This specification describes a high-level JavaScript API for processing and
synthesizing audio in web applications. The primary paradigm is of an audio
routing graph, where a number of AudioNode
objects are connected
together to define the overall audio rendering. The actual processing will
primarily take place in the underlying implementation (typically optimized
Assembly / C / C++ code), but direct
JavaScript processing and synthesis is also supported.
The introductory section covers the motivation behind this specification.
This API is designed to be used in conjunction with other APIs and elements
on the web platform, notably: XMLHttpRequest [[XHR]]
(using the responseType
and response
attributes). For
games and interactive applications, it is anticipated to be used with the
canvas
2D [[2dcontext]] and WebGL [[WEBGL]] 3D graphics APIs.
Audio on the web has been fairly primitive up to this point and until very
recently has had to be delivered through plugins such as Flash and QuickTime.
The introduction of the audio
element in HTML5 is very important,
allowing for basic streaming audio playback. But, it is not powerful enough to
handle more complex audio applications. For sophisticated web-based games or
interactive applications, another solution is required. It is a goal of this
specification to include the capabilities found in modern game audio engines as
well as some of the mixing, processing, and filtering tasks that are found in
modern desktop audio production applications.
The APIs have been designed with a wide variety of use cases in mind. Ideally, it should be able to support any use case which could reasonably be implemented with an optimized C++ engine controlled via JavaScript and run in a browser. That said, modern desktop audio software can have very advanced capabilities, some of which would be difficult or impossible to build with this system. Apple's Logic Audio is one such application which has support for external MIDI controllers, arbitrary plugin audio effects and synthesizers, highly optimized direct-to-disk audio file reading/writing, tightly integrated time-stretching, and so on. Nevertheless, the proposed system will be quite capable of supporting a large range of reasonably complex games and interactive applications, including musical ones. And it can be a very good complement to the more advanced graphics features offered by WebGL. The API has been designed so that more advanced capabilities can be added at a later time.
The API supports these primary features:
audio
or
video
media
element. MediaStreamAudioSourceNode
and [[!webrtc]].
MediaStreamAudioDestinationNode
and [[!webrtc]].
Modular routing allows arbitrary connections between different
AudioNode
objects. Each node can
have inputs and/or outputs. A source node has no inputs
and a single output. A destination node has
one input and no outputs, the most common example being AudioDestinationNode
the final destination to the audio
hardware. Other nodes such as filters can be placed between the source and destination nodes.
The developer doesn't have to worry about low-level stream format details
when two objects are connected together; the right
thing just happens. For example, if a mono audio stream is connected to a
stereo input it should just mix to left and right channels appropriately.
In the simplest case, a single source can be routed directly to the output.
All routing occurs within an AudioContext
containing a single
AudioDestinationNode
:
Illustrating this simple routing, here's a simple example playing a single sound:
var context = new AudioContext(); function playSound() { var source = context.createBufferSource(); source.buffer = dogBarkingBuffer; source.connect(context.destination); source.start(0); }
Here's a more complex example with three sources and a convolution reverb send with a dynamics compressor at the final output stage:
var context = 0; var compressor = 0; var reverb = 0; var source1 = 0; var source2 = 0; var source3 = 0; var lowpassFilter = 0; var waveShaper = 0; var panner = 0; var dry1 = 0; var dry2 = 0; var dry3 = 0; var wet1 = 0; var wet2 = 0; var wet3 = 0; var masterDry = 0; var masterWet = 0; function setupRoutingGraph () { context = new AudioContext(); // Create the effects nodes. lowpassFilter = context.createBiquadFilter(); waveShaper = context.createWaveShaper(); panner = context.createPanner(); compressor = context.createDynamicsCompressor(); reverb = context.createConvolver(); // Create master wet and dry. masterDry = context.createGain(); masterWet = context.createGain(); // Connect final compressor to final destination. compressor.connect(context.destination); // Connect master dry and wet to compressor. masterDry.connect(compressor); masterWet.connect(compressor); // Connect reverb to master wet. reverb.connect(masterWet); // Create a few sources. source1 = context.createBufferSource(); source2 = context.createBufferSource(); source3 = context.createOscillator(); source1.buffer = manTalkingBuffer; source2.buffer = footstepsBuffer; source3.frequency.value = 440; // Connect source1 dry1 = context.createGain(); wet1 = context.createGain(); source1.connect(lowpassFilter); lowpassFilter.connect(dry1); lowpassFilter.connect(wet1); dry1.connect(masterDry); wet1.connect(reverb); // Connect source2 dry2 = context.createGain(); wet2 = context.createGain(); source2.connect(waveShaper); waveShaper.connect(dry2); waveShaper.connect(wet2); dry2.connect(masterDry); wet2.connect(reverb); // Connect source3 dry3 = context.createGain(); wet3 = context.createGain(); source3.connect(panner); panner.connect(dry3); panner.connect(wet3); dry3.connect(masterDry); wet3.connect(reverb); // Start the sources now. source1.start(0); source2.start(0); source3.start(0); }
