7 New After Effects Audio Spectrum Templates For 2025

Music visualization is an art form that combines visual arts and music. Visual art is used to decorate space and music is used to decorate time. By combining the two elements together, we can truly immerse ourselves in the emotions created by the sound and visual elements. It allows musical and digital artists to create new forms of expression by combining different senses in a way that was never possible before software like Adobe After Effects even existed.

Sounds complicated right? Well, one way to create music visualization in AE even if you're a beginner is by using templates. These customizable and dynamic sound spectrum templates provide an extra layer of visual interest to your content, creating visually stunning music videos or promotional content that will stand out from the crowd.

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Audio Waveform Visualizer For Adobe After Effects

Here’s how to visualize adobe after effects audio waveform in Real-time using 2 FREE and 5 paid audio spectrum templates. We've curated these 7 video templates to help you create a sound visualizer for your song within a few minutes. All you need to do is replace the placeholder text with your own, then import and connect your audio. You may also want to edit the background layers and other effects included in the composition, but that’s just optional.

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3D Music Visualizer in Your Video v2.0

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This unique 3D audio visualizer attaches to any surface! simply create a few tracking points, then link it to the composition to see it work. If you're using FCPX, you can download other versions of this audio visualizers template here. It features a clean and modern template that works well for a variety of content types. It's better to use this template as part of a larger music video, rather than on it's own. If you know how to, we'd suggest you create a 3D environment inside of Blender, then motion track this visualizer to a 3D or 2D plane you've just created.

How The Audio Waveform Visualization Is Created In This Template

If you do not want to spend any money on premium templates, you can simply make your own with no plugins. Just use the "audio spectrum" effect which is found natively within the program. You'll then need to set 3D motion tracking points somewhere in your scene to attach the visualizer to. Justin Odisho has created a great tutorial on how to create the visualizer. We'd highly recommend you watch this tutorial to create the first part of the 3D spectrum on your own.

With its impressive set of 13 Music Visualizer Presets, this versatile tool quickly became our go-to resource for crafting engaging music videos, podcast visuals, and more.

The Full HD (1920x1080) resolution option ensures every project we complete is crisp, clear, and professionally polished. We particularly appreciated the Full Color Control feature which gave us the freedom to tweak and refine the visual aesthetic of our projects according to the tone and mood of our audio tracks.

But perhaps what we love most about this template is its user-friendly nature. The Drag and Drop Music feature has made incorporating our soundtracks a breeze. We frequently update our content, and this feature has saved us countless hours over the past few months.

Another invaluable asset is the Easy Change Text feature, allowing us to seamlessly integrate personalized messages and call-to-actions into our videos. We found this especially useful when creating promotional content for our latest album release.

The package includes a comprehensive Video Tutorial. This tutorial, divided into Quick and Additional Customization sections, has guided us through the initial setup and more complex customizations. It also provides tips for Faster Rendering, which greatly enhances our workflow efficiency.

Compatibility issues? None with this template. It's designed to work with After Effects CS6 or above, and it doesn't require any additional plugins. Its Universal Expressions feature has been a game-changer for us, making it compatible with all language versions of After Effects. This flexibility has allowed our international team members to contribute to our projects without any language barriers.

One of the more impressive aspects of this template is its ability to handle projects with a duration of up to 1 hour. This has been critical for us when creating long-form content like full album visualizations and podcast episodes.

Included in the package are 3 Example Projects with footage. These examples have been particularly insightful for us, demonstrating the potential of the template and providing inspiration for our own creations.

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3 Audio Waveform Visualizations (It's A Audio Visualizer Template Free Download)

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This bundle includes 3 fully customizable sound waveform templates which can be resized to any resolution, just like the other templates in this pack. Use in combination with a prism effect for the most aesthetic sound spectrum for your video!

In our studio, we've found this Audio Visualizer to be a game-changer, employing it extensively for the past six months on various projects. It has become an integral part of our post-production process, helping us to create more engaging content.

