Effects
Twenty-two effects. The music moves them.
Each effect is a card. Stack a few and each moves with its own part of the song: the kick, the voices, the hats, every hit or the beat. Eleven of them run right here, on the app’s own engine.
Grown · five effects
Grown from the song.
Five that grow over the length of a song, from its first beat to its last: poppies, threads, spreading spots, a flock of birds and frost. Each grows on the part of the song you pick, and the music shakes what has grown.
These grow in the app; here are their pictures, as their keys draw them.
Poppies grown from the song. They rise and open as it builds, and late on the petals fall.
Threads that spread from one root, splitting on every hit and fruiting at their tips.
Spots seeded by the hits spread out in rings, meet and merge.
A murmuration that gathers on the lows and scatters on every hit.
Ice ferns grow in from the edges toward a point you place.
Grid & slices · three effects
Cut into a grid.
The picture as a grid of lights, as tiles that slide and gather, or folded into a kaleidoscope round a point.
Over a colour field recoloured in Ember. Drag on the stage to move the point of an effect that has one.
The picture as a grid of shapes, each as big as its cell is bright.
Cuts the picture into tiles that gather on a point you drag.
Folds the picture round a point, two to eight ways, so any picture is a kaleidoscope.
Print · five effects
Printed.
Halftone dots, letters, film grain, one-bit dots and two spot inks: the picture as something printed, still moving with the music.
Over a colour field recoloured in Ember. Drag on the stage to move the point of an effect that has one.
Printed dots on light or dark paper, turned to any angle.
Rebuilt from ten characters, lightest to darkest.
Film grain, mono or in colour.
One-bit dots, each on or off, like an old Mac’s screen.
Two spot inks, printed a little out of register.
Lens & screen · two effects
Seen through glass.
An old tube telly with its bulge, scanlines and split colour, and a glow round the brightest parts.
Over a colour field recoloured in Ember. Drag on the stage to move the point of an effect that has one.
An old screen: bulged glass, split colour, scanlines.
The lights spill over into what’s around them.
Liquid · four effects
Made liquid.
The picture runs like liquid, twists round a point, ripples on every hit, or takes its colours from a gradient.
Over a colour field recoloured in Ember. Drag on the stage to move the point of an effect that has one.
Pushes the picture through moving liquid, the way you point it.
Twists the picture round a centre you place.
Drops a stone on every hit. The rings spread out and bend the picture as they go.
Repaints the picture by brightness in one of four ramps.
Time · three effects
Out of time.
A wake behind everything that moves, a picture that holds on the beat and lets go, and rows from different moments.
Over a colour field recoloured in Ember. Drag on the stage to move the point of an effect that has one.
Feeds the last frame back in, so motion leaves a wake.
Holds the picture on the beat, then lets it run.
Every row from a different moment, so movement smears down the picture.
Every card
Every card works the same way.
Learn one and you know them all. These are the cards you just played with, as the app draws them.
- Switch it.
Its key turns the effect on and off. The picture on the key runs while it’s on.
- Open it.
Click its name for its own settings, each a row of dots you drag.
- Fill a diamond.
A filled diamond moves that setting with the card’s pulse: Low, Mid, High, Hit or Beat. Fill as many as you like.
- Push and Feel.
Push sets how far the music moves it. Feel sets how: Float swells, Punch hits, Snap jumps and holds.
Each card changes the picture the one above it made. Drag a card by its name to move it. Stacking a look
Drag a card and hold it still over another for a moment to group them.
The layer without its effects, back when you let go.
Questions
How do the effects move with the music?
Arpeggio listens to the whole song first and hears it as five pulses: Low for the kick and bass, Mid for voices and keys, High for hats, Hit for every strike, and Beat. Each card moves one of its settings with one of them, and you can fill the diamond of any other setting to move that too.
Can I put them over my own photos and videos?
Yes. Drop a picture or a video on the window, or add up to four layers, each with its own picture and its own effects.
Which effects run in the browser?
Eleven: Luma Bars, Tile Echo, Halftone, ASCII, Grain, CRT, Glow, Flow Warp, Swirl, Gradient Map and Trails, on the site’s copy of the app’s engine. All twenty-two run in the Mac app.
Do they work with Spotify and Apple Music?
Yes. Choose Listen and the effects move with whatever your Mac plays. How that works
Can I make a video with them?
Yes: a Reel, a post, square and wide all at once, every frame drawn. Making a video
Is Arpeggio free?
Yes. It’s free, with no account, for macOS 14 or later.
Put a song on and watch.
Free for Mac, with no account.
Download ArpeggiomacOS 14 or later. Or try it in your browser