2020 is over and I hope you will agree, the best way to start off a new year is with a feature update from Specterr. Whether you agree or not, we do have an update for you. The Specterr lyric video maker is now available!

Specterr made it easy to create custom visualizers and now it's easy to create custom lyric videos. We spent months building a hand crafted lyric editor to give you a great workflow.

Quickly add your lyrics to the timeline by pasting all of them in or adding them one by one. Then move them to the right timestamps by dragging and dropping while viewing a live preview. The "Styles" tab lets you customize the look and position of your lyrics.

We've also included a bunch of shortcuts to make pure keyboard editing possible and super fast:

Ctrl/Cmd + Enter: Add lyric segment
Ctrl/Cmd + Space: Pause / play preview
Ctrl/Cmd + Left Arrow: Seek back
Ctrl/Cmd + Right Arrow: Seek forward
Ctrl/Cmd + Up Arrow: Move lyrics up
Ctrl/Cmd + Down Arrow: Move lyrics down
Ctrl/Cmd + Shift + Up Arrow: Shorten lyrics
Ctrl/Cmd + Shift + Down Arrow: Expand lyrics
Tab: Select next lyrics
Shift + Tab: Select previous lyrics
Ctrl/Cmd + Delete: Remove lyric segment

Create your lyric video now!

- Oliver

We've just released a new update with flat wave music visualizers! Artists have been creating circle visualizers on Specterr for a while, and now flat visualizers are available. It's the traditional shape for viewing an audio spectrum, but our stunning flat visualizers will give your audio a fresh look.

Switch shapes easily in the visualizer shape editor. Try our presets with different shapes to find great designs for your videos. We've also included a couple other new settings to help you edit such as 'rotation' and 'width'.

The audio quality of Specterr exports has been increased as well. Now look for 320 kbps AAC instead of 256 kbps.

Create a video now!

- Oliver

The free stock photo website, Unsplash, has been integrated on Specterr. Now you can search through millions of professional quality images and use them in your videos. And every photo is royalty free! This makes it super easy to pick out great images for every video.

In addition to stock photos, you can also reuse images from other videos. This makes it quicker to use the same logo in each music video you release.

In addition to these changes there have been a few updates under the hood to improve speed and performance of the Specterr editor.

Check it out.

- Oliver

As an aspiring artist, you may think that just recording your song, posting it on music sites, and sharing the link on social media is good enough. But, with today's content overload, you may not be able to get enough traction to stand out from the crowd unless you have an exciting music video to go with it.

Unique music videos are essential to promoting yourself and your band. In this article, we'll show you how to make a music video and help you find the best option to create a stunning music video without spending a lot.

1) Shoot in a studio setting

Using a set studio location to shoot a music video is one of the most popular ways to film mainstream and big-budget music videos.

The advantage of shooting in a set studio location is that you can unleash your creativity when it comes to creating an atmosphere for the music video. You can use different types of lighting, set design, or play with on-set effects and create a stunning music video. The cons? Budget.

See an example where the singers were painted to match the set background in Goyte’s “Somebody That I Used to Know”.

2) Shoot a one-take video

A "one-take" video appears to be filmed in a single take using just one camera.

Music videos shot using a one-shot technique were really popular in the '90s and are making a comeback now. These videos may be difficult to pull off, but a focus on pre-planning, use of hidden cuts, and practical camera tricks will help you make a stunning music video while saving on post-production time.

An example of the one-take video technique is Radiohead's "No Surprises" music video.

3) Use the VHS styling or home video approach

A highly creative way to shoot a music video is to use a VHS styled or lo-fi home video approach. These videos have a retro look that stands out against slick, high-tech videos.

To shoot this kind of a video, you can use actual found footage (either your own or something you find elsewhere). Alternately, you can create footage that looks like it is found footage. You can shoot using retro equipment such as camcorders. Or shoot a video digitally, and retrograde the footage to make it appear as if it was shot in a VHS style.

Uzi’s “PPL Never Change” is a great example of a lo-fi music video. He features VHS-style cameos of other stars throughout.

