Open-source LED synthesizer Patternflow lets you play light like an instrument
Created by Seoul-based artist SeungHun Lee, it has over 100 community-made patterns & is currently crowdfunding
Launched on Crowd Supply on August 25, Patternflow is an open-source LED synthesizer controlled by four knobs.
It runs 8,192 pixels across a 128 x 64 LED matrix, and every frame is computed live on an onboard ESP32-S3 chip rather than played back from a file. Turning a knob changes the pattern in real time, and what each knob does depends on the pattern loaded.
For anyone working with sound, the relevant part is the audio integration; Patternflow sends and receives OSC over Wi-Fi in both directions, so it can be patched directly into Max, Ableton (through Max for Live), or TouchDesigner.
There's also an experimental Chrome extension that splits a browser tab's audio into four bands and maps them onto the knobs, letting a track or video drive the pattern directly; no separate audio interface required.
It's portable too, built to run off a standard power bank for up to fifteen hours, so it can sit in a DJ booth or travel to a set.
Patterns are written in JavaScript in a browser-based editor, with AI tools available to help generate the code, before being converted to run natively on the device. Over 100 community-made patterns are currently available to install.
Read this next: KORG's KAOSS Pad V lets you touch two affects at once
The project began in January 2026, when Seoul-based artist SeungHun Lee visited the Nam June Paik Art Centre during an event marking twenty years since Paik's death. There, he tried Paik's 1963 piece Participation TV, in which a viewer's voice moves the image on screen.
Two months later, he connected an LED matrix to a potentiometer for the first time.
Read this next: Audima Labs’ MIDI instrument Sway turns movement into music
In March, he built Patternflow: Origin, a pattern designed so that turning a knob changes how it looks. He posted the build online, but turned out most people wanted to do more than just purchase it.
“Some people asked how to buy it, but far more asked how to build it. So I opened everything: schematics, firmware, 3D models, the build guide, and the workflow for making new patterns,” Lee states.
Patternflow is now funding on Crowd Supply at USD$269, with all files public for anyone who’d rather build it themselves.
Purchase and learn more here.
Amira Waworuntu is Mixmag Asia’s Managing Editor, follow her on Instagram.
Never miss a beat. Subscribe to our Scene Report newsletter or follow us on Instagram.
