🚀 Getting Started
From opening VJam to getting visuals reacting to your music — the whole thing takes under 5 minutes ✨
1. 🎬 Launch
- Open VJam in your browser 👉 https://vjam.art
- You'll see a dark start screen — click the screen (on PC, Space works too 👆) to start!
- If it asks for mic permission, allow it 🎤
💡 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 and react in real time to whatever the mic picks up 🎶
2. 🔊 Get sound in
Three sources to choose from 👇
| Source | How to start | When to use |
|---|---|---|
| 🎤 Mic (the default) | Starts automatically, picking up room / speaker sound | Live use, off the room's sound |
| 🎵 Audio file | Drag & drop an MP3/WAV (or the [AUDIO] button in Cockpit) | Practicing with your own track, or recording |
| 🤖 Demo | A synthetic beat that runs with no sound | Trying it out somewhere quiet |
⚠️ Laptop built-in mics are super weak on bass! So bass-driven effects barely show up. With an audio file or line-in, the low end comes back and kicks hit hard 🥁 Trying it with your own track is the clearest way!
When you load an audio file, the title, artist, and album art (ID3 tags) get read automatically and can show on screen 🎼
3. 🎨 Switch the visuals
Once it's running, you can do a lot with just these — no panels needed 👇
| What you want | PC ⌨️ | Mobile 📱 |
|---|---|---|
| Next preset | → |
swipe right 👉 |
| Stack a preset | click the screen | tap 👆 |
| Clear all (Kill) | ← |
swipe left 👈 |
| Change blend | ↑ |
swipe up ☝️ |
| Change filter | ↓ |
swipe down 👇 |
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 🤏 or the [VJ] button at the bottom
- It has Deck A / B + a crossfader, so you can mix and switch two visuals like a DJ 🎚️
- You can also drop in images, video, and text, and control parameters with sound from here ✨
→ More in the "Deck A / B & crossfade" chapter.
🙌 Next steps
- The [?] button (H key) 👉 a quick reference for all controls
- 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.
Next: Audio input →