Liquid Glass fills the screen with a shifting field of rainbow color that melts, folds, and glints like light through moving glass. With Music Reactive on, your microphone drives how hard the field warps, how fast the colors cycle, and when sparkles and flashes fire, turning a screen into a moving, reactive light source for a party, stream, or display.
Before you start
- Graphics acceleration turned on in your browser. Liquid Glass is a WebGL shader; most modern browsers enable this by default. Without it the screen stays black.
- Microphone access, if you want it reactive. The effect asks for it only when you turn on Music Reactive, not on page load. Allow the prompt, or leave it off and the colors still move on their own, just at a steady, calmer pace.
- Music your microphone can actually hear, if you're using Music Reactive. The effect reads live mic input, not your system's audio output. Speakers in the room work; headphones do not.
Set it up
- Open the Liquid Glass effect on the screen you want to display it on.
- To make it respond to sound, open the Audio group in the Controls panel and turn on Music Reactive.
- Allow microphone access when your browser prompts you.
- Play music where the microphone can pick it up, and check the volume is loud enough for the mic to register it over room noise.
- Set Brightness to taste, then select Go Fullscreen.
You'll know it worked when the switch stays on after the permission prompt, and the field stops its slow, even drift and starts folding harder, cycling color faster, and throwing off small bright glints in time with the beat.
What each control does
| Control | Range | Default | What it changes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Music Reactive | On/Off | Off | Listens through your microphone and feeds bass, mid, treble, and beat strength into the shader. Louder, bassier moments fold the pattern harder and cycle the rainbow faster; beats add a brief bright flash and sparkling glints. Turning it off stops the microphone and leaves the field drifting on its own, steady and calm. |
| Brightness | 10–100 | 80 | Scales the whole shader's output. The main dial for "too dark" or "too washed out." It doesn't change the pattern or the colors, only how intense they read. |
There's no Color or Color Temperature control on this effect — the rainbow palette shifts on its own and isn't user-tunable.
Common setups
- Party or dance floor, speakers in the room. Music Reactive on, Brightness 90–100. The field folds hard and the colors chase the bass and beat closely.
- Ambient background for a stream or lobby screen. Music Reactive off, Brightness 60–70. A steady, slow-shifting rainbow that doesn't demand a microphone or compete for attention on camera.
- Laptop on headphones, no speakers available. Leave Music Reactive off — the built-in mic can't hear audio routed to headphones — and set Brightness to match the room. You still get the full moving color field, just without the beat response.
- Bright room during the day. Music Reactive on, Brightness 100. Push the ceiling so the colors still read clearly against ambient daylight.
Troubleshooting
The Music Reactive switch won't stay on, or reverts back on its own. Microphone access was denied or blocked. Check your browser's address bar for a blocked-microphone icon and allow access there, or check your operating system's privacy settings to confirm the browser can use the microphone, then turn Music Reactive on again.
The colors keep shifting but never react to the music playing. The microphone isn't hearing the audio. This happens on headphones, with the system muted, or with the volume too low for the mic to pick up over room noise. Switch to speakers, raise the volume, or move the microphone closer to the source.
The screen stays black and nothing appears at all. Graphics acceleration is most likely switched off in your browser. Turn it on in your browser's settings and confirm your graphics drivers are current. If it still won't render, Full Screen Light is a much simpler effect that works almost anywhere — open it to confirm the rest of the site works.
It still looks like a calm, gentle drift even with Music Reactive on and music playing. The mic is picking up sound but not much of it — quiet input keeps the warp and color shift close to their resting state. Turn the music up, move the microphone closer to the speaker, or reduce background noise competing with it.
The display stutters on an older laptop or integrated graphics. Liquid Glass is a single full-screen shader with no separate quality setting to lower. Close other tabs or apps that are competing for the graphics card, since that's usually what's using the GPU headroom the effect needs.
Next steps
For a more literal party centerpiece, try Disco Mode. For another audio-reactive visual with a different, more organic look, see Wavy Shells.