VibeSynced is designed to be zero-friction — open it, add music, and the visuals start moving. But there are a handful of things that take it from "pretty colours on a screen" to something that genuinely feels alive. This guide covers all of them, in the order you'll hit them.
Step 1 — Get your music in
There are two ways to add audio. Which one you choose doesn't affect the visuals at all, so pick whichever fits how you listen.
- Upload an MP3. Click the Tracks button in the top bar, switch to the Local tab, then drag a file onto the screen or use the file browser. Your track loads instantly. Nothing is uploaded anywhere — it stays on your device.
- Stream from YouTube. Paste any YouTube URL into the YouTube tab in the same panel. Single videos and full playlists both work. A small Picture-in-Picture player appears in the top-left corner; you can hide it to focus on the visuals.
Songs with a wide dynamic range — heavy bass on the drops, quieter sections in between — make the most dramatic visuals. Try electronic, hip-hop, or anything with a strong kick.
Step 2 — Pick a scene
Open the Scenes panel (the grid icon in the controls) to choose from five visual engines. Each one reacts to the music differently:
- Galaxy — A 3D particle vortex in WebGL. Bass drives the outward surge, high frequencies add shimmer. This is the most immersive scene, especially in theater mode.
- Shapes — Animal silhouettes (butterfly, eagle, bat) morph and pulse in time with the beat. Great for mid-tempo music.
- Doodle — A hand-drawn, organic style. Lower energy than Galaxy but hypnotic for ambient or lo-fi.
- Sunset — A scenic ocean-and-sky scene with sparkles, shooting stars, and fireflies that appear on loud beats.
- Techno — Grid-based ribbons and cascading light waves. Built for electronic and club music.
You can switch scenes mid-song without stopping playback. Try cycling through them to find which one fits your track.
Step 3 — Move the camera (Galaxy mode)
If you're in Galaxy mode, you're looking at a live 3D scene — and you can move around in it freely.
- Rotate — left-click and drag in any direction.
- Pan — right-click and drag, or hold Shift while dragging.
- Zoom — scroll up to move in, scroll down to pull back.
- Reset — press R to snap back to the default view.
Zoom all the way in until you're inside the particle cloud. On a loud drop it feels like the whole scene is collapsing around you.
Step 4 — Try theater mode
Press T at any time to enter theater mode. The entire UI disappears — controls, panels, everything — and the visual fills the screen. Press T again to bring it back.
If you want true fullscreen, hit F11 after entering theater mode. Between the two, there's no UI at all, just music and light.
Step 5 — Let Surprise Me run the show
The Surprise Me button (in the Scenes panel) puts VibeSynced on autopilot. It cycles through visual parameters in time with the music — particle count, flow direction, color palette, emitter radius — so the scene never stays the same for long.
It's worth turning on once you've explored the manual controls. Hitting a big drop in Surprise Me mode with the camera inside the particle cloud is the closest thing to a light show you can get from a browser tab.
What to try next
Once you're comfortable with the basics, a few things are worth exploring:
- The 16-step sequencer in the bottom panel lets you layer a beat pattern over your music using genre presets — synthwave, ambient, techno, lo-fi, and DnB.
- The particle controls in the Scenes panel let you adjust how many particles are on screen, how far they spread from the center, and which direction they flow.
- Each scene has its own sub-options — in Shapes mode you can switch between the animal silhouettes; in Techno you can change the colour palette.
Ready to see it for yourself? The whole thing is free and runs right in your browser.
Open VibeSynced →