Music visualizer for YouTube Shorts, TikTok and Reels: vertical 9:16 clips

A full-length visualizer video and a short vertical clip are different jobs. On YouTube a 16:9 video can take its time. In a Shorts, TikTok or Reels feed, people decide in the first second or two whether to keep watching, the screen is tall and narrow, and the clip is a fraction of the song. This guide is about that second job: turning the best part of your track into a vertical clip that moves with the music from the very first beat.

Everything below happens in Chrome with Deus, a free extension, using an audio file you own. If you want a full-length 16:9 video for a YouTube upload, see how to make a music visualizer video for YouTube instead.

1. Cut the hook before you render

Deus renders the whole audio file you give it. For a short clip, that means the editing happens first: open the track in any audio editor and export only the part you want people to hear.

• Start right before the payoff. The drop, the chorus, the riff people hum. One bar of build-up is enough; a long intro is where viewers scroll away.
• Start on a beat. Cut a few milliseconds before a kick drum so the first frame already has something to react to.
• End cleanly. A short fade-out, or a cut at the end of a phrase, so a looping clip doesn't click.

Check the current length limits of the platform you post to; they change, and a shorter clip is usually the safer bet anyway.

2. Find a preset that hits hard on the bass

Every Deus preset reacts to bass, mids and treble, and to kicks, snares and hi-hats separately. But some go wild on a kick and some drift calmly, and for a short clip you want the first group. The quickest way to find out is to watch them with your own track:

1. Play your hook in any Chrome tab (open the audio file in the browser, or play it from wherever you host it).
2. Click the Deus icon and choose Visualize this tab.
3. Flip through presets with ← and →, or open the catalog with P and sort by Top rated.
4. Note the ones where the first kick is obvious. S opens Tune, where many presets let you change colours, speed and how hard they react to the beat.

Things that work well on a phone screen: shapes centred in the frame (tunnels, orbs, kaleidoscopes), high contrast, and strong colour. Fine detail at the edges gets lost under the platform's buttons and captions.

3. Render in 9:16

1. In the visualizer, open Render… from the menu at the top left.
2. Under Track, choose the hook you exported. The file stays on your computer; the video is rendered on your device.
3. Set Format to 9:16.
4. Pick Quality: 1080p, 1440p or 4K. 1080p is the safe default for vertical clips and renders fastest; go higher if you plan to crop or edit the clip further.
5. Pick a Frame rate: 30 or 60 fps. 60 fps makes fast tunnels and flashes look smoother on a phone.
6. Choose the Background: Black, or Theme to use the colours of your current Deus theme.
7. Press Render video, then choose where to save the MP4 in the export window. If Chrome blocks that window, allow pop-ups for Deus and try again.

4. A preset chain, even for 20 seconds

A preset chain is usually pitched at long tracks, but it works for short clips too. Turn on Use a preset chain and split the timeline into two or three sections: a calmer visual for the build-up, then a switch exactly on the drop. Drag the switch point to where the drop lands and set Smooth switch to Off or a very short blend, so the change hits at the same moment as the beat. A cut on the drop is one of the simplest ways to make a short clip feel edited.

5. Make a few versions

Short-form feeds reward testing. Rendering is local and free, so it costs only time to make the same hook with two or three different presets, or with a black background and a theme background, and see which one keeps people watching. The same 20 seconds can also go out as a 1:1 post.

Free or Pro?

Vertical rendering is free, at every quality and frame rate. On the Free plan, videos carry a small Deus watermark. Deus Pro, a one-time purchase, renders without it.

What Deus doesn't do

• It doesn't record Spotify, YouTube or other streaming services. Render from an audio file you have the right to use.
• It doesn't upload or post the clip for you. You get an MP4 to upload yourself.
• It doesn't add text, lyrics or captions. Add those in the platform's own editor or in a video editor.

More ideas

Tracks written for an oscilloscope look striking in a tall frame with the XY Oscilloscope preset. For a retro look, try the MilkDrop presets. And if you write shaders, Deus Studio can preview your own preset in 9:16 before you render it.

Deus is an independent extension and is not affiliated with YouTube, TikTok or Instagram.