DJ sets & VJ performances
Run visuals alongside your mix, show them fullscreen, or send them through Spout to apps such as Resolume, NestDrop, TouchDesigner and Synesthesia.
Free & open source · For Windows
MilkDrop visuals.
For all your music.
BeatDrop is a free, standalone MilkDrop music visualizer for Windows. Use it for DJ sets, VJ performances, streams, music videos, parties, karaoke—or just enjoy the visuals while you listen.
Reacts to system audio or a microphone. No specific music player is required.
10,000+bundled presets
Two audio modesSystem audio or Microphone
32-bit & 64-bitWindows builds available
Free to downloadopen-source development
What can I use BeatDrop for?
At home, on stream
or behind the DJ booth.
Run it on its own or add its output to your existing visual setup. Choose presets that fit your music and the occasion.
Streams & music videos
Bring BeatDrop into OBS with a Spout plug-in or window capture. Combine it with other sources for livestreams, recordings and music videos. If you share your visuals, tag #BeatDrop or #BeatDropMusicVisualizer so the community can find them.
Parties & karaoke
Show visuals on a party screen and add synchronized lyrics when available. Use microphone input when you want the visuals to react to sound in the room.
Music & desktop visuals
Listen with your usual player, keep a small borderless view open, or use Desktop Mode to display visuals behind your Windows icons.
Displays & installations
Use fullscreen visuals on a dedicated display, or route the output into a Spout-compatible setup for an installation or exhibition.
Making your own presets
Edit .milk presets, experiment with shapes and waves, and use mouse, keyboard, shader variables, video or GIF textures in your work. Press M to get started.
See what it can do
Take a look at BeatDrop.
Browse these screenshots to see some of the included MilkDrop presets. The captions name the presets and their creators.
Visuals by the MilkDrop preset community. Read about permissions for public use
More ways to enjoy MilkDrop
What’s included in BeatDrop?
Enjoy the presets as they are, or experiment with window modes, media inputs and the built-in editor.
Spout · Video · GIFs
Make BeatDrop part
of your visual setup.
Send the visualizer’s output to Spout-compatible apps such as OBS, Resolume, NestDrop, TouchDesigner, Synesthesia etc. You can also bring a Spout feed as a sprite by putting Spout/ or Spout\ prefixes, along with the sender name to your image path from your beatdrop_img.ini file, or add GIFs and videos as sprites and textures. Presets will automatically load GIFs and videos if available.
OBS requires a Spout plug-in. Check preset permissions before using visuals in a stream or performance.
Explore media and Spout support
Desktop · Borderless · Fullscreen
Choose how the
visuals are displayed.
Fill your screen, place a borderless window beside your music player, or put the visualizer on your desktop. Use the view that suits your desktop, recording or performance setup.
Shift + W Desktop modeCtrl + W Hide windowF2 Borderless modeF7 Always on topAlt + Enter Full-screen
Song information · Synchronized lyrics
Show track information
and synchronized lyrics.
BeatDrop can show the current track and timed LRC lyrics over the visuals. On standard Windows 10 and newer builds, it follows the supported media session’s playback position to select each lyric line. Matching lyrics can be fetched from LRCLIB in the background and cached on your PC for later use.
Song information and playback timing depend on a supported Windows media session. Older Windows builds keep the lyrics editor and local cache, but do not provide automatic media-session timing.
Make or adjust timed lyrics
Press Ctrl + Shift + E to open the editor—even while a BeatDrop menu is open. Import an LRC file, or type plain lyrics and choose Parse text to create editable lines.
Play the song and press Space or Capture timestamp to time the selected line. Use the seek buttons to check a line against the song, nudge timestamps by seconds, reorder lines, or insert silence. Undo and redo keep up to 100 editing steps.
The parsed pane previews what BeatDrop will render. Keep Auto-apply to renderer enabled to preview changes on the visualizer; save a local LRC when you are done. If you choose Upload to LRCLIB, the editor asks before publishing the track details and lyrics to its public service.
