Quick Start
Eight steps from a fresh install to a Clip on a screen. Each one links to the page that covers it properly, so read those later and get something running first.
If Visibox is not on your computer yet, start with Installing Visibox.
1. Open the Demo Project
Choose Help > Download/Open Demo Project…. Visibox downloads a complete Project with Songs, Clips, audio, Effects, and Visualizers already in it.
Do this before you build anything of your own. It is much easier to see what a Project is for when there is one in front of you. See Resources.
2. Find your way around
The Controller is the window you perform from. Songs are the rows. The Clips in the selected Song are the tiles in the Preview at the bottom.
Take two minutes with The Visibox Interface before going further.
3. Get the Output onto a screen
The Output window is what the audience sees. Drag it to your second screen, then press ⌥⌘F to put it full screen.
If you cannot find it, choose Window > Output Window (⌘1). See Output, Canvas, and Displays.
4. Trigger a Clip
Click a Song to select it, then press 1. The first Clip in that Song starts playing, and you see it on the Output.
Keys 1 through 9 trigger the first nine Clips of the selected Song. The arrow keys move between Songs and Clips. The space bar stops. See the Play menu.
5. Make a Song of your own
Choose Project > New Song, or press ⌘N. Double-click its title to rename it.
Songs are how a Project is organized. One per song in your set is the usual arrangement, but a Song is just a group of Clips you want together. See Adding Songs.
6. Add Clips to it
Drag video or image files from your desktop straight onto the Song row. Each one becomes a Clip.
You can also right-click the Song for a live camera, a Visualizer, a solid color, or an audio file. See Adding Clips.
7. Attach a backing track
With the Song selected, press ⇧⌘U and pick an audio file. It plays under whatever Clip is running, and the Song row shows its waveform.
Attach the track you are playing along to. For stingers and sound effects you fire by hand, use an Audio Clip instead. See Attaching audio to a Song.
8. Play it from a controller
The number keys work, but you will want your hands free. Connect a MIDI controller, open Settings > MIDI, and map its pads to Clips.
A foot pedal, or anything else that sends MIDI, works the same way. A Stream Deck talks to Visibox through its own plugin instead. See MIDI and Stream Deck.
Where to go next
- Terminology defines every term this manual uses. It is short and it saves time.
- Launch Modes decides what pressing and releasing a trigger does.
- Poly Mode puts several Clips on screen at once.
- Setting Up for Live Performance is the show-day routine.