How to add visuals to Cubase

Cubase imports a film onto a Video track and exports it again as an MP4 with your mix under it. That covers scoring to footage. When the footage should come from the music, load a visualizer in an insert slot on the Stereo Out. Steinberg created the VST3 format, so a VST3 visualizer runs in Cubase like one of its own effects. The steps below cover both routes.

The built-in route: the Video track

The Video track plays a film in sync with your project, so you can score to picture. Choose File > Import > Video File and Cubase creates the track for you. When the cue is done, File > Export > Video renders the footage with one stereo output channel as an MP4, at resolutions up to 3840 x 2160. It is the right tool for a film cue, an ad, or a trailer. The picture comes from the footage you bring.

The plugin route: a VST3 visualizer on the Stereo Out

A visualizer plugin loads into an insert slot like any effect, with every look already built. You pick a scene and a palette, and it reacts to the track from the first beat.

This is the route Photism takes. It is a VST3 and Audio Unit effect that passes your audio through untouched, and the plugin window is the visualizer. Cubase loads the VST3 on Mac and Windows. Twenty-four scenes, from marbled ink to architectural geometry to a live reaction-diffusion figure, each react to kicks, bass weight, and energy in real time. Nuendo shares Cubase’s plug-in manager and MixConsole, so Nuendo users can follow the same steps.

Install and scan

1. Install the plugin. On a Mac, run the Photism installer. It puts the VST3 where Cubase looks. On Windows, close Cubase, extract the zip, and copy the whole Photism.vst3 folder into C:\Program Files\Common Files\VST3, with the Contents folder still inside it.
2. Scan it in Cubase. Cubase scans for new plugins when it starts. If Cubase is already open, choose Studio > VST Plug-in Manager and click Scan for new and blocked plug-ins. Photism appears on the VST Effects tab.
3. Check the Blocklist tab in the same window. If Photism is listed there, select it and click Reactivate.

Load it on the Stereo Out

1. Press F3 to open the MixConsole and find the Stereo Out channel. If the insert slots are hidden, click Set up Window Layout on the toolbar and activate Inserts.
2. Click an empty insert slot on the Stereo Out, type Photism in the search field of the effect selector, and pick it.
3. The plugin panel opens, and it is the visualizer. Press play in Cubase and the picture starts moving with the song.

On the Stereo Out, Photism hears the whole mix. Put it on a single audio track or group channel instead and it follows only that part, a drum group for example. Signal runs through the inserts from top to bottom, so place Photism below your mastering plugins and the video carries the finished sound.

Pick a look

Every control has a button in the row along the corner of the window, so you can drive the whole thing with the mouse:

• tab · scenes opens the scene grid. Click any scene to jump to it.
• p · opens the palette card. Every color set is on one card.
• x · shuffle picks a fresh scene and palette in one click.
• g · tune opens the tuning panel, with the macros, the lens, and your saved presets.

The keyboard shortcuts work too. In the plugin they take shift: shift+g for the panel, shift+r to record, shift+o for the output. If Cubase claims a shortcut first, the buttons do the same job. Drop an album cover onto the window and Photism builds a five-color palette from it, so the visuals match the release.

Record the video

1. Choose the frame with the a · button: 16:9 for YouTube, 9:16 for Reels and TikTok, 1:1 for a square post.
2. Put the project cursor at the start of the song.
3. Click r · rec in the window, or press shift+r, then press play in Cubase.
4. When the song ends, click the record button again. The button steps through finishing, adding sound, and saving, then names the folder.

The MP4 saves to your Downloads folder with the song already in it, taken from the channel Photism sits on. You skip File > Export > Audio Mixdown and the step of lining the song up in an editor. Clips record at each platform’s upload size, and the recording settings in the tuning panel go up to 4K.

Keep the plugin window open until the button says saved. Covering it with other windows is fine, and closing it ends the take.

Change scenes on the drop

Photism’s scene, palette, mode, preset slot, and main controls are ordinary plugin parameters, so Cubase can automate them:

1. In the track list, open the Input/Output Channels folder and find Stereo Out. If the folder is not there yet, click W on the Stereo Out in the MixConsole and it appears.
2. Click Show/Hide Automation at the lower left of the track, then click the parameter name on the automation lane and choose Photism’s Scene.
3. Pick the Draw tool and draw a step at the drop. Cubase turns on R for you, and every playback switches the scene on that beat.

The same works for Palette at the bridge, Spin or Mirror as a slow build, or Preset Slot to swap the entire look on a section. Click + at the lower left of a lane to add another one.

Getting it on a second screen

Click o · output, or press shift+o, to open a separate output window. Drag it to your second display or projector and make it fullscreen. It shows the visuals alone, with no buttons. To stream it, turn on Syphon (Mac) or Spout (Windows, beta) in that window’s top bar and pick the Photism source in OBS, Resolume, or TouchDesigner. On a Mac, the first Syphon run asks for Screen Recording access, and that permission goes to Cubase. The Syphon and Spout guide covers the receiving side.

Which route to pick

Both run inside your project, so trying either costs nothing but an insert slot. You can feel Photism’s engine before installing anything at photism.app/online, which runs three scenes free in your browser from a dropped track or your mic.