are being driven by what you're hearing. Great for psychedelic or ambient looks.

Fractals (modes 22-29)

Mathematical zoom patterns - Mandelbrot sets, Julia sets, and more. The camera continuously zooms deeper into infinite detail, with the zoom speed and color driven by the music. These can be very hypnotic.

Worlds (modes 30-48, Pro/Studio)

Cinematic flying scenes - alpine terrain, neural networks, elemental spheres, and endless tunnels. The camera banks and turns like a bird in flight, and the whole scene brightens and pulses with your music.

Tweaking the look

Open the settings panel with H and adjust:

• Macros - four main controls that change character. Energy makes things more intense. Chaos adds randomness. Depth pushes shapes further. Pulse adds rhythmic variation
• Bloom - the glow around bright areas. Higher values give a dreamier, softer look
• Particle Size - bigger particles for bold looks, smaller for detailed ones
• Displacement - how much the shapes deform with the music. Low for clean geometry, high for wild organic forms
• Orbit - camera rotation speed. Set to zero to keep the camera still
• Palettes - four color schemes to choose from. Colors shift gradually over time

Auto-pilot

Press P to let Filament switch between modes on its own. It picks modes based on the energy of the music and smoothly transitions between them. Great for set-and-forget projection.

Performance

In the Visuals section of the settings panel:

• Performance mode - Auto watches your frame rate and quietly switches to Low GPU mode if your machine is struggling. Low GPU mode keeps the same visuals but renders lighter - ideal for older laptops and integrated graphics. High forces full quality
• Blitz pool - Classic keeps Blitz cycling through the lighter particle, kaleidoscope, and fractal modes. All Modes adds the heavy Worlds scenes to the mix - only recommended on machines with a dedicated GPU

Controls

Keyboard shortcuts

Touch controller

Open the controller page on any phone or tablet on the same network. It gives you a touch-friendly panel with mode buttons, faders, palette picker, and transport controls. No app install needed.

Stage Lights

Filament can control real stage lights (also called "DMX lights"). Your lights will pulse, flash, and change color in sync with the music and visuals - automatically.

What you need

• DMX lights - LED pars (the colored wash lights), moving heads (the ones that aim and spin), LED bars, strobes, or fog machines
• A DMX interface - a small box that connects your computer to the lights. Either USB (plugs into your laptop) or network (connects over ethernet/wifi)
• DMX cables - the special 3-pin or 5-pin cables that chain lights together

How it works

Every light has an "address" (a number 1-512) set by its own buttons or switches. You tell Filament what lights you have and what address each one is on, and it automatically maps your audio to the light channels.

Low bass makes lights dim and warm. A beat drop triggers a strobe. A high note changes the color. The macro faders in Filament control the overall energy and chaos of the light show alongside the visuals.

Quick setup

Templates explained

• Minimal - 4 RGB pars. Perfect for a small room or DJ booth
• DJ Booth - 4 wash lights + a strobe. Standard DJ setup
• Club Install - 6 washes + 2 moving heads + 2 LED bars + strobe + fog. Full club rig
• Festival Stage - 8 washes + 4 moving heads + 4 bars + 2 strobes + 2 fog. Big stage setup
• Projection + Accent - 4 pars + 2 bars. Minimal lighting alongside projected visuals

Protocol options

• Art-Net - sends light data over your network (ethernet or wifi). Most flexible, works with network DMX nodes
• sACN - similar to Art-Net, used by some pro lighting gear
• USB - direct connection through a USB DMX dongle (needs the desktop app)

Recommended hardware

Laser Shows

Filament can drive laser projectors to create geometric patterns that dance with the music. Lasers project crisp bright lines on walls, ceilings, or into haze/fog for volumetric beams.

