Resolume Composition Settings

Once you've got Resolume installed and you know the interface, the next step is configuring it. This is the page that walks you through every setting that matters — preferences, MIDI activation, composition aspect ratio and frame rate, Spout and NDI, and the View tab tweaks that clean up the UI for actual live performance.

Lesson 2 in our beginner course, right after the Resolume Arena install & interface guide.

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

Preferences (Arena → Preferences)

Top-left corner, click Arena → Preferences. This is the tab walkthrough.

General, Audio, Recording, Clip Rendering — leave default

Default values work for all of these. Audio settings get their own dedicated walkthrough in the next lesson when we set up audio reactivity, so we'll skip it here.

Video

The one thing here is the Free Frame plugin directory. Yours will be blank to start — once you buy and install plugins from Juice Bar (Resolume's official plugin marketplace), this auto-populates. If you need to manually point Resolume at a different plugin folder, this is where you do it.

MIDI — activating your controller

Make sure both MIDI input AND MIDI output are selected for your specific controller. If you get a "device in use by another program" error, that's because something else (Notch, Ableton, whatever) has already grabbed it. Only one program at a time. If your controller isn't showing up here at all, try unplugging it, plugging it back in, and hitting refresh.

OSC and DMX live in this same panel if you're working with either.

Default — the one change worth making here

Change the default layer blend mode from Add to Alpha. Alpha is a better default for layering visuals (Add tends to wash things out). We'll do a full blend modes walkthrough in a future lesson, but this is the one tweak that pays off immediately.

Video clip transport — leave on Timeline. BPM sync and SMPTE are options for later.

Composition Settings (Composition tab → Settings)

Now hop over to the Composition tab → Settings. Three settings to dial in.

Name your composition

Name your show file something memorable. Future-you will thank you when you have a dozen of these saved.

Aspect ratio — 1920×1080 (or 4K)

Default to 1920×1080. If you're running a 4K display, set it to 4K here. This is the resolution of your entire composition output, so match it to whatever you're projecting onto.

Frame rate — 60 (or 30 if your hardware can't push it)

Set to 60 fps if your laptop can handle it. The difference between 60 and 30 is significant — 60 just looks cleaner. If you're on lower-end hardware and 60 makes Resolume lag, drop to 30 until you upgrade. Hit Apply.

Output Tab — turn on Spout and NDI

While you're in Composition Settings, head to the Output tab. Two settings to flip on:

• Spout texture sharing — ON
• NDI — ON

Spout is Windows GPU texture sharing between programs. NDI is low-latency video over your network. Both unlock workflows where Resolume talks to other programs (Notch, Synesthesia, OBS, etc.) — we cover the full NDI setup in its own course inside the Academy. For now just have them active so they're ready when you need them.

View Tab — Cleaning Up the UI

The View tab is where you decide what's actually visible in the Resolume interface. Default is busy — most VJs benefit from turning half of it off. Here's our recommended setup.

Turn off if you don't use them

• Show Ableton Link — off unless you're running Ableton
• Show audio controls — off. The single video opacity slider per layer is enough. Personal preference.
• Layer transport controls — off. Get in the habit of setting transport controls (loop / bounce / random) ahead of time per clip in the clip panel. There's no good reason to have these in live UI eating real estate.

Leave on

• Autopilot
• Beat looper (only visible when using BPM sync)
• Big column triggers (personal preference — turn off if you want more real estate)
• Show clip speed sliders on layers
• Cue points, Crossfader, Dashboard
• Show help — hover tooltips. Useful while learning, turn off later
• Show layer transition controls — easier to adjust the duration between transitioning clips visually here than digging into the layer panel
• Undo toolbar — personal preference, you can always Ctrl+Z

The two you definitely want ON

These are the two most important settings on this whole tab:

• Show FPS and stats — adds a readout at the bottom of the composition showing your RAM%, VRAM, and current FPS. Critical for troubleshooting. If Resolume freezes or lags, the FPS number tells you whether you're hitting a hardware ceiling. Without this, you're flying blind.
• FFT gain — needed for audio reactivity. You'll use this constantly. Turn it on now so it's ready when we set up audio reactivity in the next lesson.

Property panels (the right-side panels)

By default you have Clip, Composition, Layer, and Monitor visible. Keep all four — you'll be in and out of them constantly.

The Group panel is off by default. Turn it on. Groups aren't day-one essential, but once you start using them (and you will), having the panel open beats hunting for it.

Browser panels (the left side)

Day of show, turn off most of these — they take up a lot of real estate and you shouldn't be pulling new files in mid-set anyway. The one worth keeping open is the Effects panel, because dragging an unexpected effect onto a clip mid-show is genuinely fun and sometimes nails a moment. Files, Compositions, and Sources are build-mode tools, not show-mode tools.

What's Next

That covers preferences, composition settings, output, and the View tab cleanup. Lesson 3 picks up with rebuilding the composition layout — moving the monitors to the top, docking the side panels, and saving a layout you can load on any machine.

The full beginner-course path from here:

• Lesson 3 — Composition Layout
• Lesson 4 — Display Output (full-screen, refresh rate, NVIDIA color range)
• Lesson 5 — Codec Conversion (DXV via Resolume Alley)

Or jump straight to the two highest-impact moves once Resolume is dialed in: Sprite Sheets for VJs (custom symbols, real-time text, logo animations) and Effect Stacks in Resolume (a workflow framework that turns random effect-throwing into intentional builds).

Or if you came here without your hardware sorted yet, the broader How to VJ — Beginner's Guide covers laptops, MIDI, content sources, and the rest of the essentials.

Hit a setting that's not behaving? Drop a comment on the YouTube video above or email vjacademy@outlook.com and we'll help you through it.