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Audio Visualizers

The Audio-Visualizer plug-ins use SenSei’s audio input to generate visuals. To check whether SenSei is receiving audio, open the Audio Input Monitor. To do this, click inside SenSei’s output window to make it active, then press A on your keyboard.

SenSei uses the audio input source selected in your operating system’s general sound settings. At the bottom of this page, you’ll find step-by-step instructions on how to route audio from Ableton Live into SenSei using the free BlackHole (macOS) or VoiceMeeter (Windows) applications.

Audio Visualizer 01

Use particle rings to visualize sound.

Audio Visualizer 02

Use particle rings to visualize sound.

Audio Visualizer 03

Use a circle of meshes to visualize sound.

Audio Visualizer 04

Use a line to visualize sound.

Audio Visualizer 05

Use a line to visualize sound.

Routing audio into SenSei using Blackhole or VoiceMeeter

Blackhole (Mac)

Download and install the free BlackHole (2-Channel) application from the Blackhole website. Follow the instructions on that page to create a Multi-Output Device.
As output sources, select:

  • The device you normally use for Ableton Live’s audio output (for example, your laptop speakers or headphone output), and
  • BlackHole

These two outputs will work in parallel: one sends Ableton Live’s audio to SenSei, and the other lets you monitor the sound through your preferred output device (like speakers or headphones).

In Ableton Live, open Settings → Audio, and select BlackHole as the Audio Output Device. BlackHole should appear in the Audio Output Device dropdown. Next, open Audio MIDI Setup (located in the Utilities folder inside Applications) and set BlackHole as your system’s default Input Device.

At this point, all audio played in Ableton Live will also be sent to SenSei. To monitor the incoming audio in SenSei, open the Audio Level Monitor: click inside the SenSei output window to make it active, then press A on your keyboard. If no audio appears, first check the levels in the Audio MIDI Setup.

If you want to send audio from specific Ableton tracks to SenSei instead of the master output, you can create an Aggregate Device. This allows for more flexible routing and is explained in detail on this webpage. Additional routing configurations inside Ableton Live may be required.

Note: Other audio routing solutions are also possible, depending on your setup and workflow.

VoiceMeeter (Windows)

Download and install the free VoiceMeeter application from VB-Audio website and restart.

In Ableton Live, open Settings → Audio, and select VoiceMeeter Virtual ASIO as the Audio Output Device. It should appear in the Audio Output Device dropdown.

Set VoiceMeeter Out B1 as the input device in the Windows Sound settings.
Next, open the VoiceMeeter.exe application. You should see the audio coming in, in the virtual input. Make sure this is routed to the hardware output you use for monitoring (e.g. laptop speakers, headphones).

At this point, all audio played in Ableton Live will also be sent to SenSei. To monitor the incoming audio in SenSei, open the Audio Level Monitor: click inside the SenSei output window to make it active, then press A on your keyboard.

If you want to send audio from specific Ableton tracks to SenSei instead of the master output, you’ll need the Voicemeeter Banana application (if you have another version of VoiceMeeter installed you’ll have to uninstall that first).

Set Voicemeeter Out B1 as the input device in the Windows Sound settings. In Ableton Live, open Settings → Audio, and select VoiceMeeter Virtual ASIO as the Audio Output Device. Send the audio you want to hear to channels 1-2 and the audio to visualize to channels 3-4.

In VoiceMeeter select your speaker output as Hardware Out A1. Set only A1 to ON on the Virtual Input Voicemeeter Input. Set the virtual channel B1 in the master section to Composite mode.

Go to Menu ->System Settings and set the first two patch composite channels to IN#4 Center and IN#4 LFE and clear out the others by setting the dropdown to “Bus Channel”.

Note: Other audio routing solutions are also possible, depending on your setup and workflow.