How to Install New Audio Visualizations in VLC

If you are looking to add new audio visualizations (projectM) to VLC Media Player, then first you need to download the files. Next, you need to copy them to a folder in VLC’s program directory. Finally, point to the projectM directory from the visualization options of VLC’s Advanced settings. It does sound a bit complicated, but all that we’re doing is downloading, copying and pointing to the visualizations.

Here are the detailed steps to install visualizations by projectM in VLC Media Player:

  • Download the projectM visualizations hosted in SourceForge. The latest one is: projectM-complete-2.1.0-Source.tar.gz (31.1 MB).
  • Extract the compressed .tar.gz file and everything will be extracted to the directory projectM-complete-2.1.0-Source. Open it.The visualizations or .milk files are present inside the following sub-directories:
    • presets
    • presets_milkdrop
    • presets_milkdrop_104
    • presets_milkdrop_200
    • presets_projectM
    • presets_yin
  • Copy presets_milkdrop file to C:\Program Files\VideoLAN\VLC\Visualizations\presets_milkdrop or C:\Program Files\VideoLAN (x86)\VLC\Visualizations\presets_milkdrop.
  • In VLC, go to Tools > Preferences. vlc-tools-preferences
  • In the bottom left, from Show settings click on All to switch to Advanced preferences. Display all Settings
  • In Advanced settings under Audio > Visualizations > projectM > projectM preset path browse and point to C:\Program Files\VideoLAN\VLC\Visualizations/presets_milkdrop. projectM-visualization-settings This is the folder containing the .milk files that you just downloaded.
  • After this, if you choose Audio > Visualizations > projectM , it will play a random projectM visualization that follows the waveform. projectm-visualization-preview It's pretty cool.
Notes:
  • If the visualizations folder does not exist, then you will have to create the new folder.
  • You'll have to give admin privileges to create a new folder and to copy files.
  • You can also copy and point to the other five presets directory besides presets_milkdrop.

About Audio Visualizations

If you do not know, visualizations are used to fill up your screen when playing audio files. They respond to the audio track that is currently playing. They are accessible through Audio > Visualizations menu. By default, in Windows, you you will find six visualizations:
  1. Spectrometer
  2. Scope
  3. Spectrum
  4. Vu meter
  5. Goom
  6. projectM
In this tutorial we just covered how to install visualizations from projectM. Before installation, it just shows projectM in a flashy manner.

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