FileMixer :: the byte collider

Smash the raw bytes of two or more files together, watch them collide in real time, then play the wreckage. Databending as a desktop toy — a PNG into an MP4, an MP3 into a PDF, five memes into each other. No tricks: the real modes literally mix the actual bytes of your files.

Features

• 🎛 Visual byte collider — both files' raw bytes rendered as colored pixels, the output painting itself live with a glowing write-head, and a scrolling hacker hex console
• 💥 19 real byte-mashing modes — from classic interleaving to bitwise math to yeet
• 📼 datamosh mode — the "bad wifi" smear: real keyframe packets deleted from the real stream, and it still plays
• 🎬 remix mode — decodes your files and splices real content together (photo chunks flashing inside a video), always playable
• 🚪 FAKE ZONE — backrooms-flavoured effect presets that always play, honestly labeled as fake
• 📺 FORCE VIDEO — any byte soup becomes a real playable MP4: the bytes are the pixels and the soundtrack
• 🔊 Raw playback — every byte as an audio sample, or as RGB pixels (auto-saved as a real WAV when you use the GUI)
• 🧑‍🚀 2+ files — pile up as many files as you want
• 🖥 GUI for humans, CLI for terminals; both share the exact same engine

Screenshots

Files loaded	Interleave, live	Finished

Featured example: The Abomination

Five files — a meme video, Go Kitty Go!, a JPEG, an mp3, and a TERMS OF SERVICE PDF — remixed, shrapneled, and datamoshed into one still-playable video. Watch the full video and read exactly how it was made, step by step.

What the wreckage looks like

FORCE VIDEO (bytes as pixels+sound)	datamosh smear	remix flash

Install

Needs Linux with Python 3.9+, numpy, tkinter, and the media tools:

# Arch
sudo pacman -S ffmpeg mpv python-numpy tk
# Debian/Ubuntu
sudo apt install ffmpeg mpv python3-numpy python3-tk

git clone https://github.com/KairoWolf/FileMixer.git
cd FileMixer
./run.sh          # launches the GUI

Using the GUI

1. Choose File A and File B — any files at all. Use "+ add MORE files to the pile" for 3, 4, 10 files. The side panels show each file's actual bytes as colored pixels (green = text-like bytes, blue = control bytes, magenta/orange = high bytes, black = zeros).
2. Pick a mode in REAL BYTE MASHING (each mode shows a hint), set the Speed slider (slow-mo to watch the collision) and Intensity (for sprinkle, remix, datamosh and the FAKE ZONE), then hit SMASH THE BYTES.
3. Or step into the FAKE ZONE: pick a preset, enter, and get something eerie that is guaranteed to play (no bytes were harmed).
4. Play the wreckage:
   • Play result — health-checks the file first (frozen players can't happen); decodable files play in mpv, byte soup gets auto-FORCED into a video instead
   • FORCE VIDEO! — bytes become the pixels AND the sound of a new MP4
   • Raw sound — every byte as an audio sample, auto-saved as <output>.rawsound.wav
   • Raw pixels — the bytes as RGB video, the visualiser in reverse

Outputs land next to the scripts as mashed_*, mosh_*, remix_*, fake_*. Your source files are never modified.

The real modes

Mode	What it does
interleave	a bite of each file in turn — the classic smash
zipper	single bytes alternating: a b c a b c
splice	randomly-sized bites — seeded chaos
shuffle	every file diced into chunks and shuffled together
stutter	file 1 st-st-stutters while the others barge in
reverse	file 1 forwards, every other file backwards
sprinkle	keeps file 1's layout; Intensity % of chunks get replaced. 1% = a video that still plays with a few glitches
waltz	ONE two three — file 1 leads with double steps, the others follow
drunk	stumbles around ALL the files grabbing random gulps
yeet	interleaves everything but YEETS 25% of the chunks into the void
sortstorm	sorts the bytes into eerily tidy rainbow gradients
scream	every byte forced to 0 or 255. it screams. you were warned
xor / add / subtract / and / or / rotate / blend	byte math folded across all files' overlapping bytes
datamosh	the BAD WIFI smear: real keyframe packets deleted from the stream so frames melt and smear into each other — and it still plays
remix	the special one: decodes the files and splices real content into file 1 — photo chunks flashing inside a video, audio bursts invading a song, PDF bytes as noise — always playable
curse	the full ritual: remix + byte shrapnel + datamosh chained in one go. Maximum cursed, still playable. Video as file 1 required

The FAKE ZONE (level 0 — nothing here is real)

Eerie ffmpeg re-renders of file 1, flavoured by the other files' bytes. No byte smashing, always playable, honestly labeled. Presets:

• backrooms — yellowed, humming, slightly wrong
• poolrooms — blue, wet, echoing tiles
• the_void — very dark, very far away, very muffled
• vhs_nightmare — tracking errors and channel bleed
• datamosh_dream — ghost trails and melted motion
• static_ghost — mostly static, something underneath
• corridor_echo — far away, echoing, don't turn around

The Intensity dial controls how deep you go.

CLI cheatsheet

python3 filemixer.py a.png b.mp4                       # smash + auto-play
python3 filemixer.py a.mp4 b.png c.mp3 -m shuffle      # three files at once
python3 filemixer.py vid.mp4 x.png -m sprinkle -i 8    # super glitchy, still plays
python3 filemixer.py vid.mp4 x.png -m datamosh -i 80   # the bad-wifi smear
python3 filemixer.py vid.mp4 x.png -m remix -i 40      # real content, always plays
python3 filemixer.py vid.mp4 x.png y.mp3 -m curse -i 75 # the full ritual
python3 filemixer.py vid.mp4 x.png --fake --preset backrooms
python3 filemixer.py a b -m xor --play force-video     # byte soup -> crazy video
python3 filemixer.py --help

Useful extras: --pad loop (loop shorter files), --seed N (reroll the randomness), --keep-header N (copy file 1's first N bytes untouched so players recognise the format — try 1000 for MP4), -o out.ext, --no-play.

examples/make_testfiles.sh generates small safe test media to play with.

How it works (short version)

The real modes are Python generators yielding chunks of the output file; the GUI consumes the same generators to paint the collision live. datamosh re-encodes with regular keyframes and then drops keyframe packets with ffmpeg's noise bitstream filter, so the decoder smears motion over stale frames. remix and the FAKE ZONE build seeded ffmpeg filter graphs. FORCE VIDEO feeds the same file to ffmpeg twice — once as raw RGB video, once as raw 8-bit audio — and muxes both into an MP4.

Is this safe?

Yes. A corrupted media file is just data — players glitch or refuse, nothing more. Nothing in the smashed bytes is ever executed. FileMixer opens sources read-only, always writes a NEW file (and asks before overwriting), and caps output at 512 MB so it can't fill your disk.

Credits

• Idea & creative direction: KairoWolf — who looked at an audio visualiser and thought "what if you just... smashed two files together and played it?", then kept pushing it somewhere much weirder
• Code: Claude (Anthropic) — implementation, glitch archaeology, and byte plumbing

License

MIT — see LICENSE.