Free while in beta·v0.1.8
Your hands,made light
INT-Halo is a MIDI visualizer for piano and keyboard: it turns what you play into a light show on screen. Live, as you play, with nothing to edit afterwards.
Why it exists
You already have the footage. What you do not have is the time.
Recording the POV of your hands is the easy part. The work starts afterwards.
Without INT-Halo
- You record the POV and end up with a flat image.
- You open the editor to hunt for an effect that fits the music.
- You sync it by hand, hit by hit.
- You export, it does not quite convince you, and you start over.
With INT-Halo
- You open the plugin and play.
- The visual responds to every note the instant you hit it.
- The sync is exact: it comes from your MIDI, not from your eye.
- You trim the recording and it is ready to post.
That sits behind the name: I Need Time.
Two ways to use it
For the camera, or for the stage
The same program solves two different jobs. Pick yours.
The clip comes out in one take
Full screen, no borders, no menus, in the vertical format social platforms ask for. The sync comes from your MIDI, so there is nothing to line up afterwards.
- Seven fixed resolutions, vertical ones included.
- Hit F and you are already full screen.
- Record with OBS, trim, and the clip is ready.
Plug it into the projector and it runs itself
The standalone app goes properly full screen: extend your display to the projector, move the window there and hit F. No video software needed.
- Locks to project tempo, or to tap tempo with the T key.
- 23 scenes and 17 presets, one key away.
- Take your hands off and the screen carries on: it never goes dead.
- Runs on a laptop with no graphics card.
What it does not do yet: the output is the program window. There is no projection window separate from the control window, and no output to VJ software. Both are on the way.
Get started
Three steps and you are recording
No setup, no account, no half-hour tutorial.
Install it
Double-click the installer and hit next. It puts the plugin exactly where your music software will find it on its own.
Plug in your keyboard
Any MIDI controller works. It gets detected on its own, even if you connect it after opening the app. No keyboard around? Try it with your mouse.
Hit F and record
Full screen, no borders, no menus. Record with OBS in vertical and you have a clip ready to post.
23 scenes
A different visual every time you open it
Every scene is its own world and all of them react to what you play. Four of them you can try right here, with nothing installed.
00OndasEvery note is born as a wave that spreads out. Low notes to the left, high notes to the right.
- Try it here
01Túnel NeónAn endless tunnel racing to the vanishing point. Each note drops a ring that travels away; chords speed up the flight.
02SynthwaveA neon grid running to a sun on the horizon. Notes set the horizon line alight.
03MandalaHypnotic radial symmetry: every note blooms into a petal of the mandala.
- Try it here
04Aurora LíquidaAurora curtains rippling upward. Held notes light up their column; chords widen the curtain.
05Gel PopGel droplets that merge when you hold notes. Every hit releases a soft pop ring.
06BeatburstEvery hit detonates a supernova with core, shockwave and rays. Chords stack into bigger blasts.
- Try it here
07Note HighwayNotes travel down 12 piano-roll lanes. Hits drop blocks; held notes grow into bars.
08Ion SilkA rippling sheet of 3D silk. Every note dents it, and pitch bend swings the camera.
09Aurora GardenEvery key plants light: hold for flowering stems, strike for radial blooms. The garden fills up and stays.
10Groove RibbonA ribbon running at tempo, pulsing on every beat. Each note drops in like a bead of light.
- Try it here
11Fluido IonA real fluid simulated on the graphics card. Every hit releases a swirl of ink; held notes a jet.
12Reaction-DiffusionA living organism that grows and mutates on its own. Each note seeds new life; chords shift the pattern.
13Hypno FeedbackAn infinite zoom tunnel. Each note throws sparks that spiral away into the depths.
14Ring BreakerA game: rings that shatter with every note. Playing fast builds your combo. You cannot lose.
15CymaticA Chladni plate: each note defines a standing wave figure and the light gathers along the nodal lines.
16Ion JellyA blob of jelly that wobbles when you strike it. Chords set the whole thing shaking.
17Ion HoleA gravity well. Every note releases matter that spirals inward and feeds a glowing accretion disc.
18Curl SmokeVolumetric smoke rising and curling. Each note puffs out colour that drifts along the flow.
19Chord BloomA cloud of points on a sphere that blooms with chords: the more notes together, the more intricate the flower.
20SpectralA circular 3D equalizer. Each bar rises with the notes from that region of the keyboard.
21Ion OrbsA physics toy: every note drops an orb that falls, bounces and collides with the rest.
22Ion SmokeSmoke made of hundreds of particles. Each note puffs out a cloud that curls into eddies as it fades.
What the engine handles
Five decisions you do not have to make
Underneath the visual there is an engine with one job: making sure the take comes out well. You play; it handles the rest.
Continuity
Stop playing and the scene carries on by itself, in the same key. When you come back, it steps aside and hands control over.
Tension and release
Hold a note and the screen gathers energy. Let it go and it bursts. It is the gesture that makes a passage look deliberate.
