Introduction

Medussa was born from one idea: turning MIDI events into an expressive, customizable visual experience, with special attention to the piano and other melodic instruments. The original goal was to import a MIDI file and set up different visualizers to explore new ways of representing music.

From the start, customization was essential: being able to adjust colors, sizes, density, speed, brightness and other parameters to give each performance its own visual identity. The first visualizer was Particles; Curves / Plexus and Water Waves came later. In Visualization you can learn their controls and combine them with the keyboard and the note waterfall.

So you don't always start from scratch, each visualizer saves its settings as presets, and Appearance Profiles bundle a complete look —layers, colors, background, floor and glow— into a single card.

Over time, Medussa went from visualizing files to also showing the notes of a connected MIDI device, such as a digital piano. From there, tools were added to record performances, edit MIDI and practice, broadening what it can do without losing its visual focus.

See and hear the music

You can import and play a MIDI file, follow its notes on an 88-key visual keyboard and adjust its speed, transposition or repeat range. You can also play in real time and customize how note intensity and the sustain pedal are displayed.

Pieces can have split hands: the left hand is drawn in its own colors on the keyboard and the waterfall, it's detected when you import the file, and you can correct it note by note in the editor. If you prefer a single palette, just turn that switch off.

To see all of this in action without looking for files, open one of the two Sample Sessions that come with the app, under File > Sample Sessions.

The built-in instruments and Audio Unit plugins let you choose the sound. The mixer has independent controls for the instrument, guide and metronome. The Medussa Instrument also lets you modify samples, zones, tuning and effects, and save the result as your own file.

Learn and practice

Medussa offers three ways to organize your study: free practice and block practice, for working with a metronome, and guided training, for learning a MIDI piece by sections, tempos and repetitions. Training includes note-match indicators and an option to advance on merit.

The practice history lets you review past sessions and create reports or images to share your progress. The chord detector and chart tools help you explore the harmony, prepare chord sheets and organize a library of pieces.

Prepare, record and edit

A session keeps your performance, visual setup and instruments so you can pick up the work later. Automatic copies give you a way to recover if changes are left unsaved.

The editor lets you work with notes, intensity, pedal, other MIDI controls, markers and bar structure. You can also import an audio track and build tempo and meter maps, even after recording a free performance.

Medussa isn't meant to replace your favorite DAW, but it does give you a place to prepare, record and edit a performance. You can export the MIDI or the audio to continue in another program.

Create audiovisual content

You can accompany the music with background images or videos and a floor image. When the session is ready, you can export it to video, in full or by bars, at resolutions up to 4K and at 30, 60 or 120 fps.

Horizontal, vertical and square formats let you adapt the content to different destinations. For vertical and square crops, the camera tools let you lock the framing, automatically follow the musical activity or edit its movement with points. Formats with an alpha channel let you export with transparency to keep compositing in a video editor.

If this is your first time, start with Getting started: you'll create a first video from a MIDI file and learn the basic workflow.