4) Create a DIY music video around a theme

A short feature film created around the audio uses storytelling to capture an audience and make your music video stand out.

The theme you choose could be a narrative with a beginning, middle, and end. Or you could simply pick a visual motif that you feature over and again, keeping your audience waiting to see what happens next.

Musician Chris Robley talks about how he enlisted some friends and created a themed music video, shooting everything in reverse to appear to be defying gravity.

5) Create a music visualization video

The simplest way to get up and running with a music video is to create a music visualization video.

An online music visualization tool lets you make a music video without the effort and expense of shooting a video. In fact, many music visualizers offer a free music visualizer app that lets you make your own music video using just your song's audio.

Specterr, for example, lets you generate appealing shapes and cool effects and also customize them using its visualizer editor. You can create high-quality, appealing visualizations that render at 720p and 30 frames per second and then use these to post to YouTube and social media. Since the entire visualization is done online, you do not need access to expensive video editing software. You can make your first music video in less than five minutes!

How will you make your music video?

A music video is a great tool to make people notice your musical talent. There are several ways to create music videos, ranging from filming your video using techniques we presented above to using an online music visualizer such as Specterr. If you’re just starting out, you will find music visualization videos to be a very cost-effective way to generate a stunning music video.

If you try Specterr, share your video with us @SpecterrApp on Twitter!

Today’s music world is highly competitive. In 2019, Spotify was adding nearly 40,000 tracks daily. Music creators looking to carve out a name for themselves need to find ways to differentiate themselves from the competition.

An eye-catching music video can help make a great song stand out. If you’re looking to build a name for yourself, you can start with a free online music visualizer. We’ll introduce the basic concept of music visualization videos and then compare the free options offered by three providers: Specterr, Videobolt, and Renderforest.

What is an online music visualizer?

A music visualizer is software for an audio player that can generate animated imagery in real-time. The animations follow the tempo, rhythm, and loudness of the song being played. The patterns displayed appear synchronized with the audio and can range from a simple simulation of an oscilloscope’s display to complex composite effects.

An online visualizer extracts data from your song to create a visualization of the music. After the data extraction is complete, you need to put it in a format that can be animated either in 2D or 3D. You can do the entire process using a free music visualizer tool online. Using an online version means your computer doesn't have to do the heavy processing of video rendering.

What to look for in a free online music visualizer

You will find several music visualization tools or apps available for free online, but they fall into a wide range. Since you’ll be investing your time and effort creating animations for your music, you’ll want to choose the best option from the start.

Keep the following things in mind as you evaluate free online music visualizer tools:

• Video quality
• Ease of use
• Availability of video editor
• Limitations on exports

We’ll cover each of these points below for three of the best free online music visualizers you can find today: Specterr, Videobolt, and Renderforest.

A comparison of Specterr, Videobolt, and Renderforest

Video quality

Look carefully at the quality of the videos that a visualizer tool generates.

Some tools, like Renderforest, only make low-quality videos available in their free tier. Renderforest’s free music visualizer videos export at 360p, and logos and mockups render in low quality, too.

The free version of Specterr lets you make HD quality visualizations that are 720p and run at 30 frames per second. You’ll see intense and expressive movement for the visualizer, background, and particles.

Videobolt does not state the quality of video exports for its free version, though users say the paid version produces very good quality output. It’s important to note when reading user reviews that Videobolt is not primarily a music visualizer tool but rather a marketplace where people can find videographers and other graphics services as well. However, its music visualizers are still a popular option.

Ease of use

It’s also important for the online visualizer to be easy to use, including intuitive controls, live previews, and fast rendering speed.

Renderforest reviews say that animation effects are smooth, but uploading the video is often slow and it gets “jammed” during rendering. Specterr appears to render several times faster than other tools, with this review under its previous name Vizfly calling it a “speedy rendering engine that outputs videos very quickly.”

Specterr users appreciate its live video preview that lets you check out your visualization in real-time while you’re editing it. Other free online music visualizers don’t include this, which makes it much harder to experiment with options and see how they’ll turn out.