Openings and endings
The first note after a silence comes in with a flourish. When you stop, the scene closes itself instead of cutting dead.
Moments that do not repeat
Every so often a golden bloom shows up that nobody asked for. It is what keeps a viewer watching to see if it happens again.
Last-second rescue
When an intense passage is about to fade out, a flash lifts it. The ending does not deflate.
Three flashes per second. Always.
A limiter keeps flashes below the risk threshold for photosensitive people. It is not a setting: it cannot be switched off. On a big screen or on a stage, that matters.
For every level
Works the same whether it is your first plugin or you live inside a DAW
Open the app and go
INT-Halo ships with its own application: you do not need any music software, and you do not need to know what a plugin is. Open it, plug in a keyboard, and you are looking at light.
- No sound card needed, no strange drivers.
- You do not even need a keyboard: try it with your mouse.
- Every control is visible, as buttons. Nothing to memorise.
- Presets come ready-made: hit P and cycle through looks.
It is a real VST3
Load it as an instrument in any DAW that supports VST3. It produces no audio on purpose, so it sits happily alongside your real instrument on another track.
- 18 parameters exposed and automatable from the host.
- Syncs to project tempo, or to tap tempo if you prefer.
- Everything you tweak is saved with the project.
- It also runs as a standalone app next to your DAW, even with ASIO in exclusive mode.
In FL Studio you need to turn off "Allow smart disable" for this plugin: since it produces no sound, FL would shut it down on its own.
On the way
What it does not do yet
INT-Halo is under active development. None of this is ready, and we would rather say so than have you go looking for it.
Reacting to audio
Today it responds to the notes you play. Having it respond to the music itself — what you would need if you do not play MIDI — is designed but not built.
A separate projection window
Keeping the controls on your screen and sending only the clean visual to the projector, without one covering the other.
Output to VJ software
Sending the image to another program over NDI or Spout, to fold it into a bigger setup.
Learning your controls
Mapping the knobs and faders of your controller to whatever you want, and saving your own presets.
Vertical recording without OBS
Having the program export the clip in 9:16 itself, without depending on other software to capture it.
Tick the box when you download and we will tell you as each one lands.
Download
Take it, free
Leave us your name and email and we will send you the download link right away.
What you are downloading
- Version
- 0.1.8
- Windows 10 or 11, 64-bit
- Installer of
- 4.7 MB
- VST3 plugin + standalone app
- No dependencies: nothing else to install
The first time, Windows will say it "protected your PC": click "More info" then "Run anyway".
FAQ
What everybody asks
Is it really free, or is there fine print?
It is free for as long as the beta lasts, with no usage limit and no watermark. INT-Halo is under active development and what we need right now is real people using it and telling us what breaks. No card required, no locked features.
Windows says it protected my PC. Is it a virus?
No. That warning is not a virus detection: Windows shows it for any program that has not built up a reputation yet, meaning it has not seen it enough times to recognise it. Click "More info" then "Run anyway". If you would rather check for yourself, the installer always downloads from INT's public GitHub repository, so you can see exactly where it comes from.
My DAW cannot find the plugin.
The VST3 has to live in C:\Program Files\Common Files\VST3, which is the only folder the standard allows. The installer puts it there for you. If it still does not appear, rescan your plugins from the DAW. In FL Studio: Options → Manage plugins → Find more plugins.
I loaded it but it does not react to what I play.
If you are in the standalone app, look at the top bar: it should show your keyboard’s name. If it says no keyboard, plug it in and wait a couple of seconds. If you are in a DAW, check that the INT-Halo track is receiving MIDI, and in FL Studio that "Allow smart disable" is off for this plugin: since INT-Halo produces no sound, FL shuts it down thinking it is idle.
My PC is old and has no graphics card.
It still runs. INT-Halo has a fallback mode that draws on the processor when no graphics card is available. The performance budget is calculated for an integrated Intel HD 620, which is to say an office laptop.
Do I need a specific MIDI keyboard?
No. Any MIDI controller from any brand works. And if you have none, you can try it with your mouse: hold to sustain a note, drag to pitch bend.
Does it work on Mac or Linux?
Not for now. There is only a build for 64-bit Windows 10 and 11. No date for other platforms.
What do you do with my email?
It is used to send you the download link and, if you ticked the box, to tell you when a new version is out. Nothing else. We do not pass it to anyone and we do not use it for anything else, and you can unsubscribe with one click from any email.
INT Plugins
INT-Halo is the first one
There are nine audio plugins in development under the same name. No dates yet: each one ships when it is genuinely ready.
- INT-TidyIn development
- INT-EvenIn development
- INT-EternityIn development
- INT-EchoIn development
- INT-SpacesIn development
- INT-WhisperIn development
- INT-HushIn development
- INT-AlignIn development
- INT-LoopIn development
Tick the box when you download and we will tell you when the next one lands.
Shall we see what comes out?
Download it, plug in your keyboard, and record your first clip in five minutes.
Download free