🚀 Getting Started

From opening VJam to getting visuals reacting to your music — the whole thing takes under 5 minutes ✨

1. 🎬 Launch

1. Open VJam in your browser 👉 https://vjam.art
2. You'll see a dark start screen — click the screen (on PC, Space works too 👆) to start!

💡 Why the click? Browsers won't play sound until the user interacts (so audio doesn't blast unexpectedly). That first click turns sound on.

Now the visuals (presets) start moving 🎶

2. 🎤 Allow the microphone

VJam is an instrument that reacts to incoming sound. No fiddly setup — when it asks for mic permission, just allow it 🎤

That's it: the mic picks up the sound around you — music, voices, claps — and the visuals start reacting in real time. To check it's coming through, go somewhere quiet and talk toward the screen; saying "aaah" or "check" is the quickest test 🗣️

💡 Want to play your own track (an audio file) or try it somewhere silent (demo)? Those input methods — and how to fix "it's not reacting!" — are all in the 🔊 Audio input chapter 🎧

3. 🎨 Switch the visuals

Once it's running, you can do a lot with just these — no panels needed 👇

The key thing: each tap stacks another preset as a layer 🍰 They blend together and build up depth. If it gets messy, Kill (←) wipes it clean so you can start over.

4. 🎛️ Open the Cockpit (mixer)

When you want to mix more seriously, open the Cockpit 👇

• How to open 👉 PC = Space / Mobile = pinch 🤏
• How to close 👉 the × at the top right (or Space / pinch again)
• It has Deck A / B + a crossfader, so you can mix and switch two visuals like a DJ 🎚️
• You can also drop in images, collage elements, video, text, and track info, and control parameters with sound from here ✨

→ More in the "Deck A / B & crossfade" chapter.

🙌 Next steps

• The [?] button in the bottom-right (H key) 👉 a quick animated refresher on the basic moves
• Want every shortcut? 👉 📋 Cheat sheet
• The How-to chapters 👉 recording, images/video, saving scenes — based on what you want to do
• The Concepts chapter 👉 Why two engines? What are "feel" visuals?

The full list of keys & gestures is in the Reference chapter. This one is just your first 5 minutes.