A staff member at Videobolt reports that its previews are 15 seconds long, so at least you don’t have to wait for the full render to see the effects of your changes. (Reviews have stated that “it’s a little slow rendering”.)

All three providers offer simple controls so you can customize your visualization easily. You don't need to go through lengthy tutorials — but if you need them, there are tips and instructions.

Video editor

Customization is where you can make your video stand out. Many free online music visualizers give you a set of templates to choose from. After selecting a template, you can customize some options, like text, images, and audio. This is what you’ll get with Renderforest, which limits the features you can access for free.

Specterr and Videobolt both offer a true visualizer editor for free. This lets you comprehensively edit the preset visualization to change colors, shape, movement, filters, particles, images, audio, and text if you wish.

Exports

A free online music visualizer is useful for two things: trying out the software before you upgrade to a paid version, or, if you find the right one, producing music videos that you can actually use without paying a dime. You’ll need to check out what the tool offers for exports if you’re looking for the second purpose.

Renderforest’s free version lets you create unlimited exports of videos up to 3 minutes long. The catch is that they are all low-quality. So while you can get a sense of how the editor works through the free trial, you’ll need to upgrade to a paid version if you want decent quality videos.

The free version of Specterr uses HD quality visualizations, and video exports can run up to 5 minutes in length. However, Specterr limits the number of videos you can create in a day to two.

Although Videobolt’s free online music visualizer tool gives you full access to the video editor features in the free version, reviews say you can access only one free template. This is disappointing considering that they have over 4,000, and it may limit your ability to create great videos for free.

The free version of all three tools generate videos with a watermark, which you can remove if you upgrade to a paid version.

Which free online music visualizer will help you build fans?

All three apps we’ve reviewed here offer advantages, depending on what you need them for. Specterr’s free music visualizer is the strongest of the three iIf you’re looking for a free visualizer that will yield music videos you can upload to YouTube and share with fans.

While Specterr hasn’t been around as long as many others, it offers a comprehensive editor with high-quality, fast exports even in its free version. Renderforest’s free version may be better suited only for evaluating it as a paid tool because of its low-quality exports. And Videobolt is a good bet if you’re looking for services that extend beyond music visualization, thanks to its marketplace and support for other types of visuals. It’s limitations like rendering speed may make it cumbersome for aspiring musicians looking to create and publish free music videos.

Try out Specterr and let us know what you think today.

This is an update for the video editor. Now you can easily change the position of the visualizer and text items. Additionally you can add and remove text items, and customize each item individually.

Visualizer Positioning

To change the visualizer position go to the Visualizer settings and then go to the Shape tab. You can find the position sliders near the bottom of the controls.

Text Controls

Text controls received a rework that allows you to control each individual text item and add your desired number of text items.  Similar to the visualizer, you can now move text items wherever you want. Use the anchor setting to get the perfect position.

- Oliver

Go to specterr.com to access the app.

Vizfly launched its online video editor on January 4th 2020. Since then thousands of users have created thousands of music videos using our tool. Thank you to everyone who's visited and supported the app!

As of July 15 2020 Vizfly has changed its name to Specterr (yes with 2 r's). It was a long process to pick a new name but we are very happy with the result.

Why did we change the name?

When it comes to renaming a company, the earlier the better. Our goal was never just to be an audio visualization company as Vizfly implies. Our goal is to help artists and creators get their creations seen and heard.

Right now our tool helps artists create videos for their music, but in the future we plan to offer additional products and participate more in the community. To that end we needed a less generic and less specific name.

Why Specterr?

We spent a lot of time considering the name. Nothing really clicked until Specterr came along. It's a reference to the spectrums that are so important to the product. The audio spectrum visualized by the color spectrum. Beyond that it's a great simple name that can encompass any set of products.

Also we get to have a have a cool ghost (or specter) as our logo. We'll have to name it one day.

What does the name change mean?

It means we've got a slick new logo and our website is now specterr.com instead of vizfly.com. Other than that there's no other big changes to worry about as part of the renaming.

- Oliver