Phosphene Open Phosphene

Phosphene's 12 audio-reactive visual engines

An engine is the generator that draws the picture. Phosphene has 12, from fine dark lace to a real-time fluid simulation, and they all run in the same browser music visualizer: the same palettes, effects, decks and projection mapping work on every one. Switch with the number keys, 1 to 9 and then 0, - and =.

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Engines, scenes and palettes

Each engine has its own scene presets, and more than 100 are built in; W and Q step forward and back through them. Bass, mids and treble each push the image in their own way, and the mapping sliders set how hard. Any engine can take one of the 12 palettes or a custom four-color palette, and the 16 post-processing effects sit on top of all of them.

The shared controls include symmetry, complexity, zoom, detail, warp, fractal, kaleidoscope, speed, rotation, pulse and morph, plus saturation, brightness, contrast, hue shift, color speed, glow, edge, bloom and vignette. How much each one changes the picture depends on the engine, so it's worth sweeping them on each.

Dark Filigree engine in Phosphene: fine lace-like threads branching over a black background

Dark Filigree

Fine, lace-like threads that branch, fold and slowly rewrite themselves over a dark field. It's built from layered, warped noise, so depending on the palette it reads as coral, metal filigree or an engraving, and most of the frame stays black.

Key
1
Good for
Moody openers, slower sets and dark rooms. With so much of the image black, it projects cleanly: the threads land on the surface and the rest disappears.
Presets
Deep Coral, Midnight Lace, Amber Web, Persian Carpet, Neon Reef
Glowing Nebula engine: soft glowing cells of color swelling and merging like gas clouds

Glowing Nebula

Soft cells of light that swell, merge and drift like gas clouds or bioluminescent plankton. Edges glow rather than cut, and colors bleed into one another.

Key
2
Good for
Ambient and downtempo music, chill rooms and sound baths, anywhere you want color without hard detail. Soft shapes also forgive a projector that isn't perfectly in focus.
Presets
Rainbow Bloom
Liquid Light engine: blobs of colored oil pressed together with dark veins, like a 1960s liquid light show

Liquid Light

A take on the oil-on-glass liquid light shows of 1960s concerts: blobs of colored oil pressed against each other, with dark veins where they meet, flowing and reshaping.

Key
3
Good for
Psychedelic rock, jam bands, funk and soul nights, anything with a retro feel. It also works as a backdrop behind a live band, always moving without competing for attention.
Sacred Geometry engine: a symmetrical mandala of rings, petals and interlocking circles

Sacred Geometry

Rings, petals and lattices arranged around the center: mandalas, rose windows, interlocking circles. The symmetry control sets how many times the pattern repeats around the middle.

Key
4
Good for
Centered compositions: a circular screen, a dome, the wall right behind a DJ booth. Symmetry makes the beat easy to read, because every pulse lands in every petal at once.
Presets
Flower of Life
Fractal Quilt engine: nested diamonds and chevrons tiling across the screen like a patchwork quilt

Fractal Quilt

Nested diamonds and chevrons that tile across the frame like patchwork, a woven blanket or a circuit board. The detail control adds levels of nesting inside each tile.

Key
5
Good for
Wide screens, LED walls and building facades. A repeating pattern carries across several surfaces in Extend mode, where it helps hide the joins.
Galaxy Spiral engine: glowing spiral arms and points of starlight turning around a bright center

Galaxy Spiral

Spiral arms of light and drifting points of starlight wound around a center, slowly turning.

Key
6
Good for
Spacey, hypnotic stretches: ambient sets, long trance builds, the last hour of the night. It suits a centered screen or a ceiling.
Presets
Stellar Nursery
Reaction-Diffusion engine: organic spots and stripes like animal markings or cells under a microscope

Reaction-Diffusion

Spots and stripes that grow and shift like animal markings, coral or cells under a microscope: the family of shapes known as Turing patterns.

Key
7
Good for
Galleries and installations where people look closely, and patient music like minimal techno, where slow change is the point.
Particle Field engine: points of light in orbits and trails scattered across a black screen

Particle Field

Points of light in orbits, bursts and constellations, trailing as they move. Much of the screen stays black between them.

Key
8
Good for
Sparse looks that keep a room dark, projection onto scrims or haze, and fast tracks where you want sparks rather than a wall of color.
Presets
Fireflies, Spark Storm, Star Map, Cosmic Rain
Fractal Flame engine: curling, feathered tendrils of light that look like flame or smoke

Fractal Flame

Curling, feathered tendrils that look like flame or smoke, built by layering several nonlinear transforms, the same family of math behind classic fractal-flame art.

Key
9
Good for
Peaks and drops, heavier music, and the big moments of a set where you want the picture to feel like it's on fire.
Fluid engine: a real-time fluid simulation with ink-like dye flowing in kaleidoscopic symmetry

Fluid

A real-time fluid simulation. Ink-like dye is pushed around by the sound, the mouse and body movement, curling and mixing like a real liquid. The symmetry setting mirrors the emitters, turning the flow into a moving kaleidoscope.

Key
0
Good for
Interactive installs where people push the ink with their bodies through webcam body tracking, dye that blooms on every kick, and kaleidoscopic looks with symmetry turned up.
Presets
Ink Bloom, Molten Wax, Oil Slick, Smoke Signals, Mandala Ink
Flow Particles engine: hundreds of thousands of glowing particles streaming through a curl-noise flow field

Flow Particles

Hundreds of thousands of GPU particles streaming through a curl-noise flow field, moving like smoke or a flock of starlings. They're drawn toward hands and the cursor, and they burst on the beat.

Key
-
Good for
Body tracking and audience interaction, EDM drops, and any moment where the screen should answer someone's hands.
Presets
Star Stream, Silk Mandala, Ember Storm, Aurora Drift
Shader Lab engine: a custom GLSL shader rendering audio-reactive patterns in Phosphene

Shader Lab

Your own code. Write or paste a Shadertoy-style GLSL shader and it runs as an engine, with audio, beat, palette and interaction inputs ready to read.

Key
=
Good for
Coders and generative artists, bringing a Shadertoy sketch into a live show, and building a look no built-in engine has. The Shader Lab guide has the full uniform reference.
Presets
Starter, Palette Plasma, Neon Tunnel, Spectrum Rings, Feedback Bloom (built-in examples)

More scenes to try

A few other names you'll find in the scene library: Psyche Oil, Wildfire, Acid Lake, Gold Mandala and Ember Drift. Step through with W and Q, and when you land on one you like, make a share link so you can get back to it exactly.

New to Phosphene? The getting-started guide covers sound sources, the beat clock and the keys you'll use most.

Open PhospheneIt's free, and there's nothing to install.