If you are looking for a Winamp visualizer online, you are almost certainly looking for MilkDrop — the plugin by Ryan Geiss that shipped with Winamp and defined what a music visualizer looked like for a generation. It is worth being straight about the options. MilkDrop itself lives on in the browser through Butterchurn, a free open-source WebGL port that runs the original preset format, so thousands of community presets from the Winamp era still work. If what you want is MilkDrop specifically, that is the honest answer and Butterchurn is where to go. Vortexia is a different thing that scratches a similar itch: rather than replaying preset scripts, it computes genuine fractal mathematics on the GPU each frame — Mandelbrot and Julia sets, the Burning Ship, a raymarched 3D Mandelbulb — driven by a 128-bin frequency spectrum split across bass, mid and treble. Where it goes further than a nostalgia player is the streaming side: it drops into OBS as a single Browser Source URL, and it reacts to Twitch and Streamlabs events as well as to sound, so a raid or a donation changes the visual and not just the beat. Free at 720p with a small watermark; Plus is $4.99 a month.
How to use The Spiritual Successor to MilkDrop
Play something and open it. Go to vortexia.live and enable audio. Anything your input device hears will drive the visual.
Get a clean feed. For music rather than room noise, route system audio through VB-Cable or BlackHole, or select your audio interface as the input device.
Put it on a stream. Copy your OBS link and add it as a Browser Source at 1920x1080 if you want it behind a live stream rather than just on screen.
Specs & output
Engine
Solar Flare
Render Mode
flux
Iteration Depth
70
Default Zoom
1.10
Colour Shift
90°
Output (Free)
720p / 30fps + watermark
Output (Plus)
1080p / 60fps, no watermark
Output (Pro)
4K / 60fps, brand-kit logo overlay
Audio Source
Browser tab audio (FFT, real-time)
Last Updated
2026-08-24
Frequently asked questions
Is this MilkDrop?
No. MilkDrop is a specific preset-driven engine, and the faithful browser version of it is Butterchurn, which is free, open source, and runs the original preset files. Vortexia computes fractals directly instead, so it does not load MilkDrop presets and does not pretend to.
Then why use this instead?
Two reasons, both about streaming rather than nostalgia. It adds to OBS or Streamlabs as one Browser Source URL with remote control from a dashboard while you are live, and it reacts to stream events - subs, bits, raids, hype trains - which an audio-only visualizer has no way of knowing about.
Can I load my old MilkDrop presets?
No. The preset formats are unrelated: MilkDrop presets are per-pixel equation scripts for its own engine, while Vortexia presets are parameters for its fractal shaders. Butterchurn is the right tool if you have a preset collection you want to keep using.
Does it react like the old visualizers did?
More precisely, in one specific way. Winamp-era visualizers generally responded to overall level; Vortexia reads the spectrum in three bands, so bass drives the pulse, mids morph the geometry, and treble affects colour. A kick and a cymbal at equal volume produce different motion.
Do I need to install anything?
No. It runs in a browser tab and needs no player, no plugin and no download. Route your music in through your default input, an audio interface, or a virtual cable such as VB-Cable or BlackHole for a clean digital feed.
About the author
Yousef @ Vortexia — Vortexia Engine Creator.
Yousef builds Vortexia — a browser-based, GPU-accelerated audio-reactive visual engine used by streamers and DJs on Twitch, Kick, YouTube Live and TikTok Live.