---
title: "AI-Powered DMX Lighting: How Live Wire Works - DMXDesktop"
description: "Set up and tune Live Wire so any live audio drives the rig on its own. No DJ software, no pre-analysed tracks, no hardware box. Standard and Pro."
canonical: https://www.dmxdesktop.com/knowledgebase/live-wire
lang: en
source: /knowledgebase/live-wire
---

# AI-Powered DMX Lighting: How Live Wire Builds Automatic Light Shows

v1.0.52+

[Live Wire](/live-wire) is the part of DMXDesktop's [DJ Mode](/intelligent-lighting) that turns any live audio into an automatic light show in real time - no DJ software, no pre-analyzed tracks, and no programming. It listens to whatever's playing and drives your whole rig itself, following the music's tempo, energy and mood. This article explains what it is, how to set it up, and how it differs from the dedicated "AI lighting" hardware boxes on the market.

[Download DMXDesktop](/download) [See pricing →](/pricing)

## [What is Live Wire?](#what-is-live-wire)

Live Wire is software-based, AI-assisted lighting that reacts to live sound. Where a traditional show needs you to program cues and chases, or to pre-analyze every track, Live Wire builds the performance live: it reads the audio as it plays and drives colour, movement, beams and accents to match.

It pairs proven lighting logic with machine listening that analyses the incoming audio in real time - reading tempo, energy, build-ups and drops. The result is a show that feels like a human operator ran it, with none of the setup.

Live Wire is included with the Standard and Pro subscriptions at no extra charge. It isn't part of the Free plan, though DMXDesktop itself is free to download.

## [Do you need AI hardware or a special box?](#do-you-need-ai-hardware-or-a-special-box)

No. Many automatic "AI light show" products are single-purpose hardware boxes that cost $800 or more and do one job. Live Wire is software: it runs on the Windows or Mac computer you already own and outputs to the DMX hardware you already have.

- Runs on Windows 10/11 and macOS 14+ (Apple Silicon and Intel)
- Outputs over USB-DMX (interfaces from around $15), [Art-Net or sACN](/dmx-io)
- Scales from a single fixture to unlimited universes on a Pro subscription
- Included with Standard and Pro subscriptions - no separate hardware to buy

If you already run DMXDesktop, Live Wire is built in - there's nothing extra to carry to the gig.

## [How to set up an automatic light show](#how-to-set-up-an-automatic-light-show)

Getting a live, automatic show running takes three steps:

1. **Pick your audio input.** Choose any audio source - a mixer, an audio interface, or your computer's own playback.
2. **Choose a mood.** Band, DJ or Ambient. Each sets the overall feel and the colour palettes Live Wire draws from.
3. **Turn it on.** Live Wire locks onto the beat and starts driving your whole rig automatically.

Because it reacts to sound in the room, it works with un-prepared music - a live band, a streaming set, vinyl, or background playback - with no DJ software feeding it data.

## [What Live Wire reacts to](#what-live-wire-reacts-to)

Live Wire follows the music rather than running on a fixed timer:

- **Tempo & beat** - effects move in time with the groove, not at random.
- **Energy & mood** - the show grows and relaxes with the music's intensity.
- **Build-ups & drops** - it senses tension building and the moment it releases, landing the big moments with you.
- **Song structure** - when the music moves to a new section or track, the look refreshes so it never gets repetitive.
- **Colour** - it pulls from coordinated palettes that match the music and spreads them across your fixtures.
- **Silence** - it fades down cleanly when the music stops and returns when it does.

## [Controls you can tune](#controls-you-can-tune)

Live Wire is automatic by default, but never a black box. You stay in control:

- Mood profiles - Band, DJ or Ambient
- Sensitivity, so it ramps up correctly for any audio feed
- Maximum brightness and movement-speed ceilings for venue-friendly levels
- Strobe is opt-in and off by default
- Per-mode colour palettes
- Per-group overrides - wash-only, effects on/off, and more

You can drop into full manual control at any time. Live Wire also replaces [Auto Pilot](/auto-pilot), which has been retired, and it does not need cues built in advance the way Auto Pilot did.

## [How is it different from DJ Mode's other modes?](#how-is-it-different-from-dj-modes-other-modes)

DMXDesktop gives you several ways to automate lighting. Pre-analyzed auto-shows shine with prepared tracks, where the show is timed to a song you have analysed in advance. Live Wire is the option that builds the *whole* show for you, live - choosing roles, colour and accents itself - for bands without click tracks, mobile DJs on streaming, or venues on ambient playback. It also replaces [Auto Pilot](/auto-pilot), which has been retired. Explore the full [Live Wire](/live-wire) page to see it in action.

## [Per-mode settings, accents and beam behaviour](#per-mode-settings-accents-and-beam-behaviour)

Band, DJ and Ambient are not just three palettes. Each mode carries its own complete settings: energy, drop sensitivity, every beam attribute and its cycle time, the accent layers, what happens when the music stops, and the per-group overrides. Your existing configuration is copied into all three the first time you run the new version, so the first mode switch after updating changes nothing, and they only diverge when you make them.

