a stream visualizer that OBS captures from a window

Your mic or your music moves the picture, and OBS picks the window up with Window Capture, like any other window.

open spectrum bars →

listens to
Your microphone, a browser tab playing music, or a desktop player through a loopback device. kott only listens; OBS still carries your audio.
into obs
Window Capture on the POP OUT window, which comes with the licence. Free: capture the studio window and crop.
it is not
An OBS plugin, a browser source or a transparent overlay. No NDI, no Syphon, no virtual camera.
price
Free to open and try, with no account. The licence is $59 once, for the web studio and the macOS app, with no subscription.

01/ SETUP

from the studio to your scene

Set it up once before you go live. After that it is one more source in your scene.

  1. 01

    give it something to hear

    AUDIOMIC·LINESYSTEM·TAB

    MIC·LINE makes the visuals answer your voice. For music playing in a browser tab, choose SYSTEM·TAB in Chrome or Edge and tick ‘share tab audio’ in the picker. A desktop player can come in through a loopback device such as BlackHole, picked as the MIC·LINE input.

  2. 02

    wire one sound to one control

    ADD

    Pick a look: spectrum bars and an oscilloscope for a classic visualizer, or halftone, dither and glitch if you would rather the picture moved. The source can be an image, a video loop or your webcam. Then choose a sound (the level, the beat, the bass or an EQ band you set) and a control, press ADD and set the depth.

    Your voice on halftone’s CELL makes the dots breathe as you talk. The beat on RGB split makes the picture jump on every kick.

  3. 03

    pop the output out

    POP OUT

    POP OUT opens the output alone in its own window, titled KOTT · PROJECTION, with no panels. Size it to your stream canvas. This is projector mode, which comes with the licence.

    Without it, capture the studio window itself and crop to the canvas in OBS. ⌘. (Ctrl+. on Windows) folds the console away and leaves more picture to crop.

  4. 04

    capture it in OBS

    Add a Window Capture source and choose the KOTT · PROJECTION window. On a Mac, use macOS Screen Capture in window mode.

    Black on Windows? Set the capture method to Windows 10 (1903 and up). Browsers draw with the GPU, and the older method cannot see it.

02/ INSTEAD

when a plugin is the better answer

Most people searching for an OBS visualizer want something that lives inside OBS. kott does not, so here is where it falls short, before you set anything up.

  • you need a transparent overlay

    kott’s output is an opaque picture. OBS’s Luma Key or Color Key filter can drop a black background, which works on some looks and not others. If a clean alpha overlay is the requirement, an OBS visualizer plugin is the better fit.

  • you want it to live inside OBS

    kott is a separate browser window, or the macOS app. Window capture is the only route: there is no OBS plugin, no browser-source build, no NDI, no Syphon and no virtual camera.

  • you want it to react to chat

    kott listens to sound. It does not read chat, follows or alerts from Twitch or YouTube.

  • you want the clean window free

    The studio is free to open and capture. The pop-out window is part of projector mode, which comes with the licence, and so do the paid effects, spectrum bars among them.

  • the window has to stay open

    Minimised means there is nothing for OBS to capture. A second monitor is the easy place to park it.

  • it shares your graphics card

    kott draws on the GPU that your game and OBS’s encoder are also using, so check your frame rate before going live on a laptop.

03/ FAQ

questions

how do I add an audio visualizer to OBS?

With kott: open the studio in a browser, pick a look, give it your microphone or tab audio in the AUDIO tab, and route a sound onto a control. Press POP OUT to get the output alone in a window titled KOTT · PROJECTION, then add a Window Capture source in OBS and pick that window. The pop-out is part of projector mode, which comes with the one-time licence.

does kott work as an OBS browser source?

Not as a supported setup. kott is built for a real browser window, and microphone or tab-audio access inside OBS’s own browser is not something it has been tested with. Use Window Capture on the pop-out window instead.

can the visualizer react to my voice?

Yes. Choose your microphone as the input and route its level, or an EQ band around your voice, onto a control. The sound is analysed on your own machine and kott never sends it anywhere, including to the stream.

can it react to Spotify while I stream?

Yes. Play the Spotify web player in a Chrome or Edge tab and share that tab’s audio with kott, or route the desktop app’s output through a loopback device such as BlackHole and pick it as kott’s input. Check that you have the rights to play the music on your stream; that part is between you and the platform.

is there a transparent background for a stream overlay?

No. The output is an opaque frame. OBS’s Luma Key or Color Key filter can remove a black background on looks that have one, but kott cannot hand OBS an alpha channel.

is it free?

Opening the studio and trying every effect is free, with no account. The clean pop-out window and the paid effects, spectrum bars included, need the licence: one payment for the web studio and the macOS app, with no subscription.

04/ NEXT

nearby pages, and what each one answers

05/ OUT

try it before you go live

The studio opens on spectrum bars. Press MIC·LINE in the AUDIO tab and talk, and the bars answer. Trying it costs nothing, so you can see whether it suits your stream before you pay anything.

open spectrum bars →

try
Free in the browser, no account.
licence
$59, once. Web studio and macOS app, no subscription.
needs
Chrome or Edge for tab audio. Any WebGL2 browser for the rest.