How to add visuals to Pro Tools

Pro Tools has a Video track for scoring to picture in film and post work. It loads AAX plugins only, so a VST3 visualizer cannot sit on one of its tracks. The Photism app runs beside Pro Tools instead. You send it the mix, and it records the video with the sound already in the file. The Video track puts your sound to a film. The Photism app makes a moving picture from your song.

The built-in route: the Video track

Pro Tools Studio has one Video track and Pro Tools Ultimate has up to 64. Drag a movie file into the Edit window, confirm the Video Import Options, and the picture plays in the Video window in sync with your session. The Bounce Mix window can write a MOV with the picture and your mix together. It is the right tool for scoring a film, an ad, or a trailer.

The app route: Photism beside Pro Tools

This is the route Photism takes in Pro Tools. Photism ships as a VST3, an Audio Unit, and a standalone app that needs no DAW, and the app window is the visualizer. 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.

Install and open the app

1. Install Photism. On a Mac, run the Photism installer. It puts Photism.app in your Applications folder. Open it from there. On Windows, extract the standalone zip and keep the Resources folder beside Photism.exe.
2. Open it on Windows. SmartScreen may pause the app the first time you open Photism.exe. Click More info, then Run anyway.
3. Allow audio input on a Mac. Open System Settings, Privacy & Security, Microphone and turn Photism on.

macOS, step by step

The Mac app hears the input you pick. BlackHole is a free virtual audio device, and a Multi-Output Device sends the mix to it and to your speakers at once.

1. Install BlackHole from existential.audio/blackhole or with brew install blackhole-2ch. The 2-channel version is enough.
2. Open Audio MIDI Setup (Applications, Utilities), click the + at the bottom left, and choose Create Multi-Output Device.
3. Tick your interface or the Mac’s own output first, then tick BlackHole 2ch. The device at the top is the clock, so keep your real output there. Tick Drift Correction on the BlackHole row.
4. Match the sample rates. Click each device in the sidebar and set it to your session’s rate, usually 44100 or 48000 Hz.
5. In Pro Tools, open Setup, Playback Engine, choose the Multi-Output Device, and click OK. If Output 1-2 is missing, open Setup, I/O and click Default on the Output tab.
6. In the Photism app, click audio in and pick BlackHole 2ch.

Press play in Pro Tools. You should hear the song and see it move.

A Multi-Output Device has outputs only, so Pro Tools cannot record through it. Switch Playback Engine back to your interface before you track. If your interface has a loopback input, you can skip BlackHole: keep Pro Tools on the interface and pick the loopback under audio in.

Windows, step by step

Pro Tools on Windows plays through your interface’s ASIO driver, and the interface’s loopback feeds that mix back in as an input.

1. Turn on loopback in your interface’s own control software. The name varies by maker, so check its manual.
2. In the Photism app, click audio in and pick the interface’s loopback input.
3. Press play in Pro Tools and watch the app react.

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, and in the app they take no shift: g for the panel, r to record, 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 Pro Tools playhead at the start of the song.
3. Click r · rec in the app, then click back into Pro Tools and press the spacebar to play.
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 input the app hears. You skip the bounce and the editor. Clips record at each platform’s upload size, and the recording settings in the tuning panel go up to 4K.

Keep the app open until the button says saved. Covering it with the Pro Tools window is fine, and quitting the app ends the take.

Change scenes on the drop

The app runs outside your session, so scene changes come from your hands during the take:

1. Put the playhead a few bars before the drop and try the change once.
2. Start the take and play the song from the top.
3. At the drop, press a number key to jump to a scene, or click tab · scenes and pick one.

Press p · at the bridge for a new palette, or x · shuffle for a fresh look. If you miss the moment, run another take.

Getting it on a second screen

Click o · output, or press 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, allow Photism when macOS asks for Screen Recording access. The Syphon and Spout guide covers the receiving side.

Which route to pick

The Video track lives in your session and the app sits beside it, so trying either costs nothing but a few minutes of setup. 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.