Safety first

What you need

• A laser projector - these have galvanometer mirrors inside that steer the beam. Rated in scan speed (kpps) and power (mW)
• A laser DAC - the "translator" between your computer and the laser. Some lasers have one built in (LaserCube), others need an external one (Helios, EtherDream)
• Fog or haze - lasers are invisible in clear air. You need particles in the air to see the beams. A haze machine gives a subtle effect, a fog machine gives thick beams

Quick setup

Patterns (12 audio-reactive, full RGB)

• Pulse Ring - circular beam that punches and wobbles with bass. Rainbow color shift follows energy
• Bass Wave - three layered sine waves that stack and ripple with different frequencies. High frequencies add harmonic detail
• Shatter - geometric fragments that explode outward on beats and contract between them
• Helix - DNA-style double helix with depth shading. Twist rate follows chaos macro
• Starburst - rays that burst from center with beat-driven length. Ray count follows chaos
• Fractal Spiral - golden-ratio spiral arms that unfurl with the music. Arm count follows depth
• Beat Grid - matrix of pulsing cells, each on its own phase. Grid density follows depth
• Aurora - flowing aurora borealis bands with multi-frequency oscillation
• Vortex Tunnel - concentric rings with rotation falloff. Ring geometry morphs with depth
• Orbital Dance - orbiting spheres that expand on beats. Orbit count follows chaos
• Wave Collapse - intersecting wave patterns from multiple angles with edge fade
• Geometry Morph - shape that smoothly morphs between polygon counts. Beat-triggered size punch

Recommended hardware

MIDI Controllers

A MIDI controller gives you physical knobs, faders, and buttons to control Filament with your hands instead of a mouse. Twist a knob to change the visual intensity. Push a fader to control bloom. Tap a pad to switch modes.

How it works

Just plug in any USB MIDI controller and Filament automatically detects it. Knobs and faders send CC messages, pads send notes - Filament maps both to its controls. Multiple devices can be connected at once.

Default knob mapping

Learn mode (Logic Pro-style)

Recommended controllers

Hardware Shopping Guide

Here's everything you might need, organized by budget. You don't need any of this to use Filament - it works with just your laptop and some audio.

Starter rig (~$350)

Good for: bedroom DJs, small parties, practice sessions

• 4x Chauvet SlimPAR 56 (~$70 each) - LED wash lights
• 1x Enttec Open DMX USB (~$70) - connects lights to your laptop
• DMX cables (~$5 each) - chain your lights together
• Total: ~$350

DJ booth rig (~$700)

Good for: club nights, mobile DJ setups

• 4x Chauvet SlimPAR Pro H (~$150 each) - full color wash lights
• 1x Enttec DMX USB Pro (~$150) - reliable interface
• 1x Korg nanoKONTROL2 (~$60) - hands-on control
• 1x USB audio interface (~$50) - clean audio from your mixer
• Total: ~$710

Full show rig (~$2000)

Good for: venue installs, festival side stages, art installations

• 6x RGBW par lights (~$150 each)
• 2x Moving head spots (~$250 each)
• 1x Helios DAC + laser projector (~$500 total)
• 1x Enttec ODE Mk2 (~$250) - network DMX
• 1x MIDI controller (~$100)
• 1x Haze machine (~$150)
• Total: ~$2150

Everything works without hardware

Filament runs entirely in your browser. The visuals work on any laptop with a decent GPU. Hardware just extends the output to physical lights and lasers.

Multi-Device Setup

Filament can spread across multiple devices on your network - a laptop runs the visuals while a tablet acts as a wireless controller, and network DMX nodes control lights around the venue.

Tablet/phone controller

Works with every version - web, desktop app, and the DAW plugin. Whatever runs the visuals is the "display"; your phone or tablet is the remote.

Both devices need internet for the initial pairing handshake; after that the connection is direct between the two devices. Controls locked on your tier show greyed out on the controller.

Network DMX (Art-Net)

If you're using a network DMX node (like the Enttec ODE), it picks up Art-Net packets automatically on the same network. Just set the protocol to Art-Net in the DMX Output section and turn it on.

Production server

For production use (venues, festivals), run the Filament server on a dedicated machine:

License & Presets

Filament runs free forever with a core set of features. A Pro or Studio key unlocks everything. Use of Filament is covered by the fair-terms license at filamentvj.com/terms - 14-day refunds, no tracking, your shows are yours.

