Patrick CusackProduct DesignerDublin, Ireland

ModVisuals

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Context
Self-initiated
Tool
modvisuals.app  (opens in a new tab)
Expertise
Generative Art, Live Performance, Creative Coding
ModVisuals project

Overview

ModVisuals is an interactive, browser-based tool for creating generative, audio-reactive visuals for live performance and experimentation. It allows users to build layered visual compositions driven by signals such as audio input, MIDI, LFOs, and procedural noise, with real-time control over parameters and behaviors.

The project investigates how complex visual systems can be made approachable through clear interaction models and responsive feedback. It focuses on performance-oriented UX, real-time control, and the balance between unpredictability and control in creative software.

Why I built it

ModVisuals brings together what I learned building ModFont and making visuals for Slow Trance, with the aim of making audio-reactive visuals quicker to get started with.

  1. Building on ModFont

    ModFont was my first AI-assisted development project, and I wanted to apply what I learned to another area I’m passionate about: interactive music visuals. It carries over ModFont’s principle of working within deliberate limits, starting from a small set of primitive shapes.

  2. Lessons from Slow Trance

    For Slow Trance, I made visuals in traditional tools like TouchDesigner. I love it deeply, but its learning curve is steep. ModVisuals isn’t a substitute for tools like it. It’s a way of taking what I learned from them and applying it to a tool of my own.

  3. Ready for the gig

    The goal is to turn up to a gig and have a working visual system in a few steps. Instance primitive shapes into a system, connect it to inputs like sound, MIDI, or hand movement, and use it to enhance a live performance. I’ve used it this way at my own performances.

Built for performance

Every composition starts from a handful of primitive shapes, instanced into layered systems. Audio, MIDI, LFOs, and procedural noise can all become modulation sources, so a structured system can still produce expressive and unpredictable results. The interface is built around immediate feedback, giving performers direct access to the controls they need without obscuring the composition.

A dense particle composition in warm cream, coral, and blue, scattering outward from a figure-like form.
Warm-toned particles in cream, coral, and blue drifting up from a dense lower form.A small, sparse cluster of coral and cream particles suspended in darkness.

Interface details

Panels on either side of the canvas keep every control one step away. Signal sources such as audio, MIDI, and LFOs sit in the left rail next to the layer stack, and each layer’s Source, Shape, Look, and Mods settings live on the right. Knobs, segmented choices, and stepped selects are sized for quick adjustments mid-performance.

The full ModVisuals interface with the Audio panel open on the left, showing mic input, frequency analysis, and gain and sensitivity knobs, beside a monochrome particle field and the Shape panel's geometry and depth controls on the right.
Close-up of the left rail and Layers panel, showing a single procedural noise layer with a toggle and a Layer Mods row, next to a field of white particles.Close-up of the top bar and Shape panel, with Circle, Square, Triangle, and Mixed geometry options, 3D sphere selects, and a size knob beside a particle field.

What it makes

A selection of stills and recordings exported straight from ModVisuals. The same layered systems can produce dense monochrome fields, soft colour, and hard-edged symmetry, depending on how the layers and modulation sources are set up.

Thousands of long, fibre-like strokes in copper, teal, and green bursting outward from a dense centre.A field of glowing gold particles receding into depth, softened by bokeh and light rays.A monochrome halftone surface of white dots folding diagonally across the frame.A radial bloom of dashed lines rippling outward in cyan, coral, and cream on black.A monochrome particle vortex swirling around a dark centre, with mirrored forms at the edges.A symmetrical lattice of fine white lines forming mirrored concentric patterns on black.

In motion

Stills only show a single frame. Because every layer can be driven by audio, LFOs, or noise, a composition keeps evolving with the music. These recordings capture how the systems move and respond over time.

On stage

ModVisuals in use at a modular synth performance, where live, audio-reactive visuals built with the tool played behind the musicians. It was an interesting experience: I was creating the visuals and, at the same time, the tool that created them.

A black-and-white photo of two musicians patching a modular synth at a long table covered in cables and hardware, beside a person working on a laptop, in front of a large screen showing a shimmering particle field while an audience watches.