It uses only the defaults the product ships with. Follow-up material lives in KEYBOARD_SHORTCUTS_REFERENCE (all shortcuts), VISUALIZERS_GUIDE (the five visualizers), MIDI_HID_CONTROLLER_GUIDE (hardware control) and DMX Rig Configuration Guide (stage lights).

Chapter 1: The 15-Minute Plan

Nothing here needs a controller, DMX hardware, a license key or a network. Defaults are enough for the first show.

Figure 1: your booth, your visuals, a full floor.

Chapter 2: Minutes 0–2 — Install And Launch

1. Install and open DjMirror Pulse on Windows or macOS, following the prompts shown by your installer.
2. On first launch the app creates its content folders from the bundled Visuals.zip if they do not already exist. The default root is Documents/Visuals/, with Videos, Images, Avatars, Logos and Styles inside. If you or your installer changed the documents location, use that configured location instead.
3. For ordinary use, change settings in the app. If you need to edit configuration files, the effective config.json is not necessarily next to the executable: on Windows it is %AppData%\DjMirror\DjMirrorPulse\config.json; on macOS it is ~/Library/Application Support/DjMirror/DjMirrorPulse/config.json. The file beside the app is a shipped template. Command-line flags override the effective file. See Config & CLI before editing it. Useful flags for later: --server --port 8080 (control API) and --client http://SERVER:8080 (follow another machine).
4. Press Ctrl+W — fullscreen, no window chrome. Press again to come back (windowed = half size, centered). Do every check below in fullscreen at least once: that is how the audience will see it.

Trial notice: the first run starts a 14-day trial of the Standard tier (Professional/Enterprise features show as locked). You don't need a key for this guide. Activation is covered in the License & Activation Guide.

Chapter 3: Minutes 2–5 — Get Audio Flowing

1. Open Settings → AUDIO Device.
2. Set Main Audio Device to the device carrying your mix (DJ mixer USB out, or system loopback if you play music on the same laptop). Set a Fallback Audio Device too — the app switches over instead of going silent if the main one disappears mid-show.
3. Set Capture Input Volume (0.0–2.0) to about 1.0 and play music.

Figure 2: Settings → AUDIO Device — the Main and Fallback devices (use the − and + buttons to step through the list) and the Capture Input Volume. The sidebar entry below it, Video Playback Audio, is for audio that comes from played videos. 4. Watch the audio indicators / peak meters: bars should dance with the music. If they barely move, raise the capture volume or the OS input level; if they pin at maximum, lower it. Clipping input = ugly visuals all night. 5. Leave silence-detection settings at their defaults for now. Tune them only if silence is falsely detected or missed; see Audio Setup & Beat Sync and the DMX guide's silence detector section.

If you use Ableton Link (Pro/Enterprise), enable Link in both apps on the same local network, then open Settings → Ableton Link and choose a clock source. The default Audio analysis keeps the usual audio tempo and beat tracking; choose a Link mode only when you want the Link session to drive or supplement the beat grid. See Audio setup & beat sync for the source modes, beat policies, downbeat and phrase controls, and troubleshooting. Link is not needed for the first show — the audio beat tracker is enough.

Chapter 4: Minutes 5–8 — Drive The Picture From The Keyboard

All shortcuts are Ctrl-only, application-wide, case-insensitive. The window must have OS focus (click it once).

Figure 3: one tap switches the whole look.

Exercise (do it now, 2 minutes): Ctrl+F4 five times (watch the whole look change), Ctrl+F2 three times, Ctrl+Down through four videos. Then the double-hit — Ctrl+F4 + Ctrl+F2 together on a beat: that is your transition move for the whole night. If F1–F4 change brightness instead, hold Fn or flip Fn-lock.

Chapter 5: Minutes 8–11 — Your Content: Playlists And Artists

Playlists are plain .txt files — one media filename per line — living beside their media in the Visuals folders:

• Documents/Visuals/Videos/<name>.txt → videoPlaylist
• Documents/Visuals/Images/<name>.txt → imagePlaylist
• Documents/Visuals/Avatars/<name>.txt → avatarPlaylist

1. Copy a few clips into Visuals/Videos/ and make a <MySet>.txt file in that same folder. Put one exact media filename on each line.
2. Select the playlist in the app and step with Ctrl+Down / Ctrl+Up. Test every entry before the show; remove misspelled or missing filenames.
3. Artist card: Ctrl+Right / Ctrl+Left steps through artists (and resets the card timer); Ctrl+R brings the card back without changing artist. Set the night's headliner now.

Styles are standalone files too: Visuals/Styles/<name>.json (visualizers + layers + shaders + screen FX). Switching with Ctrl+F3/Ctrl+F4 never edits the file — experiment freely.

Style pack sharing / booth handoff: when a look uses custom media (logo, avatar, an image or video from the current playlist), export it as a .style bundle before moving it to another booth or archiving it. The package is just a ZIP that contains the style.json plus any bundled assets under Images/, Videos/, and Avatars/ (with metadata/thumbnail sidecars when present). Importing the package recreates the style and copies the media into Documents/Visuals/ so the look is ready to play without manual re-linking. Use this for backup, venue templates, show packages, and moving a ready-made set between laptops.

Chapter 6: Minutes 11–13 — A Few Useful Settings

• Output levels: brightness/saturation/opacity for the layers you use. Small room? Lower is better — bright projections on a near wall fatigue eyes fast.
• Video audio: Settings → AUDIO Device → Video Playback Audio — enable it and choose the output device, only if the show's audio comes from played videos.
• Silence: leave defaults today; tune per venue before any DMX show.
• Masks: Settings → Layer - Mask if a mask needs sizing for your projector.

Most settings persist automatically, although not all are stored in config.json (for example, the audio devices are runtime settings). You normally do not need to edit configuration files; see Config & CLI if you need to locate or change one.

Chapter 7: Minutes 13–15 — Prove It: The Pre-Show Checklist

1. Ctrl+W fullscreen — no chrome, no cursor, no FPS overlay (Ctrl+I off).
2. Music playing — peak meters dance, visuals react.
3. Ctrl+Down through the entire playlist — no missing files, no vertical surprises.
4. Ctrl+F4 + Ctrl+F2 transition — deliberate look change, wraps fine at list ends.
5. Artist card: Ctrl+Right to the headliner; let it hide; Ctrl+R brings it back.
6. Escape keys rehearsed: Ctrl+W back to windowed for emergencies. Never touch Ctrl+Q (instant quit, no confirmation) during the show.

Chapter 8: Where To Go Next (After The First Show)

Chapter 9: Troubleshooting (First-Night Edition)

Chapter 10: Quick Recipe Card (Your First 15 Minutes)

• 0–2: Launch → locate the configured Visuals/ folder → Ctrl+W fullscreen.
• 2–5: AUDIO Device → main + fallback → play music → meters dance.
• 5–8: Ctrl+F4 styles · Ctrl+F2 masks · Ctrl+Down videos · double-hit transitions.
• 8–11: Own files into Visuals/ + .txt playlist → step it fully → Ctrl+Right headliner.
• 11–13: Levels sane · video-audio if needed · persist automatic.
• 13–15: Checklist §7 → escape Ctrl+W → hands off Ctrl+Q.