What makes a visualizer fractal
A fractal is a shape that contains smaller copies of itself: zoom in and the same structure returns. Benoit Mandelbrot named the idea in 1975, and the Mandelbrot and Julia sets, the Sierpinski triangle and the Menger sponge are the ones most people have seen (Wikipedia, Fractal). A spectrum bar draws the sound; a fractal visualizer draws an equation, and lets the sound change the equation.
That lineage runs through MilkDrop, the Winamp visualizer whose presets were equations with audio in their constants. Groovalizer runs projectM, MilkDrop’s open-source successor, compiled to WebAssembly, so the same kind of preset plays in a browser tab.
Two ways to get fractals here
The preset library. Among the 2,100+ presets are feedback fractals, folded symmetries, Julia jets and recursive zooms. Search them by name, or let Surprise me pick one. Play them from a file or a microphone; that part is free and needs no account.
Picture looks. The same list holds 151 fractal patterns that play a picture: endless zooms into the Mandelbrot and Julia sets, Newton iterations, Apollonian and Penrose folds, Droste zooms, Mobius lenses, gyroid shells. Each comes with a picture of its own. Add a photo, or take one with your camera, and yours plays through all of them while the music moves the fold. The Fractalize page walks through it.
Fractal music visualizers compared
| Tool | Runs | Fractals | Video export | Your own photo | Price |
|---|
| Groovalizer | Browser | 2,100+ presets, many fractal, plus 151 fractal picture looks | MP4 or WebM, 720p free with a watermark, 1080p on a bought video or Pro, 4K on Unlimited | Yes: a photo or a camera snapshot | Free at 720p; $4.99 a clean video; Pro $14.99/mo, Unlimited $29.99/mo |
| FRAX3D | Browser, or installed as an app | Eight genres of 3D fractal scenes | 1080p with a small watermark free; 4K, no watermark, on Pro | Not advertised | Free; Pro 49 euros one-time |
| Vortexia | Browser | Five families: Mandelbrot, Julia, Burning Ship, Tricorn, cubic Multibrot | Not advertised; built as a stream background for OBS and Twitch | Not advertised | Free with limits; from $4.99/mo |
| Fractal Forge Native | Windows 10 or 11 download | 53 fractal types, Mandelbrot to Barnsley fern | Yes, records the visualisation | Not advertised | Free |
| FractalBeats | Browser | Four screens: a fractal tunnel, a spectrum bloom, a Mandelbulb nebula and a mirror-symmetric bloom | Not advertised | Not advertised | Free |
Each row was read from the product’s own page in September 2026. “Not advertised” means the page said nothing about it. Terms change; check the tool before you rely on a row.
Music in the equation, not on the camera
Every frame, the engine measures bass, mids and treble and hands them to the preset as numbers. A preset written well puts those numbers inside the geometry: the fold angle, the zoom rate, the constant in the Julia map, the hue drift. The kick then changes the shape rather than shaking the view, which is the difference between a visual that breathes with a track and one that twitches at it.
The picture looks take the same signals, so a photo folded through a Mandelbox reacts the way a house preset does.
Free to watch, free to export at 720p
Playing any preset, fractal or otherwise, is free: upload a track or use the microphone, go fullscreen for a projector, and run it as long as you like with no account. A free account exports the video at 720p with a small watermark. A clean video is $4.99 on its own, or Pro makes 8 MP4 or WebM videos a month at up to 1080p, for $14.99 a month or $144 a year. Unlimited makes every video you want at up to 4K, for $29.99 a month or $240 a year.
Rendering happens on your machine, so a long video takes as long as your hardware takes, and your audio never leaves your device.
Which one to open
Open Fractal Forge if you are on Windows and want the largest menu of named fractal types in a desktop app. Open Vortexia if you want a Mandelbrot pulsing behind a Twitch stream. Open FractalBeats for a quick free fly-through with nothing to sign up for.
Open Groovalizer if you want the fractal to be your own picture, want it to move with the song rather than the clock, and want a video file at the end.