It’s no longer enough for an artist to simply have the music ready. With the rise of short-form video and platform-specific content, visuals have become an essential part of how music is experienced and shared. For independent artists working with limited budgets, outsourcing visual work for every release isn’t always practical. Imaginando recognized this gap and built a tool that gives creators the ability to design striking, reactive visuals on their own — without needing a production team or deep technical knowledge.
Back in 2024, we explored Imaginando’s first attempt at visual performance software, VS — a promising tool that bridged the gap between music and visuals. With the release of VS 2, the concept has matured significantly. The new version introduces smarter modulation and a smoother workflow for both producers and visual artists. But the real question now is: has VS 2 evolved into a true alternative to standard visual creation tools, or does it remain a powerful sidekick for music producers seeking to add visuals to their work?
Right from the first look, VS 2 feels like a complete evolution rather than just an update. The first version introduced an exciting concept but was held back by its limitations — no text support, no preset playlists, and restricted rendering options. VS 2 changes that entirely. It now resembles a full-fledged visual DAW, equipped with detailed mixer controls, layer properties, audio modulation, and color grading tools. Having spent years inside Adobe’s ecosystem, I was genuinely impressed by how intelligently everything is laid out — powerful enough for pros, yet intuitive for newcomers. Within minutes, you can build visuals that breathe with the beat, without ever feeling lost in the interface.
Features
VS 2 introduces a wide range of new features, but the real question is how they translate into creating high-end, expressive visuals. To understand that, it’s worth looking at how its core components interact.
Polyphonic Layers
At the core of VS 2 lies a powerful, layer-based rendering engine designed to bridge the worlds of sound and vision. Artists can stack and blend up to eight material layers, each offering fine-grained control across multiple parameters for intricate visual composition. But VS 2 goes far beyond simple layering; it introduces a new dimension of creative expression through deep MIDI integration, allowing visuals to be played with the same precision and nuance as musical instruments.
Every MIDI note, velocity, and modulation can trigger and shape visual behavior in real time. This level of control brings the concept of polyphony into the visual domain: just as pressing multiple piano keys produces a harmony of notes, each VS layer can simultaneously display multiple visual voices, each reacting independently. The result is a seamless fusion of sound and sight — visuals that don’t just follow the music, but perform it, pulsing, harmonizing, and breathing in rhythm with every note.
Visual Materials
Each layer can draw from a diverse palette: shaders for dynamic, generative visuals; audio visualizers that display sound frequencies and waveforms; images and videos that bring texture, depth, or narrative context; and text for expressive typography and messaging. Together, these sources allow artists to sculpt visuals as they would compose music — combining different materials, syncing them to rhythm, and transforming them in real time. In addition, the new Render Output material lets you feed your visual output back into a layer to create mesmerizing recursive visuals and experimental fractal patterns.
Modulation Matrix
VS 2 is built around the idea of making reactive visuals effortlessly intuitive. At its heart lies the Modulation Matrix, a powerful yet approachable system that lets you link modulation sources such as EGs (MIDI-triggered envelope generators), LFOs (low-frequency oscillators), and AMs (audio modulators) to any layer parameter. With just a few clicks, colors can pulse to amplitude, shapes can expand during breakdowns, and visuals can evolve dynamically in sync with the music. The experience feels instantly familiar to anyone who’s explored modulation in synths like Xfer Serum or Arturia Pigments, translating the language of sound design directly into the world of visuals.
Media Management & Preset Playlists
Visual performances often rely on large media libraries, and VS 2 makes managing them much easier with its new Media Manager that streamlines relinking and searching. Another major addition is the Preset Playlist, which allows timed playback of presets with smooth transitions, ideal for YouTube visualizers or performances where manual triggering is not practical. Presets can fade in and out or be activated via MIDI, giving artists the right mix of flexibility and automation. For clubs and live shows, it also means you can pre-program long visual timelines with seamless transitions and focus more on the performance itself.
Text & Typography
Text often plays an important role in visual content, whether it’s used to enhance the aesthetic or to display key information like lyrics. The earlier version of VS lacked this capability, but VS 2 addresses it with detailed text controls. You can animate text in rhythm with the track or use text pools to cycle through different messages, credits, or sponsor mentions during a stream or live event.
Live Input & Video Routing
Imaginando has shaped VS 2 to fit almost any environment where visuals play a role. It now supports real-time video inputs through Syphon, Spout, and webcams, allowing users to blend live camera feeds of performers with generative visuals. The kind of large-scale blends you see on festival screens can now be created directly within your DAW. Latency is impressively low, and the software runs with minimal CPU load.
MIDI & Hardware Integration
MIDI mapping capabilities provide precise, expressive control. Knobs and faders can be assigned to parameters like intensity, rotation, or color, with extra options such as mapping range and 14-bit support, making it easy to improvise during live performances.
Export & Performance
Another major upgrade in VS 2 is its export capability. While VS 1 was limited to a maximum 1080p output, the new version supports up to 4K MP4 exports. Additionally, portrait orientation has been introduced to meet the needs of modern content creators producing vertical videos for platforms like Instagram and TikTok, making VS 2 as versatile for social media as it is for stage and studio performances.
Key Features:
- Audio-Reactive Visuals that respond dynamically to sound and MIDI input
- Multi-Layer Shader Engine supporting shaders, images, video, and text across eight layers
- Advanced Modulation with envelopes, LFOs, and audio-triggered controls for responsive motion
- Preset Playlist enabling automated sequences with fades, timing, and MIDI triggers
- Live Input and 4K Export with real-time video feeds and high-resolution rendering
Our Thoughts
There are very few tools that truly bridge the gap between music and visuals, and VS 2 is one of those exceptions. Beyond being impressive in terms of features, it is genuinely practical for creators. At $129, it can save rising artists significant costs by reducing the need to outsource visual content. For VJs who have long relied on traditional software for live visuals, VS 2 presents a serious alternative, and given the massive evolution from the first version, the possibilities for future updates are exciting.
There is a learning curve, but it will feel familiar to anyone used to music production workflows. The modulation matrix is a standout feature, allowing LFOs, envelopes, and audio modulators to transform simple visuals into dynamic, engaging pieces in just a few minutes.
Price: $129
More info on Imaginando.net