You can delete a selected line, reset the editor, or clear the local lyrics cache. The cache action asks before deleting its saved LRC files.
Ctrl + L Toggle lyricsCtrl + Shift + E Open lyrics editor
On-screen information
F4 Show / hide preset infoF5 Show / hide FPSF6 Show / hide ratingF8 Show / hide song infoF10 Show / hide song seek, duration and time
New shader variables · System clock
Put the live date and time into a preset.
Presets can read the current local time and date while they run. Use the individual values—hour, minute, second, milliseconds, totalseconds, year, month, day and weekday—or the shader vectors sysTime and sysDate.
sysTime contains hour, minute, second and total seconds. sysDate contains year, month, day and weekday (1 = Monday through 7 = Sunday). Separate sysTimeHour, sysTimeMinute, sysTimeSecond, sysTimeTotalSeconds, sysDateYear, sysDateMonth, sysDateDay and sysDateWeekday values are available too.
Preset interactions · Keyboard · Mouse
Let your inputs shape the visuals.
Presets can react to pointer movement, mouse buttons and directional keys while they run. The per-frame values mousex and mousey provide pointer position; mousedown and mouseclick report button input. Mouse coordinates are -1 when the pointer is outside the visualizer.
In shaders, mouse.x and mouse.y give the pointer position. mouse.z (also mouse_clicked) can carry a held-button coordinate, while mouse.w (also mouse_released) can carry a release-click coordinate. To use button events, presets can pass their per-frame values through q variables into those vector components.
While BeatDrop is active, hold Ctrl and press an arrow key to control a preset: ← left, → right, ↑ up or ↓ down.
The directional per-frame values ctrllt, ctrlrt, ctrlup and ctrldn let presets respond to those Ctrl + arrow inputs. Press M in BeatDrop to open the preset editor.
New shader functions · FFT · Wave
Build visuals from the sound itself.
BeatDrop adds MilkDrop 3-inspired FFT functions for reading frequency levels and peak holds: get_fft(), get_fft_hz(), get_fft_peak() and get_fft_peak_hz(). A normalized position runs from the lowest frequency (0) to about 22 kHz (1); the other functions read a frequency in hertz.
Wave functions give a preset the mono waveform or an individual channel: get_wave(), get_wave_left() and get_wave_right(), each read at a normalized position from 0 to 1. Use them to draw lines, bars, rings and other audio-reactive effects.
FFT functions are inspired by MilkDrop 3; BeatDrop also adds its mono and left/right waveform functions. FFT uses RMS normalization with smooth attack and decay; press M in the preset editor to adjust both from 0 to 1. The shader reference notes that using frac() with these functions may cause errors.
Menu · Playback controls
Quick access to BeatDrop’s controls.
Right-click the visualizer, or right-click BeatDrop’s icon in the taskbar tray, to open its menu. Change display options, adjust audio and lyrics, manage presets, or control music playback from there.
For keyboard control, use these shortcuts while BeatDrop is active. The arrow keys seek through the current track.
Previous trackZ
Play / pauseX
StopC
Next trackV
Seek in track← Seek left→ Seek right
Load and edit MilkDrop presets
Load .milk presets with drag and drop. Edit up to 16 custom shapes and waves, with new waveforms, code and shader variables to experiment with.
Shader precaching and caching
Precache shaders or let them cache as you go. Cached shaders reduce compilation waits when you revisit a preset.
Audio from your PC
Capture system sound or switch to a microphone. BeatDrop follows default audio-device changes and supports high sample rates.
Ready when you are
Download BeatDrop
for Windows.
Choose a build for your computer and start using BeatDrop for your music, recordings or live visuals.
Get BeatDrop for WindowsAll releases & release notesChoose your build
- Standard
- Windows 10 and Windows 11
- Architecture
- x64 for 64-bit Windows; x86 for 32-bit Windows
- Older Windows
- Look for an OldOS build. Song information and synchronized playback features are limited.
Getting started
Download, extract and run.
