SUPERNOVA

SUPERNOVA is a visual instrument driven by audio. Drop in a photo, a folder of photos or a video and a GPU engine samples it with 262,144 particles — a 512×512 grid — that move, glow and burst under an analysis of the sound: onsets, frequency bands and overall level, every frame.

It runs two ways. As a VST3 or AU plugin it sits on any track or bus in a DAW, and its audio path is a read-only tap: the output is bit-exact identical to the input, sample for sample. As a standalone macOS app it captures the Mac's own system audio with no virtual audio driver and no routing — Core Audio process taps on macOS 14.2 or later, ScreenCaptureKit on macOS 13 to 14.1 — so it reacts to whatever is playing, from a browser to another DAW.

Fifty worlds swap the physics, the geometry and the colour in one click; each one is a different force field. The particle field is composited in linear additive HDR and resolved through an ACES filmic tonemap, so highlights bloom and roll off instead of clipping to flat white. A Color Lab holds 17 look ramps computed in OKLab, and the subject can be lifted into a rotatable 3D cutout. MIDI notes fire events, so the visuals can be played in time from a keyboard.

For output, SUPERNOVA drives a window, fullscreen on any display, or Syphon straight into OBS, Resolume or VDMX. It also records to MP4 / H.264 with the audio muxed in sync, at a custom length from 1 to 600 seconds.

SUPERNOVA is released under the GNU AGPLv3. The code is free forever and anyone can build it; the ready-made installer is free to download until November 23, 2026 and paid after that (US$15 for the pack of eight OVNI plug-ins). macOS 11 or later, universal build for Apple Silicon and Intel; the standalone app's system-audio capture needs macOS 13 or later. No iLok, no account, no online activation, and the macOS installer is signed and notarized by Apple.