PACK ⬕ NestDrop Goodies Part 1

Helping develop NestDrop has been rewarding and given me insight of how VJ's want to push the limits these days. It's amazing to see how VJ's are using it in different ways while performing live.

I realized that there are a bunch of useful resources for NestDrop but they are scattered around the web. So below I'm bringing everything together under one roof.

Preset Packs

Here are some preset packs that can be used in NestDrop. Some of the presets are wild!

DOWNLOAD: Cream of the Crop (9,795 presets)
I spent 7 months curating through 50,315 presets from the Milkdrop community, selecting only the best ones, and then organized them into categories/subcategories. It was a mammoth task and well worth the effort.

DOWNLOAD: Isosceles Mashups 2020 (1,131 presets)
Here are some my own presets that I created using the mashup technique.

DOWNLOAD: Milkdrop Forum Dump (50,315 presets)
This is a file dump of every preset that was publicly released on the Milkdrop Forum from 2001 to 2019. Lots of junk in there, but some real gems too. Beware of extremely offensive language in some of the filenames.

And even more presets over on NestDrop Goodies Part 2!

Video Tutorials

Inject Resolume visuals into NestDrop
See how to use Nestdrop to add generative visuals to your VJ sets. See how you can use it with Resolume to add generative visuals and real-time effects to your fav VJ loops and camera feeds.

Inject live video into NestDrop using OBS
Using the OBS Spout plugin, you can use a Spout Filter to send video (with alpha) into NestDrop. This allows you to inject VJ loops, video clips, or live video into NestDrop and have it affect the generative visuals. It's a powerful technique and useful in many different ways.

Advanced mixing techniques in NestDrop
Covers how to crossfade between two video decks, what is a Sprite, Sprite FX, Spout Sprites, editing the FX, injecting Resolume visuals into NestDrop, injecting a live webcam into NestDrop, feedback loops

How to record NestDrop visuals directly
By using the OBS Spout Plugin, you can record the Spout video stream directly and at full resolution. No need to do a screen capture.

Advanced features of NestDrop Midnight
Covers the features that are unique to NestDrop Midnight Edition. Such as MIDI controller support, audio source selection, direct fullscreen output, Image Sprites, Spout Sprites, mixing together video decks, and adding custom notes onto the preset buttons.

Overview of NestDrop Classic
NestDrop 101. How to get up and running with NestDrop Classic. Learn about the basic functionality.

NestDrop User Manual

We have documented every feature within NestDrop in good detail. So I think you'll find some useful hidden functionality by reading through the User Manual (PDF).

Are you bored already? RTFM!

Reddit Community for NestDrop

Have a question? Have a feature request? Find a bug? Wanna share a preset? Showcase your gig?

Join us over on Reddit.

Create your own Preset Mashups

Preset authoring is a lost art. Milkdrop is 22 years old… Can you hear the millennials screaming?

Creating a preset mash-up is easy and I think it's fun to explore. By combining several different presets together you can hunt for happy accidents. No coding skills necessary. Check out the Mashup Tutorial.

Just to show how vast the mashup possibilities are… Let’s assume that you are using my collection of 9,795 presets, then there are 90 quintillion (9 × 10^19) possible ways that you could mash them together. So there are plenty of visuals that have never been seen before.

Also MilkDrop2077 is an app that will automatically generate tons of mashups and then you can hunt for the gems. Although beware that it can sometimes generate corrupted presets that will crash NestDrop, so please test each preset first and if it doesn't crash instantly then you're good to go.

Write a Preset from scratch

If you’re a programmer then you might enjoy coding presets from scratch. Check out the Milkdrop Preset Authoring Guide, Beginners Guide to MilkDrop Preset Writing, Pixel Shader Guide, Milkdrop Documentation, and GPU Fundamentals. Also check out some various tutorial threads over at the Milkdrop Forum (such as 3D Projection).

Just for Posterity

I originally released the Cream of the Crop back in 2020, but that blog is now offline. So if you're curious to learn the history of NestDrop and my curation process, then check out the backstory.

Shoutout

I wanna give a shoutout to Ryan Geiss, the original developer of Milkdrop. Thank you for open-sourcing this amazing engine so that we can take it to another level.

Presets are delicious.