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Music visualization was pretty big in the late 90s, and you couldn't really open up Windows Media Player or Winamp without seeing G-Force or Advanced Visualization Studio (AVS). Nowadays, apps still offer visualizers but it just seems much cooler to show off your album art in something like Cover Flow. If you're feeling nostalgic though and are looking to bring music visualizers back into fashion you can start off in iTunes. This little tip found on macosxhints, allows you to use your iTunes visualizers as screensavers on your Mac. Here's how to do it:
After downloading a new visualizer, copy it and put it in ~/Library/Screen Savers. Open it up in Quartz Composer (you'll need to have Developer Tools to do this). In the Editor window, choose Editor> Edit Protocol Conformance. In the new screen that pops up, check off Screen Saver option and save the file. Now your iTunes visualizer will be your default screensaver, even if iTunes is off.
Now that you've managed to pull this off I can suggest a few visualizers that made it on Softonic, because they're the best you can get for Mac. Eyephedrine is an Open GL 3D visualizer with more than 75 effects. It also handles cover art and pictures. ArKaos Visualzer matches to the beats and bass of your tracks for some pretty smooth effects. My favorite has probably got to be GasLight though, as it lets you really customize your visualizer, adjusting movement, color and shapes. Finally, make sure to grab Ultragroovalicious, another OpenGL 3D visualizer with some funky effects.
And get this sweet visualizer: http://software.barbariangroup.com/magnetosphere/ Spacetastic distraction is amazing.
How do you make any of these awesome visualizers screen savers? I tried opening the downloded bundle files and opening them with quartz composer, but quartz composer doesn't recognize and can't open the files for me to modify. thanks.
Hi Albert. Did you make sure that you have Developer Tools installed? That should normally do the trick. Let me know if you're still having some trouble. Cheers, Cyril
i take it getting dev tools needs an ADC membership that cost t3h $$$'s?
no, it's on the mac osx install disk #2
I am still having trouble, It continuously says that it cannot open the file. I have developer tools installed and I am running mac os x 10.4.11
How about those who are running on Windows? I've been wanting the iTunes visualizer as a screen saver but never even messed with it. I see that this is more for those who are running on Mac OS', but again, how about those who have Windows?
How can i do this with windows???!
I don't get this either. I have a magnetosphere.bundle file, and neither it or any of its contents can be opened by quartz composer. I have the Developers Tools. What's the story? Do I need a different (.qtz) file to start with?