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Lightbridge

Performing Live

Lightbridge has two canvases: preview (top) and live (bottom). During a performance, the audience sees the live output. You build your next look in preview, then push it live when ready.

Preview Mode

By default, Lightbridge is in Auto Push — changes go live immediately. For performance, switch to Preview Mode:

  • Click Preview Mode or press H. The live canvas freezes on its current look.
  • Edit freely — add sources, tweak params, change effects, even switch to a different set or create a new one. Only preview updates; the frozen live output is untouched.
  • Click Auto Push or press G — preview becomes the new live output and changes go live immediately again.
  • Press Escape for Reset to Live — discard your preview changes and snap the editor back to the look that’s still on screen.
  • Click Preview Mode again (or press H) to exit without pushing — if you were previewing a different set, it’s saved to your set list and the editor returns to the live set, with the output unchanged. Build your next set now, switch to it later.

If you were editing the live set itself, there’s nothing neutral to exit to — those changes either go live (Auto Push) or get discarded (Reset to Live), and Lightbridge will tell you so instead of guessing.

This gives you a safety net: the audience sees a clean visual while you prepare the next one — including building a completely different set, keeping it for later, and switching to it whenever you’re ready.

Focus mode

Press F to enter focus mode. All panels hide and the live canvas fills the window. Useful when your laptop screen is visible to the audience, or when you want a clean view of your output.

Press Escape to exit focus mode.

Action buttons

Action buttons are one-touch macros for live shows. Two types:

  • Action buttons — fire a one-shot or repeating change (nudge, set, cycle, snapshot, random, invert)
  • Toggle buttons — switch a parameter’s modulation on or off (LFO, audio, beat sync)

Create them from the + button at the top of the action button grid. The editor opens with a Start from… strip of template chips (strobe, beat cycle, nudge ±, randomize, snapshot recall) — click one to seed a working button, or wire up the pipeline manually. Bind buttons to keyboard keys or MIDI pads for hands-free control.

See the Action Buttons guide for the full feature set: color states, spring transitions, snapshot inspector, orphan fix-it, and templates.

Performance checklist

Before a show:

  1. Prepare 4–8 sets with different visual looks (learn about sets)
  2. Set up modulations — audio reactivity and beat sync on key parameters
  3. Bind MIDI controls to the parameters you’ll tweak most (MIDI guide)
  4. Save your show with Cmd+S — auto-save handles the rest during the gig
  5. Set hold mode so you can transition cleanly between looks
  • Output Visuals — the architectural view of preview vs live and how hold mode freezes the output.
  • Performance Sets — prepare multiple looks and switch between them instantly.
  • MIDI Controllers — hardware control for hands-on performance.