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Building a Complete AV Patch

Advanced Composer

Combine a drum machine, effects chain, and reactive GPU visuals into one cohesive graph.

What you'll build

A complete audio-visual performance patch: a drum machine with reverb and delay, driving an animated visual that pulses with the kick and shimmers with the hi-hat. This tutorial assumes you've worked through the earlier guides.

Graph overview

[metronome 120 BPM]
        │
        ├── (tempo) → DrumSequencer
        │                   │
        │           track_1 → DrumKick ──┐
        │           track_2 → DrumSnare──┤
        │           track_3 → DrumHiHat─┤
        │                                ↓
        │                             Mixer → Reverb → audio_out
        │                                │
        │                          AudioAnalysis
        │                          rms ─→ Smooth(kick) ─→ Metaball/radii
        │                          peak → Smooth(hat)  ─→ LfoFr/amplitude
        │                                                    │
        └── (tempo) → LfoFr ────────────────────────────→ Metaball/pos_x
                                                            │
                                                      Bloom → Feedback → video_out

Step 1: Drum machine

  1. Add DrumSequencer. It syncs to the graph metronome (default 120 BPM) — no Clock needed. Program: kick on beats 1 and 3, snare on 2 and 4, hi-hat on every eighth note.
  2. Add DrumKick, DrumSnare, DrumHiHat. Connect the sequencer track outputs to trigger inputs.
  3. Add Mixer. Connect all drum outputs to mixer inputs.
  4. Add Reverb (room_size: 0.4, mix: 0.2). Chain: mixer1/output → reverb1/input → audio_out/input.

Hear the drum pattern.

Step 2: Audio analysis

Insert AudioAnalysis inline before the reverb: - mixer1/output → analysis1/input → reverb1/input

The audio still plays unchanged — AudioAnalysis is a passthrough.

Step 3: Build the visual

  1. Add Metaball (count: 3). Connect metaball1/texture → video_out/input.
  2. Add Bloom and Feedback. Chain: metaball1/texture → bloom1/input → feedback1/input → video_out/input.

A static cluster of blobs appears with glow and trails.

Step 4: Animate the blobs

Sync the blob motion to tempo: 1. Add LfoFr. Set rate_mode to metronome, sync_division to 1/1, waveform to sine. No Clock connection needed — LfoFr reads the graph metronome directly. 2. Connect lfo1/value → metaball1/pos_x.

The blobs sweep horizontally, locked to tempo.

Step 5: Make the blobs react to kick

  1. Add Smooth (rise_time: 0.005, fall_time: 0.4). Connect analysis1/rms → smooth1/input.
  2. Connect smooth1/value → metaball1/radii.

Set a wire remap on smooth1/value → metaball1/radii: to_min: 0.05, to_max: 0.4.

The blobs pulse outward on each kick hit.

Step 6: Make hi-hat affect motion intensity

Route the audio peak into the LFO amplitude so the hi-hat adds shimmer: 1. Add a second Smooth (rise_time: 0.002, fall_time: 0.15). 2. Connect analysis1/peak → smooth2/input. 3. Connect smooth2/value → lfo1/amplitude.

Now the hi-hat energy briefly widens the sweep range of the blobs.

Step 7: Final tuning

What to adjust Where
Overall tempo Graph metronome BPM (bottom-left of the session strip, or set_graph_metronome via MCP)
Kick punch DrumKick pitch_env, click
Reverb space Reverb room_size, damping
Trail length Feedback decay
Glow intensity Bloom threshold, passes
Blob density Metaball count, threshold
Motion range LfoFr amplitude, Smooth fall_time

What's happening

This patch demonstrates all three Vivid domains working together:

  • Control: ClockFr drives LfoFr and DrumSequencer at tempo. Smooth shapes audio scalars into visual-ready signals.
  • Audio: DrumSequencer triggers drum voices, mixed and processed at sample rate.
  • GPU: Metaball + effects chain renders at frame rate, driven by Control outputs.

The cross-domain bridges are: 1. analysis1/rms (Audio scalar → Control scalar via AudioFrameBridge) 2. lfo1/value and smooth/value (Control scalar → GPU parameter)

Neither Audio nor GPU ever communicate directly. Everything routes through Control.

Performance tips

  • Use Macros to surface the key parameters (BPM, kick level, visual brightness) as a single performance panel
  • Press V to open the Session strip — save Clips per track and launch Scenes to switch states during a live set
  • Try replacing DrumSequencer with Euclidean on one track for generative rhythmic variation

Next steps