🎙️Audio Reactive

Detect and respond to audio to drive animation

Use this behavior to map Audio Sample results to specific properties. Multiple instances of Audio Reactive may be applied throughout the scene to drive animation with audio.

To add Audio Reactive, right-click the object in the Timeflow view and select:

Add Audio > Audio Reactive > Select Property

Each Audio Reactive instance has just 1 property mapping, shown as a channel in the Timeflow view. This may be mapped to any numeric or color property on the object, however does not support object or string data types.

An example using Audio Reactive to map to the material emission color.

Audio-Reactive vs Midi

Audio-reactive effects are a good way to drive animations using live or dynamically generated audio. However, Midi offers better synchronization overall and greater flexibility for mapping specific instruments and is recommended when it is an option.

With midi it is possible to anticipate audio events before they happen, whereas audio-reactive behaviors can only react once audio is detected which may cause some latency. Both methods are viable and can be used at the same time, though when working with pre-recorded audio consider using midi instead of audio-reactive behaviors.

See the section on Midi for further information.

Audio Reactive Editor

Select the object to view its settings in the Inspector.

For common features, please see Menu Bar and Update Settings.

Property Mapping

Click the center button to select a different target property. Only numeric and color properties are supported.

Audio Sample

Reference to the Audio Sample component providing data input to drive the reactive behavior.

Attack

Sets the time in seconds it takes for the value to ramp to full intensity (End Value / Color) from the resting state (Start Value / Color).

An attack value of 0 means the behavior immediately responds to the audio input and is usually the preferred option. With any value greater than zero, the behavior ramps on more gradually and may introduce latency.

Release

This determines how long it takes (in seconds) for the value to return back to its starting value after each spike in audio detected.

Use release to give behaviors an after glow or to gradually return it back to its resting position. If release is set to 0, the release is immediate causing the behavior to act more like an on/off switch.

Multiply

Scales the overall intensity of reactivity. This is helpful to increase or decrease the overall effect.

Clip

If enabled, amplitude values are clamped between 0 and 1. Otherwise, if disabled, amplitude values are unrestricted and may scale beyond the start and end values.

Use clip in situations where you want to strictly adhere to the start and end value (or color) range. Otherwise, disable clip to allow higher intensity values, which may be desired when using HDR colors for glowing effects.

Start and End Value / Color

Start determines the resting value (or color) of the target property, and End sets the fully engaged "ON" value when spikes in audio input occur.

The property type selected above determines whether a color or value field is displayed.

Use the multiplier field (*) to increase or decrease the values. This is especially helpful with colors to adjust intensities without directly changing the color field.

The start and end values may also be animated using a standard animation channel or any other behaviors to change the audio-reactive behavior over time.

Amount

Sets the final blend amount between the start and end values.

Amount is useful to generally decrease intensity of audio-reactive effects and may also be animated to vary the intensity of reactive behavior over time.

Note that the Amount blend is done before Override.

Override

Takes control over the final output value, using the slider to blend with the audio-reactive value.

Use override to influence or overwrite the final output of the audio-reactive behavior. This may useful in situations where an object is only reacting to audio part of the time and at other times controlled by animation or other behaviors.

Output Value / Color

Displays a read-only preview of the final output value for references.

The final output value of any Audio Reactive behavior may be further processed and mapped to other channels using Channel Link.