Features

• Seamless Integration: The template's seamless integration with After Effects has made our workflow smooth and efficient. We've been able to import our music tracks with ease, and the template responds intuitively to the rhythm and beats of our audio.
• Highly Customizable: One of the features we absolutely love about this template is its high customizability. We've been able overall to tailor the colors, shapes, and sizes of the waveforms to match our brand's aesthetic. This feature has given us the freedom to make each project unique and reflective of our creative vision.
• Dynamic Responsiveness: The template's dynamic responsiveness to the audio input is genuinely remarkable. We've observed how the waveforms react and change according to the different frequencies in our music, creating visually stunning and accurate representations of our sound.
• Easy to Use: Even though we are seasoned After Effects users, we've found that the template is easy to navigate, even for beginners. We've been able to guide our interns, who are just starting with After Effects, to use the template effectively.
• Fast Rendering: With our tight project timelines, the template's fast rendering times have been a lifesaver. We've noticed that even with complex audio tracks and custom settings, we've been able to render our projects much quicker than with other templates we've used before.

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After Effects Audio Spectrum Plugin

Download The #1 After Effects Music Visualizer Template

This drag and drop plugin created by AEJuice lets you design Audio spectrums for your song in just a few clicks! Unlike other templates featured on this list, AEjuice's audio spectrum after effects plugin come with an extension to help you manage all your files. That's another reason why it's really worth the price!

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Sound Visualization Social Media Kit (FREE)

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Create A Sound Waveform Effect in less than 5 Minutes! This template may require several hours of manual editing as it precisely synchronizes each musical element with an on-screen effect.

Using this template, you can individually synchronize kicks, snares, high hats, melody, chord progression and other music timeline elements to visual elements inside of After Effects. It would really help to use MIDI files to identify where each note sits on the timeline. Simply open them up in FL Studio, Ableton or any other DAW and simply transfer the time codes from the soundtrack into After Effects. If this seems like too much effort, you also have the option to use the audio waveform effect over the background to create a more simple but less aesthetic music visualizer effect.

Features:

• clean typography
• minimalistic design
• text animation
• customizable background
• precise and manual sound synchronization

You can use this audio visualizer as a background for any music project, but just remember to customize the text and other background layers if necessary. You can simply double click on the pre-comp which is labeled “background” to add in your own image/video to us instead of the placeholder.

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After Effects Audio Visualizer Tool For Music Producers

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Compared to the V1 audio visualization template, this template version is more simple but it looks just as good. The only difference is that this music visualizer does not synchronize individual layers and effects to the beats of a song, instead it uses a waveform effect that follows the loudness.

Features:

• Custom background
• Colorful with plenty of effect
• Easier to edit compared to the V1

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Adobe After Effects Audio Visualizer Template

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If you're looking for more cool audio spectrum effects for After Effects and/or Premiere Pro, then you should try out one of these custom templates. These templates are easier to use than the two listed above. That’s because they include on-screen guides which tell you exactly how to use them.

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Audio Spectrum After Effects Template V.5

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The final template on our list offers a range of customization options to adjust everything from the color scheme to the audio response. Its sleek design and responsive layout make it a great choice for designing a visualizer that responds similarly to the one featured on the NCS music channel.

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How Do You Make An Audio Spectrum In After Effects?

We've gone over some of the best templates for creating a music visualizer, so know were going to show you how you can create one of your own in under 5 minutes!

1. Create a composition and import your audio

Once you've opened up After Effects and imported your footage and music, create a new composition. We recommend 1080p resolution and 30FPS, but you can adjust this to your preference depending on your computer's performance and video requirements.

2. Generate the spectrum shape

Next, make a new solid by going to Layer > New > Solid. With the solid selected, go to Effect > Generate > Audio Spectrum. In the Audio Spectrum settings, change the Audio Layer to the audio in the composition.

You can now adjust your start and end frequencies based on your own audio and taste, but here's what we recommend:

• Increase the Frequency Bands to anywhere between 400 to 600 and the Thickness to 5.73 to achieve a solid shape.
• Drop the Maximum Height to 430 or 530 to reduce the distance threshold.
• Increase the Audio Duration to 130 to make the movements of the spectrum less jarring.
• Change the Hue Interpolation to 50 degrees, which gives the spectrum a slight gradient, and adjust the inside and outside colors to your liking.
• Finally, change the Side Options to Side A so that the spectrum only animates upwards.

3. Create a second spectrum

This step is optional, but if you want to make your spectrum look better, then we suggest you try this technique but use a different color for the second spectrum layer.

To create a second spectrum layer, all you need to is duplicate the first one and rename it. Adjust the settings of this secondary spectrum so it differentiates in behavior compared to the first one.

