audio reactive video, on your own footage

Play your clip and your song together, and the effects move with the track while it plays. VIDEO records the take as an MP4, song included.

open rgb split →

it is not
A video editor or a generator. No timeline, no cutting, no AI and no render queue. Cut your shots elsewhere and bring the finished clip here.
what gets recorded
The song, when it is loaded as a file. The clip’s own sound is muted, and the mic or tab audio only drive the look.
free
Every effect previews with no account, and the free set records. Signed out, a take carries a watermark; a free account removes it.
price
Recording with a paid effect needs the licence: $59 once, for the web studio and the macOS app, no subscription. Nothing uploads.

01/ MAKING

from a clip and a song to an mp4

All of it happens in one browser tab, in this order.

  1. 01

    put the footage on the canvas

    VID

    Load a video file from the VID button. It loops, and it plays muted: kott never records the clip’s own sound, so the song comes in separately in the next step.

  2. 02

    load the song as a file

    AUDIOFILE

    Open the AUDIO tab and choose FILE. The track gets a seek bar and a loop switch, and a loaded file is the input that ends up in the recording.

    The microphone and tab audio can drive the effects too, but kott only listens to them, so a take made from either comes out without that sound.

  3. 03

    choose a look and wire it

    ADD

    Pick an effect. In the AUDIO tab’s routing row, choose a source (the beat, the downbeat, the bass, the build meter, or an EQ band you define) and a destination, which can be any control of the effect on screen. Press ADD and set the depth. A route can ride the signal smoothly or fire as a trigger on each hit.

    Halftone, Bayer dither, RGB split, pixel sort, feedback and glitch are in the free set. The VHS suite, slit-scan and datamosh are paid. Every effect previews on your clip either way.

  4. 04

    record the take

    VIDEOR

    Seek the track back to the start, press VIDEO (or R) and let the song play through. Press it again to stop, and the file downloads as MP4, or WebM in a browser that cannot write MP4.

    Anything you move by hand while it runs is part of the take.

02/ PAIRINGS

looks that answer a beat

All free effects, each with one route to try first. Change the source, the control or the depth and it becomes your own.

  • halftone · cell on the bass

    • bassrideCELLhalftone

    The dots swell on low notes and tighten between them. On a close-up, a face breaks into print on each kick and comes back in the gaps.

  • rgb-split · separation on the beat

    • beattriggerSEPARATIONrgb-split

    As a trigger, the colour channels jump apart on each hit and snap back. On footage it is the clearest way to show where the beat is, and it survives heavy compression on a phone.

  • pixel-sort · length on the build

    • swellbuild meterrideLENGTHpixel-sort

    The build meter rises through a riser and falls away at the drop. On LENGTH, the streaks grow through the build, then collapse when the drop lands.

  • feedback · persist on your own band

    • band 3the hatsridePERSISTfeedback

    Define an EQ band around the hats or the vocal and let it hold the trails longer while that part plays. The picture smears when the band is busy and clears when it is quiet.

03/ LIMITS

when another tool fits better

Searches for audio reactive video cover a few different jobs. These are the ones kott does not do, and the limits of the ones it does.

  • you want a video made for you

    kott generates nothing. It changes footage you already have while the track plays, and you record the result. No AI, no stock footage, no templates, no lyric captions.

  • you need an editor

    No timeline, no cuts, no titles, no keyframes, no beat grid. Do the edit in your editor, then run the finished clip through kott, or bring kott’s take back into the edit.

  • you need identical exports

    kott reacts to the sound as it plays, so two takes of one song come out close but never identical. A recording is one continuous take.

  • the window sets the recording size

    A VIDEO take is the canvas as drawn on your screen, so make the window the shape you want the file to be. The FRAME menu does not change a take yet, and if its shape differs from the window, the bars are recorded too.

  • it records in real time

    A three-minute song takes three minutes. Keep the studio tab in front while it runs: a hidden tab slows the capture to a crawl.

  • 4K is for loops, and loops are silent

    The short LOOP export renders at the exact frame size, up to 1080p free and 4K with the licence, but it carries no sound.

04/ FAQ

questions

how do I make an audio reactive video?

In kott: load your clip as the video source, load the song as an audio file in the AUDIO tab, pick an effect, then add a route from a sound (the beat, the bass, the build meter or an EQ band you define) to one of the effect’s controls. Seek to the start, press VIDEO and let the track play through. The download is an MP4 with the song in it. It all runs in the browser and nothing uploads.

can I add music video effects that move to the beat for free?

Yes, with the free set: halftone, Bayer dither, RGB split, pixel sort, feedback and glitch among them. Every effect previews free with no account. Signed out, a recording carries the kott watermark; a free account removes it. Recording with a paid effect, such as the VHS suite or datamosh, needs the one-time licence.

does the exported video include the song?

Yes, when the song is loaded as an audio file. The recorder takes the same audio that drives the analysis, so picture and sound stay in sync. The microphone and tab audio are analysed but never recorded, and the footage’s own soundtrack is muted.

what resolution does it record at?

A VIDEO take records the canvas at the size it is drawn on your screen, so the studio window sets it. It does not follow the FRAME menu yet. The seamless LOOP export does render at the exact frame size, up to 1080p free and 4K with the licence, but it is short and silent.

can I use it with Premiere, DaVinci Resolve or CapCut?

Alongside them, yes. Export your cut from the editor and load it into kott as the footage, or record a take in kott and bring the MP4 into your editor. kott is not a plugin for any of them and cannot be controlled from inside one.

is there a desktop app?

A native macOS app runs fully offline and is covered by the same one-time licence as the web studio. On Windows and Linux, kott is a browser tab with WebGL2, and the steps on this page are the same.

05/ NEXT

nearby pages, and what each one answers

06/ OUT

put your footage on the beat

The studio opens on RGB split, which is free. Drop in a clip, load the song from the AUDIO tab, route the beat onto SEPARATION and press VIDEO. No account and no install, and the first take costs nothing.

open rgb split →

try
Free in the browser, no account.
licence
$59, once. Web studio and macOS app, no subscription.
your files
The clip and the song stay on your machine.