# jberg/butterchurn

Butterchurn is a WebGL implementation of the Milkdrop Visualizer

Repository: https://github.com/jberg/butterchurn
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/butterchurn
Homepage: https://butterchurnviz.com/
Language: JavaScript
License: MIT
License Family: permissive
Topics: webgl2, webgl, webaudio-api, music-visualizer, visualization, reimplementation, wasm, assemblyscript
Last push: 2026-04-20T01:09:52+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 67/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-03T02:20:16.233290+00:00)
- activity 78, release rhythm 35, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 3055, "days_push": 136, "days_rel": null, "gap_med": null, "n_releases_24m": 0}
- flags: no_releases
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 1933, forks 168 (observed 2026-08-28T04:05:56.326483+00:00)

## What it is
Butterchurn is a WebGL2-based JavaScript library that reimplements the MilkDrop music visualizer in the browser. It renders audio-reactive visual presets using the Web Audio API and ships with a companion preset package.

## Use cases
- visualize music in the browser with WebGL
- add audio-reactive visuals to a web music player
- render MilkDrop presets on a website
- visualize microphone input live
- add a music visualizer to a streaming or karaoke app
- detect WebGL2 support before loading a visualizer

## When to choose
- You need a browser-based MilkDrop-compatible music visualizer
- You want audio-reactive visuals driven by Web Audio API nodes
- You want to load and blend classic MilkDrop presets

## When to avoid
- You need server-side or native desktop visualization
- Your target browsers lack WebGL 2 support
- You need a lightweight static visualizer without audio analysis

## Facets
- artifact type: library
- maturity: active
- function: graphics, audio-processing, animation, ui-components
- domain: graphics, media, web-development, entertainment, frontend
- platform: browser, browser-extension
- tags: webgl2, webaudio, milkdrop, music-visualizer, presets, wasm, assemblyscript, web-server, javascript

## Member repositories
- jberg/butterchurn (main) score 67

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:05:56.326483+00:00.
- Health v2: computed from the inputs above; adoption is never an input.
- Inferred fields (summary, facets, guidance): AI-extracted, prompt v1, taxonomy v1, on 2026-08-30T03:08:34.151700+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/jberg/butterchurn (fetched 2026-08-28T04:05:56.326483+00:00, sha c4282922945a)
  - homepage: https://butterchurnviz.com/ (fetched 2026-08-29T10:48:16.716608+00:00, sha 1d17e22079f0)
  - registry_npm: https://registry.npmjs.org/butterchurn (fetched 2026-08-29T10:48:16.725405+00:00, sha a532dcbea427)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.