How to add visuals to MPC

The MPC software is built around pads, sequences, and a mixer, and every channel strip has four insert slots. Since version 3.5, the desktop software loads VST3 plugins, and on a Mac it loads Audio Units too. So a visualizer plugin can sit in an insert slot on the main output and turn your beat into a moving picture as it plays. You can record that picture as a video with the beat already in the file, without leaving MPC.

The plugin route: a VST3 visualizer on the main output

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

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. Twenty-four scenes, from marbled ink to a machine temple to sand on a vibrating plate, each react to kicks, bass weight, and energy in real time.

Photism runs in the MPC desktop software on your Mac or PC. That includes sessions where your MPC hardware is connected in controller mode, since the desktop software hosts the plugin.

Install and scan

1. Install the plugin. On a Mac, run the Photism installer. It puts the VST3 in /Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/VST3. On Windows, 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 that folder in MPC. Open Preferences, from the MPC menu on a Mac or from the menu icon (≡) under Edit on Windows, and click the Plugins tab. Click … next to an empty VST Folders field, select the VST3 folder from step 1, and click Open. Tick the box next to the path and click Scan New. When the status bar says Done, click OK. On a Mac, press command-shift-G in that window to type the /Library path.
3. Tick Fav next to Photism in the Plugin Manager (menu icon, Tools, Plugin Manager). Favorites get their own category when you load an effect.

Load it on the main output

1. Open the Channel Mixer from the menu icon: View, Mode, Channel Mixer. If the insert slots are hidden, click the box icon in the lower-left corner.
2. On the main output strip, click an empty Inserts slot. Type Photism in the Search field and double-click Photism.
3. Click Photism in the slot to open its window, which is the visualizer. Press play and the picture starts moving with the beat.

On the main output, Photism hears the whole beat. Put it in one track’s insert slots instead and it follows only that part, your drum track for example.

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.

In the plugin the keyboard shortcuts take shift: shift+g for the panel, shift+r to record, shift+o for the output. 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 playhead at the start of your sequence or arrangement.
3. Click r · rec in the window, or press shift+r, then click Play Start in MPC.
4. When the beat 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 beat already in it, taken from the channel strip Photism sits on. You skip the Audio Mixdown and the step of lining the beat 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. The arrow in the window’s upper-right corner keeps it on top of MPC while you work.

Change scenes on the drop

Photism’s scene, palette, mode, preset slot, and main controls are ordinary plugin parameters, so MPC can automate them. On the main output, draw them in Arrange Mode:

1. Open Arrange from the menu icon (View, Mode, Arrange), click Buses, and select the main output track.
2. In the Grid Editor below, show the automation lane with the up arrow (^) in its lower-left corner. Click the down arrow beside it and choose Photism’s Scene parameter from the menus.
3. With the pencil, click a point for the current scene just before the drop and a point for the new scene on the drop. Hold Shift to place a point off the grid. Every playback switches the scene there.

You can also record it live. Set the main output’s automation button to W, play the section, and pick the new scene in the Photism window at the drop. Set the button back to R when you are done.

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.

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 use asks for Screen Recording access. Allow the MPC software, since the plugin runs inside it. The Syphon and Spout guide covers the receiving side.

Which setup to pick

Photism runs inside your project, so trying it 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.