Here are the exact settings we chose for the second spectrum:

• Maximum Height was set to 900 and we adjusted the inside and outside colors to pink and purple so it can be noticed behind the first spectrum.
• We dragged Spectrum 2 below Spectrum 1.
• We also created a third spectrum by duplicating one of the spectrums again and placed it below the other two. this third spectrum had the greatest height and was set to display the colors blue and red.

4. Add a background

To make things simple, first pre-compose the audio spectrum layers and drag the pre-comp into a new composition. To do this, select all the layers in the composition (including the audio) and go to Layer > Precompose. Name the new composition anything you like to identify it and create the pre-comp.

To add a background, drag the pre-composed audio spectrum into a new composition and add in your own background media, or you can make your own simple one by adding the color gradient effect to a blank solid layer.

5. Add effects

Time to get creative and customize your audio spectrum by adding some effects and animations. We added a hint of glow to ours. Here's how you can do it too:

Add Gaussian blur to one of the secondary spectrum layers and in the Gaussian Blur settings, set the Blurriness to 27. Then change the blending mode of the Glow layer to Add and the opacity to anywhere over 44%.

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FAQ

How do you use audio spectrum in After Effects?

With our experience, first, we start by creating a new composition in After Effects. Next, we add our audio file to the timeline. From the menu, we then select Effect > Generate > Audio Spectrum. In the effect settings, we select the audio layer as the audio source. By tinkering with the 'Start Frequency', 'End Frequency', and 'Frequency Bands' settings, we're able overall to shape how the spectrum visualizes the sound. Don't forget to press the 'Composite on Original' button to see the spectrum on top of your original video or image.

What is audio visualizer or spectrum in After Effects?

An audio visualizer or spectrum is a tool in After Effects that generates a visual representation of sound frequencies. It creates a dynamic, animated 'spectrum' that moves and changes in response to your audio track. The beauty of this tool is that it brings our audio to life, creating a vibrant, engaging visual that really connects with our audience.

How do I make audio spectrum smoother in Adobe After Effects?

To make the audio spectrum smoother in After Effects, we typically increase the 'Frequency Bands' within the Audio Spectrum effect settings. This will create more bands to represent the sound, which results in a smoother appearance. We also adjust the 'Maximum Height' and 'Thickness' settings to make the bands taller and wider. Lastly, we add a 'Gaussian Blur' effect to make the bands blend into each other more seamlessly.

What is audio visualizer or spectrum in After Effects?

As we've mentioned, an audio visualizer or spectrum in After Effects is a powerful tool that creates a visual representation of sound frequencies. It's a dynamic, animated effect that brings sound to life in a visually engaging way. It's an absolute gem for us, as it allows us to enhance our music and sound-based projects with vibrant, responsive visuals.

After Effects Audio Spectrum Vs Audio Waveform - What's The Difference?

While both Audio Spectrum and Audio Waveform are tools in After Effects that visualize sound, they do so in different ways. The Audio Spectrum creates a dynamic, animated spectrum that responds to the frequencies in our audio, showing the full range of sound in a colorful, engaging way. On the other hand, the Audio Waveform visualizes the volume of the sound over time, showing the 'peaks' and 'troughs' of the sound waves. In our projects, we use both, depending on the visual effect we want to create.

How do I find the wavelength of audio in After Effects?

Completely unrelated to audio spectrums, but in After Effects, we don't typically find the 'wavelength' of audio as such. Instead, we visualize the sound using the Audio Spectrum or Audio Waveform effects. These tools show us how the sound changes over time - either by visualizing the different frequencies present in the sound (Audio Spectrum) or by showing the volume of the sound (Audio Waveform). These visual representations give us a sense of the 'wavelength' or rhythm of the sound, helping us to understand and work with our audio in a more visual way.

Audio Visualizer After Effects Projects - Which One To Choose?

That concludes our list of the 7 best After Effects visualizer templates. If you're unsure which one to choose, we'd recommend you try the samples of each one, or purchase a collection pack to try a few different styles. If you're looking for more templates, or the ones on this list didn't suit your needs, you can simply follow the link to each of the templates on this list to access the Motion Array, VideoHive and Envato Elements collection of audio visualizer templates for after effects. While Envato Elements and Motion Array both offer free downloads with any subscription, VideoHive will require you to purchase templates individually.