Audiophore

A high-performance, low-latency bridge between Synesthesia VJ software and the wider lighting ecosystem — Hue, Nanoleaf, WLED, DMX, lasers, and beyond.

Status: Planning complete · M1 ready to start Author: Aaron Cupp (@iammrcupp) Organization: @audiophore Website: audiophore.dev · alias audiophore.com License (planned): MIT OR Apache-2.0 Language: Rust (with Lua scripting for user-facing show logic) Deployment target: Native desktop app — macOS Apple Silicon (primary), macOS Intel + Linux x86_64/ARM64 (tested). Docker / OCI container kept as a deferred future option.

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The name

Audiophore — from audio + the Greek suffix -phore (φόρος, "bearer" or "carrier"), as in semaphore (sign-bearer) or phosphor (light-bearer). An audiophore carries audio. Audiophore the project carries audio analysis into the lighting domain — turning what a kick drum, a bass swell, or a scene change in Synesthesia means into what every light, panel, fixture, and laser in the room does.

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What is this?

Audiophore takes the rich audio analysis data that Synesthesia Pro emits over OSC — FFT bands, beat detection, BPM tracking, scene palettes — and translates it into native protocols for every kind of lighting hardware a performing VJ or DJ might want to drive: Philips Hue Entertainment, WLED via E1.31/sACN/DDP, Art-Net DMX rigs, Nanoleaf panels, ILDA lasers via Ether Dream, and OSC passthrough to other software (Liberation, Resolume, etc.).

The goal is a single piece of software that lets a performer write one show file describing what they want lighting to do, and have it adapt to whatever hardware is actually present at a given venue.

Why does this need to exist?

Synesthesia is exceptionally good at audio analysis and shader-driven visuals, but its lighting integrations end at "screen output." Resolume's DMX is clunky. TouchDesigner can do anything, but only if you are a TouchDesigner programmer. Hue/Nanoleaf/WLED users have no good path to real-time, beat-locked, scene-aware control from VJ software. Laser people live in their own walled garden. There is no universal bridge.

Audiophore is that bridge.

Why Rust?

Three reasons, in order of importance:

1. Latency. Kick-drum-to-light needs to be under 30ms total to feel locked-in on stage. Rust's predictable performance and lack of GC pauses matter here.
2. Reliability. This software runs live, in front of audiences, on sketchy venue networks. Memory safety eliminates a whole class of failure.
3. Distribution. Single static binary, trivially cross-compiled to a Raspberry Pi for the eventual hardware-appliance product.

Document index

This directory contains the planning artifacts for the project. Read in this order if you are new:

Document	Purpose
README.md (this file)	Project overview
SESSION_HANDOFF.md	Start here when bootstrapping an implementation session. Locked decisions, M1 deliverables, first-commit checklist.
PLAN_OF_ACTION.md	High-level roadmap, milestones, success criteria
IMPLEMENTATION_PLAN.md	Concrete technical plan — crates, types, code structure
HARDWARE.md	What to buy and where, for development
DEPLOYMENT.md	Native desktop app packaging across macOS + Linux; CI build matrix; archived Docker/K8s appendix for reference
SYNESTHESIA_OSC.md	Synesthesia Pro OSC schema and audio uniform reference
PROTOCOLS.md	Notes on every output protocol (Hue, E1.31, Art-Net, DDP, Ether Dream, etc.)
RUST_ECOSYSTEM.md	Crates evaluated, dependency choices, gaps to fill

Quick architectural summary

┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│                         INPUTS                               │
│  Synesthesia OSC  │  Audio loopback FFT  │  MIDI clock       │
│  Ableton Link     │  Manual / web UI                         │
└────────────────┬─────────────────────────────────────────────┘
                 │ normalized event stream
                 ▼
┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│                    EVENT BUS (in-process)                    │
│   arc-swap snapshots, 60–120 Hz tick                         │
└────────────────┬─────────────────────────────────────────────┘
                 │
                 ▼
┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│               MAPPING / PROGRAMMING LAYER                    │
│   Show files: TOML config + Lua scripted modes               │
│   Cues, scenes, palettes, zone definitions                   │
└────────────────┬─────────────────────────────────────────────┘
                 │ resolved frame: {device_id: [pixel/dmx data]}
                 ▼
┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│                       OUTPUTS                                │
│  Hue Entertainment  │  WLED / E1.31 / sACN  │  Art-Net / DMX │
│  Nanoleaf Streaming │  DDP                  │  Ether Dream   │
│  OSC out (→ Liberation, Resolume, anything)                  │
└──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

Performance targets

Metric	Target
Audio-event-to-light latency (our code only)	< 10ms
End-to-end latency (kick → light)	< 30ms
Concurrent pixels at 60Hz	1000+
Memory footprint (idle, single output)	< 50MB
Binary size (stripped, release)	< 15MB

Milestone overview

• M1 — Proof of life (~2 weekends): Synesthesia OSC → WLED via E1.31, hardcoded.
• M2 — Real engine (~4–6 weekends): TOML+Lua show files, Hue + Art-Net adapters, web UI.
• M3 — Lasers + polish (~3–4 weekends): Ether Dream, Liberation passthrough, portable shows, public release.
• M4+ — Appliance, marketplace, growth.

See PLAN_OF_ACTION.md for detail.

Status & next actions

• Synesthesia Pro license owned
• Project named: Audiophore
• GitHub organization created: @audiophore
• Org profile README published
• Domains registered: audiophore.dev (primary) + audiophore.com (redirect)
• Dev hardware ordered (see HARDWARE.md)
• Domain DNS pointed at cluster ingress
• Placeholder landing page deployed at audiophore.dev
• audiophore/audiophore workspace skeleton committed
• M1 milestone reached (Synesthesia OSC → WLED proof-of-life)

License

Licensed under either of MIT or Apache 2.0 at your option.