Effect Stacks in Resolume

If you've been throwing effects at clips and hoping something sticks, this is for you. Effect stacks are one of the most valuable assets a VJ can build — but going in blind makes it a frustrating grind that relies on luck. This page walks through the workflow I developed over years so you can fast-track building stacks that fit your own style.

Prefer to watch? Here's the full walkthrough — keep scrolling for the written version.

Why Effect Stacks Matter

For me, effect stacks have been the most valuable thing I've held close throughout my career. They've also been the thing I most wanted to give away once we started the VJ Academy — switching my perception from safeguarding knowledge to actually teaching it. Rob and I have given out a lot of stacks at this point, but until now we hadn't really explained the workflow and thought process behind them.

Without a process, effect stacks are a grind. With one, they become one of the most fun things to build in Resolume. The goal of this page is to give you the framework I use.

The Four Uses for Effect Stacks

Knowing what you're building toward changes which effects you reach for. Keep these four uses in mind as you build:

1. Masks

Sources like the Shaper give you easy white-and-black generative visuals. That's exactly what you want for masks — to make shaders pop, blend multiple clips together, or carve out negative space.

2. Overlay Effects

Effects laid on top of your clips. With audio reactivity baked in, this adds real flare to whatever you've already got playing.

3. Background Visuals

If you've got a clip with an alpha channel, an effect stack sitting behind it can add depth without competing for attention.

4. Generative Main Visuals

My favorite to build. These take up the whole screen, lean audio-reactive, move fast, and become the centerpiece. One MIDI button can fire ten effects at once and turn an otherwise static clip into a full performance element.

The Framework: Generator → Foundation → Aesthetics

This isn't a hard rule — effects don't always live in one category — but thinking in these three layers gives you a roadmap instead of random throwing.

Generator (the movement)

What you start with. Generates the speed, the movement, the direction. Sources, ISF shaders, shader toys — there's a ton of free content online and we drop a bunch in the academy. The Shaper source is a recent favorite — easy looks, big payoff.

A note on terminology: some folks would call this "sources." I want to reserve "sources" specifically for Resolume's Sources tab. When I say generator, I mean whatever's driving the movement at the bottom of the stack.

Foundation (the style)

This is your style driver. Effects in this layer push the visual into a look. Some I reach for constantly:

  • Edge detection
  • Hexagon pixelation
  • Voronoi glitch
  • ASCII
  • Triangulate
  • Feedback (switch hitter — also great in aesthetics)

Glitch effects, distort, stylized treatments — anything that takes raw movement and gives it character.

Aesthetics (the polish)

The final tweaks. Some examples:

  • Echo Trace / Trails — easing. If the stack is too jumpy, this smooths it out.
  • Pixel Sorting — great place to add more audio activity.
  • Bright/Contrast — if you're building a mask and want true blacks and true whites, this is where to push them.
  • Corner Color Tint — controlling color themes. One of my most-used effects for keeping a palette consistent.
  • Transform — the underrated utility. Some effects and plugins flip your content. Throw the Transform effect at the very bottom of the stack, set Y and Z rotation to 180°, and it flips it back perfectly.

Workflow Habits Worth Stealing

Bypass > Delete

While building, I bypass effects far more than I delete them. If I've customized parameters or added external FFT, I don't want to lose that work just because I'm trying a different direction. Bypass keeps the effect (and your tuning) one click away.

Duplicate Before Hierarchy Changes

If a stack is already working, duplicate it before you start moving effects around. That way you don't lose the look while you're chasing the next one.

Copy & Paste Effects

Right-click an effect stack → Copy Effects → go to a new generator or stack → right-click → Paste Effects. Instant transplant. One of my favorite recent workflow upgrades.

External FFT, Driven by Ear

Put on music, find a parameter, and just move it back and forth with your mouse to the beat. If it feels right, that's your signal to add external FFT to that parameter and chase it further. Your ear knows before your eyes do.

Duplicate Effects, Not Just Stacks

If you like how one Echo Trace looks, sometimes adding a second one further down the chain gives you a whole new look. Worth trying with feedback, color tints, anything you've already tuned.

A 10-Effect Stack — Walkthrough

Here's a real stack I built recently, in the order the effects sit. Use it as a template, not a rulebook.

  1. Shaper — generator. Rectangle, size on a timeline. Adjust speed and parameters to taste.
  2. Dilate — too skinny. Dilate's spread parameter, tied to audio activity, fattens it up.
  3. Linear Cloner — multiplies what's already working. Starts giving the look more density and the straight-line structure that shows up later.
  4. Hexagon Pixelation — moving into foundation / aesthetics. Hex shape characters take over.
  5. Pixelation — adds blur on the sides. The hex was a little too flat on its own.
  6. Circular Screen — punches up the whites and blacks without losing the pixelation underneath.
  7. Echo Trace — first easing pass. Opacity barely jumping — basically off until the music hits.
  8. Edge Detection — turns the whole thing into outlines. The straight lines from the linear cloner really show up here.
  9. Echo Trace #2 — duplicate of step 7 further down the chain. Adds more softness and easing.
  10. Corner Color Tint — rotation angle tied to external FFT so the color theme rotates with audio.

+ Transform at the very bottom — with Y and Z at 180° to flip the output back to right-side-up. Some plugins and effects (in my case Resolume 7.19) will invert the visual when used as an overlay; this fixes it.

Total: 10 effects + 1 transform. The full stack is dropped in the classroom for VJ Academy members to scoop up.

Grab the Stack Inside the Academy

Got a different workflow that works for you? Drop it in the YouTube comments or email vjacademy@outlook.com. Always looking to refine this.