rekordbox does not host plugins and has no video visualizer, so visuals always come from a separate application listening to your audio. That turns out to be good news: an audio-reactive tool does not care where sound comes from. Once your output reaches it, the same setup works for rekordbox, Serato, Traktor, VirtualDJ, djay, CDJs, or a turntable.
There are two ways to get the audio there. One is free and lives entirely in software. The other costs a cable and is what you should use at a gig.
The software route: a virtual audio device
A virtual audio device is a fake sound card. Your DJ software plays into it, and other apps can record out of it. It is the standard way to move audio between programs on one machine.
The catch that trips up everyone the first time: a virtual device has no speakers on it. Send rekordbox there directly and the visuals will react perfectly while you hear nothing. You need a Multi-Output Device, which forks one signal to the virtual device and to your real interface at the same time.
macOS, step by step
- Install BlackHole. It is free and open source. Either grab it
from existential.audio/blackhole
or run
brew install blackhole-2ch. The 2-channel version is all you need. - Open Audio MIDI Setup (it is in Applications, Utilities).
- Click the + at the bottom left and choose Create Multi-Output Device.
- Tick your real output first (your interface, or MacBook Pro Speakers), then tick BlackHole 2ch. The device at the top of the list is the clock master, so keep your real interface there.
- Tick Drift Correction on the BlackHole row.
- Rename it something you will recognize, like
Visuals Out. - Match the sample rates. Every member of a Multi-Output Device has to run at the same rate, and a mismatch is the most common reason this goes silent. Click each device in the sidebar and set the same rate, usually 44100 Hz.
- In rekordbox, Preferences, Audio, set Audio to your new Multi-Output Device and set Sample Rate to match.
- Open photism.app/online, click SOURCE, and pick BlackHole 2ch.
Play a track. You should hear it and see it at once.
One quirk to expect: the keyboard volume keys do nothing on a Multi-Output Device. Set level on your interface or in your DJ software instead.
Windows, step by step
The idea is identical, with VB-Cable in place of BlackHole. It is donationware and free to use.
Windows has no built-in equivalent of a Multi-Output Device, so you have two options. Simplest is VB-Audio’s Voicemeeter, which routes your DJ output to your speakers and to a virtual cable together. Alternatively, install VB-Cable, set it as your rekordbox output, then open Windows Sound settings, find CABLE Output under Recording, and enable Listen to this device pointed at your speakers. That echoes the audio back so you can hear it, at the cost of a little latency.
Then pick CABLE Output as the source in Photism.
Where the audio setting lives, by software
| Software | Where to change output |
|---|---|
| rekordbox | Preferences, Audio, Audio |
| Traktor Pro | Preferences, Audio Setup, Audio Device |
| VirtualDJ | Settings, Audio |
| djay Pro | Settings, Audio |
| Serato DJ Pro | Setup, Audio |
One honest caveat for all of them: when a controller or DJ interface is plugged in, most DJ software locks its output to that hardware, and Serato in particular expects supported hardware to be the output. If your software will not offer a virtual device in the list, the hardware route below is your answer.
The hardware route: what to use at a gig
Take REC OUT or BOOTH from your mixer or controller into an input on an audio interface, and select that interface as the source in your visuals app.
It is worth doing this properly for anything that matters, because it solves problems the software route creates:
- It works with CDJs, vinyl, or any hardware with no laptop DJ software involved at all.
- Your DJ software keeps its normal output, so you keep headphone cue on your controller. The software route costs you cue, because a Multi-Output Device mirrors a single stereo pair to everything and has no separate channel for it.
- No sample rate matching, no routing config to forget before a show.
- The visuals machine can be a second laptop, which is what you want anyway once a projector is involved.
Getting it on the projector
In Photism, shift+o opens a separate output window you can drag to
your second display and fullscreen. That window is what you send to
the projector or LED processor.
Do a full dress rehearsal before any show that matters: same laptop, same cables, same venue resolution, music playing. Every failure in this chain hides at a handoff, and handoffs stay invisible until they are on stage.
What this does not give you
There is no tempo or beat-grid connection between rekordbox and any visuals app. rekordbox exposes no API for it, it does not host plugins, and its Ableton Link support shares a BPM number without the phrase and beat position that visuals would need to use it.
In practice this matters less than it sounds. Audio-reactive visuals respond to kicks, bass weight, and energy directly from the signal, so they track your set including the parts a beat grid would miss, like a filter sweep or a track you are riding off-grid.
You can try the whole thing free in a browser at photism.app/online before installing anything. Set the source, play a track, and see whether the response feels right to you.