Creating AR can be as fun as playing a synthesizer. Share with a QR code. No app, no account needed to view. Simple, private, and free.
Start creating →
Creating AR can be as fun as playing a synthesizer. Share with a QR code. No app, no account needed to view. Simple, private, and free.
Start creating →ARSynth is an open source tool for creating augmented reality scenes. You build a composition in the browser, generate a QR code, and place it wherever the work should live: a wall, a stage, a flyer. Viewers scan the code and the AR opens on their phone. No app to install, no account to create.
The way you build scenes is borrowed from synthesizers. Every object, whether an image, a video, or a shape, has parameters: position, rotation, scale, opacity. Each can be driven by an oscillator: sine, square, triangle, sawtooth, or noise. You choose the waveform, set the amplitude and phase, and see what happens. The point is not to configure everything precisely. It is to explore. You turn knobs and discover, the same way you play a synthesizer. Creativity comes from play, not from planning.
Create a Show to get a permanent QR code to share with your audience. Connect a Scene (your AR composition) to it. The interesting part: you can swap the active Scene at any time from the dashboard, and the AR updates live for everyone already viewing. No new QR code needed. Useful for concerts, performances, or any situation where you want to change the content dynamically.
ARSynth is MIT licensed. The source code is public. There is no paid tier and no plan to add one; the project is publicly funded and exists to serve creators, not to grow a business. Fork it, adapt it, run your own version.
ARSynth stores only what is needed to serve a scene: the objects, their parameters, and the QR code. Nothing else is collected: not about you, not about your audience. No analytics, no tracking.
Viewers do not need to download anything. On Android, the AR opens directly in the browser via WebXR. On iOS, an App Clip launches automatically when the code is scanned. No App Store visit.
Objects can carry a hyperlink, making them interactive. Scenes can be anchored to a specific geographic location, so the AR appears exactly where you placed it, tied to a real venue or space.
ARSynth is part of Next Stage AR, a Dutch initiative developing open AR tools for music venues and festivals. Initiated by Thunderboom, built with Superposition, VNPF, Nederlands Instituut voor Beeld en Geluid, and a group of venues.
Funded with support from Cultuurloket DigitALL.
Read more about the initiative, its goals, and the work behind it on the Thunderboom project page.
Next Stage AR on Thunderboom →Alongside the software, the initiative produced a research report. Femke Vandenberg and Frank Kimenai investigated how Dutch music venues and artists could use mobile AR outside of commercial platforms, running pilot concerts and testing with real audiences.
On the creative and economic potential of mobile augmented reality in live music.
Read the report →