**Two sliders, both live.** One sets how sensitive drop detection is, the other sets the overall energy, which changes how fast and how hard effects move. Both take effect immediately while Live Wire is running.

**Accents.** Auto Strobe and Auto Blinder have their own switches, each with its own cadence and its own minimum gap. Auto Blinder drives colour emitters as well as dimmer channels, so a blinder with no shutter, or one whose light comes out of coloured LEDs rather than a white lamp, actually flashes. Kick detection punches individual kicks through the current look on the beat, and you can pick one special effect to fire on every drop.

**Beams and movers.** Gobo, prism, rotation and frost each have a Low, Medium or High frequency beside the switch. The switch says the attribute may be used, the frequency says how often it actually is, and Medium is the default. Phase and Fan are two separate controls with a frequency each: Phase offsets the heads in time so a movement travels across them, Fan makes alternate heads sweep wider and tighter. While one of your own cues is running, Live Wire carries on decorating it with kicks and peaks but leaves gobo, prism, rotation and frost alone, because those are part of the look you built.

**Timings in musical time.** The drop effect hold and the strobe and blinder cadences can be set in seconds, beats or bars, so they stay in time when the tempo changes.

**Colour.** Pick which palettes each mode may use. Color Override now works over the top of Live Wire: the look keeps moving and only the colours change, with multi-colour themes spread across your fixtures. Strobes, blinders and kick flashes stay white on purpose, because they are accents rather than the main look.

**Audio input and confidence.** The audio input picker sits at the top of the Live Wire tab, ASIO devices included. A BPM Confidence meter tells you when the tempo reading can be trusted, and a live feed lists what Live Wire heard as it happened, filled in from before you opened the tab.

## [Hold: pause it without switching it off](#hold-pause-it-without-switching-it-off)

A band talking over a mic between numbers is still audio, and left alone Live Wire will light every consonant. **Hold** parks it on your standby look and leaves it there until you press it again.

- No strobes, no blinders and no movement while it is held.
- Live Wire keeps running and the audio input stays open, so releasing Hold picks straight back up. Switching Live Wire off and on again does not.
- It engages the moment you press it, ignoring your activation delay, because a control you reach for mid-sentence has to work mid-sentence.
- Hold is on the Live Wire tab, and can also be bound to a pad, sent over [OSC](/open-sound-control) or pressed from the [mobile remote](/mobile-control).
- It needs a standby look to sit on. With **When the music stops** set to Stay lit there isn't one, so the button greys out and tells you why, and a pad refuses rather than pretending.

The three moods can be driven the same way. Band, DJ and Ambient each take a pad, and pressing one while Live Wire is switched off starts it in that mood, so a single pad takes you from silence to a running rig. The same is true over OSC and from the mobile remote.

## [What happens when the music stops](#what-happens-when-the-music-stops)

One control on the Live Wire tab, **When the music stops**, decides what the rig does in the gaps. It has four answers:

- **Stay lit** - keeps running on calmer looks and never goes dark on its own, so a changeover doesn't leave the room black.
- **Fade to black** - the default, and what Live Wire has always done. The rig stays dark until audio returns.
- **Run a cue** - hands the rig to a cue you choose and takes it back when the music comes in. Only infinite cues are offered, because a finite one would end part way through the silence.
- **Run Live Edits** - raises one or more [Live Edits](/knowledgebase/live-edits) you built yourself and lowers them again when the music returns. Tick as many as you like and they come up together. One you already have up by hand is left alone.

**If you run [Dark On Silence](/dark-on-silence), use Live Edits.** A fallback cue is built from effects, and Dark On Silence is what dims effects, so the two have never worked together. A Live Edit sets its values directly and is unaffected, so it stays visible with Dark On Silence switched on.

Whichever you pick, Live Wire lets go cleanly: beams, movement, gobo, prism, rotation, frost and any accent still running are all released the moment it stands down, so nothing of its own is left painting over your standby look.

This one setting replaces the separate Dark On Silence switch and the DJ fallback cue setting as far as Live Wire is concerned. Those lived on other tabs, said they did not apply to Live Wire, and drove it anyway.

## [Now Recognized: naming the track in the room (macOS only)](#now-recognized-naming-the-track-in-the-room-macos-only)

While Live Wire runs, **Now Recognized** identifies the music playing in the room and shows it on the Live Wire tab: track, artist and cover art, with a link to open it in Apple Music. It listens to the same sound Live Wire is already lighting, so it names tracks nobody in the building loaded, whether that is a hired DJ on their own gear or a playlist over the PA.

The card stays hidden until the first time it recognises something, so it never appears as an empty box, and a track it has already named is not looked up twice.

**Two things to know before you count on it.** Now Recognized is **macOS only**. It uses Shazam music recognition on the Mac and there is no Windows version yet. It is also gated to Live Wire, so it only runs while Live Wire is running, which means a Standard or Pro subscription. It is new in this release, so treat it as something to try rather than something to build the night around.