What each tier includes

• Free - all 14 particle modes, 3 kaleidoscopes, 3 fractals, 2 palettes, auto-pilot, tablet controller, basic DMX (Minimal template, Art-Net), 4 MIDI knobs
• Pro - all 48 modes including the 19 Worlds scenes, all palettes + custom colors, Magic and Blitz modes, full MIDI learn, laser output (6 patterns), all DMX templates and sACN, presets with cloud sync. $19/yr or $39 lifetime, 3 machines
• Studio - everything in Pro plus all 12 laser patterns, USB DMX, and 10 machines with 30-day offline grace. $59/yr or $99 lifetime
• Enterprise - commercial license for installations, large-scale events, white-label branding, and custom animations. Enquiry only, via the website

Activating a key

Your license keeps working offline at gigs - it re-checks in the background whenever you're online. To move to a new machine, hit DEACTIVATE first to free up the seat.

Presets (Pro/Studio)

The Presets row at the top of the Perform tab saves your complete look - visual mode, palette, all four macros, every slider, and the laser pattern. Build your set at home, recall it live with one tap.

• SAVE - snapshots the current state under a name
• Dropdown - instantly applies a saved preset
• DEL - removes the selected preset

Presets and MIDI mappings sync to the cloud automatically, so they follow you across machines.

Custom palette (Pro/Studio)

The fifth palette swatch (marked C) is yours. Pick two colors with the color dots next to it - everything reacts to your colors like any built-in palette.

Troubleshooting

No visuals / black screen

• Make sure your browser supports WebGL 2.0 (Chrome, Firefox, Edge all do)
• Try closing other GPU-heavy apps (games, video editing)
• On laptops, make sure you're using the dedicated GPU, not integrated graphics
• Try a different visual mode - some fractal modes are more GPU-intensive than others

Crashes, stutters, or overheating

• Set Performance mode to Low GPU in the Visuals section of the settings panel - same visuals, much lighter load
• Keep Blitz pool on Classic unless you have a dedicated graphics card - All Modes rapid-switches heavy scenes and can overwhelm older GPUs
• On Auto, Filament detects low frame rates and switches itself to Low GPU mode after a few seconds
• Close other apps using the GPU (browser tabs with video, games, screen recording)

Audio not reacting

• If using a file: make sure it's playing (press Space). Check the volume slider in the H panel
• If using live input: press A and make sure "Live In" is highlighted. Check that the right input device is selected
• Your browser might have blocked microphone access - check the address bar for a microphone icon and allow access
• Try adjusting the Gain slider in the audio panel (press A)

Lights not responding

• Is DMX output enabled? Press D or check the ON button in the settings panel
• Is Blackout on? If the button is red, click it to turn blackout off
• Check that your lights are set to the right DMX addresses (matching the template)
• For USB interfaces: you need the desktop app (the web version uses network protocols)
• For Art-Net: make sure your computer and DMX node are on the same network subnet
• Try the Master Dimmer slider - if it's all the way down, nothing will output

Laser not working

• Is laser output enabled? Press L or check the ON button
• Start with the Brightness slider low and increase slowly
• USB DACs (Helios) need the desktop app. The web version shows a preview only
• Check your ILDA cable connection between the DAC and the laser projector

MIDI controller not detected

• Web MIDI only works in Chrome and Edge (not Firefox or Safari)
• Try unplugging and re-plugging the controller
• Check the MIDI section in the H panel - it should show your device name
• Some controllers need a driver installed first (check manufacturer's website)

Low frame rate / stuttering

• Lower the Bloom setting - it's the most GPU-intensive effect
• Reduce particle count by lowering Particle Size
• Switch to a kaleidoscope or fractal mode (they use less GPU than particles)
• Close other browser tabs and apps
• Use fullscreen mode (press F) - it can improve performance

Setup Wizard

Let's get everything configured step by step. Answer a few questions and we'll set up Filament for your specific situation.