Surprise me, auto-cycle and favorites

Ways to discover looks and keep things changing without touching anything.

Surprise me

Surprise me at the top of the Scene tab (or ⇧ R) builds a random new look in one step: a full-screen visualization, often a shapes-and-particles layer over it, a new palette, varied settings, and sometimes trails or a kaleidoscope. Your transition, LFOs and motion settings are kept.

Press it again for another; undo (⌘ Z / Ctrl Z) goes back. When you find one you like, favorite it.

Surprise me only picks visualizations that are allowed in random picks — see Managing visualizations. MilkDrop presets join in if you turn on Settings → Transitions & auto-pilot → Include MilkDrop presets.

Auto-cycle

In the Scene tab, Auto-cycle changes things for you on the beat:

• Visualizations (selected layer) — the selected layer gets another visualization of the same kind (full-screen for full-screen, shapes for shapes).
• Palettes — the overall palette moves on.

Choose how often (every 1–32 bars) and the order (shuffle or in order). Changes crossfade on the beat; without a beat they happen on time instead (about two seconds per bar). Any change you make yourself restarts the count. V turns auto-cycle on and off.

Favorites

Press Favorite in the Scene tab (or F) to save what's on screen; ⇧ F takes it out of your favorites. Each key only ever does its one thing, so pressing it twice is harmless. If it's an unchanged preset, it's simply marked as a favorite; otherwise it's saved as a new one, named after its visualizations and palette (like Kali Zoom + Beat Rings · Ocean), with a thumbnail.

• There's no limit, and favorites don't use bank slots.
• Find them in Presets → Favorites, and in the strip along the bottom (J).
• Q and E step through them.
• Press again on a favorite to un-favorite it (it stays in the library).
• Auto-pilot can play from your favorites.

Auto-pilot

Auto-pilot changes whole presets with the music. Turn it on in the Presets tab (or C, for cruise control). Its options are in Settings → Transitions & auto-pilot (they appear once auto-pilot is on):

Setting	What it does
Change every	Bars between changes (4–64).
Change on drops & breakdowns	Also change when a drop or breakdown is detected.
Pick presets	In order, shuffle, or match the mood (prefers presets whose energy suits the music).
From	The current bank, all presets, or your favorites.
Pause after manual change	How many phrases to wait after you change something yourself.

Each change uses the incoming preset's own transition, so it lands on the beat or the phrase.

Auto-pilot and auto-cycle pause while preview mode is on, since you're choosing what goes live.