Use the release package and keep its resource folders together. You don’t need to compile the source code.
- 1
Download & extract
Choose either the installer or portable package from the latest release. If you choose portable, extract the full archive and keep
BeatDrop Resourcesbeside the executable. - 2
Open BeatDrop & play music
Start the matching executable, then play audio in Spotify, YouTube, VLC, Winamp, WACUP or another app. BeatDrop listens to system audio by default; you do not need to install Winamp or WACUP specifically.
- 3
Explore your presets
Use the preset browser (L) or drop a .milk file into the visualizer. Press F1 for the full list of controls and shortcuts.
Need a hand? Check the README for setup details and runtime requirements.
Read the guideFrequently asked questions
Questions about BeatDrop
Where do I download and install BeatDrop?
Get the latest package from GitHub Releases. Under the release’s Assets, choose the installer or portable package for your Windows system; the “Source code” archives are for developers. Run the installer, or extract the portable package and keep the complete folder—including BeatDrop Resources—together. Then start the matching BeatDrop executable. Check the release notes and runtime requirements if Windows reports a missing dependency.
Can I use BeatDrop for DJ or VJ performances?
Yes. BeatDrop can provide audio-reactive visuals for DJ sets and VJ performances, either fullscreen or through Spout in compatible apps. Capture your mix through system audio, or select microphone input for an external audio source. Make sure the audio reaches the selected input and check your routing before a show. For paid performances, streams and other public uses, check the licenses of the presets and media you plan to use.
Does BeatDrop run on Linux?
There is no native Linux build. You can try running the Windows version through Wine, using tools such as Winetricks for dependencies or Lutris to manage the setup. Graphics and audio configuration depend on your machine, so compatibility is not guaranteed.
Incubo_ has also run BeatDrop in Winlator on Android using Turnip Vulkan, Zink OpenGL, DXVK + VKD3D and PulseAudio settings. This is a reported working configuration, not a requirement for every Linux or Android device. BeatDrop uses Direct3D 9, which DXVK can translate to Vulkan; VKD3D is not required for its Direct3D 9 renderer.
Desktop Mode and Windows media-session features (including automatic track information and playback timing used by synchronized lyrics) did not work in the reported Wine-based setup. Use windowed or fullscreen mode and expect some Windows-specific features to be unavailable. See the Lutris overview for more about its Wine support.
Do I need Winamp, WACUP or a particular music player?
No. BeatDrop captures Windows system audio, so any app that plays sound can provide the music. Winamp, WACUP or any media players are optional; install or use one only if you want it as your player.
Can I use microphone audio?
Yes. Press Ctrl + D, or use the context menu, to switch between speaker and microphone input.
Can I run BeatDrop on a Mac with Parallels or Prism?
BeatDrop’s official releases target Windows, and compatibility with Parallels or Prism has not been confirmed. MilkDrop2077 has reported running MilkDrop 3 on an M3 Mac with Parallels or in a Windows 11 ARM virtual machine with Prism; that report is about MilkDrop 3 rather than BeatDrop. Graphics and performance may vary with the Mac, virtual machine and graphics setup. A community macOS port is maintained separately and may produce different graphics or behavior.
Can I use the visuals in videos or live shows?
Permissions depend on the presets you use. Some carry noncommercial restrictions, and credit alone does not grant permission. Read the preset permissions below and check the original author’s terms for your intended use.
Support independent development
Help keep BeatDrop growing.
BeatDrop is free to download and developed independently. If it has been useful for your DJ or VJ sets, streams, events or everyday listening, you can support the project with a Ko-fi donation. Contributions help cover hosting and development tools and leave more time for fixes and new features.
Support is optional. BeatDrop remains free to download, and a donation does not change the permissions for presets or other media.
An ongoing community project
Get in touch.
Have a question, found a bug, or made something with BeatDrop? Join the Discord, open an issue on GitHub, or email beatdropmusicvisualizer@gmail.com. Preset contributions, feature requests and improvements are welcome.