The interfaces defined are:
AudioNode
s. AudioNode
interface,
which represents audio sources, audio outputs, and intermediate processing
modules. AudioNode
s can be dynamically connected together in a modular fashion. AudioNode
s
exist in the context of an AudioContext
AudioDestinationNode
interface, an
AudioNode
subclass representing the final destination for all rendered
audio. AudioBuffer
interface, for working with memory-resident audio assets. These can
represent one-shot sounds, or longer audio clips. AudioBufferSourceNode
interface,
an AudioNode
which generates audio from an AudioBuffer. MediaElementAudioSourceNode
interface, an AudioNode
which is the audio source from an
audio
, video
, or other media element. MediaStreamAudioSourceNode
interface, an AudioNode
which is the audio source from a
MediaStream such as live audio input, or from a remote peer. MediaStreamAudioDestinationNode
interface, an AudioNode
which is the audio destination to a
MediaStream sent to a remote peer. AudioWorker
interface representing a factory for
creating WebWorker
-based custom nodes that can designed
process audio directly in JavaScript.AudioWorkerNode
interface, an
AudioNode
representing a node processed in an AudioWorker. AudioWorkerGlobalScope
interface, the context in which AudioWorker processing scripts run.AudioWorkerNodeProcessor
interface, representing a single node instance inside an audio worker. ScriptProcessorNode
interface, an
AudioNode
for generating or processing audio directly in JavaScript. AudioProcessingEvent
interface,
which is an event type used with ScriptProcessorNode
objects.
AudioParam
interface,
for controlling an individual aspect of an AudioNode
's functioning, such as
volume. GainNode
interface, for explicit gain control. Because inputs to
AudioNode
s support
multiple connections (as a unity-gain summing junction), mixers can be easily built with GainNodes.
BiquadFilterNode
interface, an AudioNode
for common low-order filters such as:
DelayNode
interface, an
AudioNode
which applies a dynamically adjustable variable delay. PannerNode
interface, for spatializing / positioning audio in 3D space. AudioListener
interface, which works with a PannerNode for
spatialization. StereoPannerNode
interface, for equal-power positioning of audio input in a stereo stream. ConvolverNode
interface, an AudioNode
for applying a real-time linear effect (such as the sound
of a concert hall). AnalyserNode
interface,
for use with music visualizers, or other visualization applications. ChannelSplitterNode
interface,
for accessing the individual channels of an audio stream in the routing
graph. ChannelMergerNode
interface, for
combining channels from multiple audio streams into a single audio stream.
DynamicsCompressorNode
interface, an
AudioNode
for dynamics compression. WaveShaperNode
interface, an AudioNode
which applies a non-linear waveshaping effect for
distortion and other more subtle warming effects. OscillatorNode
interface, an audio source generating a periodic waveform. The following conformance classes are defined by this specification:
A user agent is considered to be a conforming implementation if it satisfies all of the MUST-, REQUIRED- and SHALL-level criteria in this specification that apply to implementations.
User agents that use ECMAScript to implement the APIs defined in this specification must implement them in a manner consistent with the ECMAScript Bindings defined in the Web IDL specification [[!WEBIDL]] as this specification uses that specification and terminology.
This interface represents a set of AudioNode
objects and their
connections. It allows for arbitrary routing of signals to the
AudioDestinationNode
(what the user ultimately hears). Nodes are created from the context and are
then connected together. In most use
cases, only a single AudioContext
is used per document.
An AudioDestinationNode
with a single input representing the final destination for all audio.
Usually this will represent the actual audio hardware.
All AudioNode
s actively rendering
audio will directly or indirectly connect to destination
.
The sample rate (in sample-frames per second) at which the
AudioContext
handles audio. It is assumed that all AudioNode
s in the
context run at this rate. In making this assumption, sample-rate
converters or "varispeed" processors are not supported in real-time
processing.
This is a time in seconds which starts at zero when the context is created and increases in real-time. All scheduled times are relative to it. This is not a "transport" time which can be started, paused, and re-positioned. It is always moving forward. A GarageBand-like timeline transport system can be very easily built on top of this (in JavaScript). This time corresponds to an ever-increasing hardware timestamp.
An AudioListener
which is used for 3D spatialization.
When the state is "suspended", a call to resume()
will cause a transition to "running", or a call to close()
will cause a transition to "closed".
When the state is "running", a call to suspend()
will cause a transition to "suspended", or a call to close()
will cause a transition to "closed".
When the state is "closed", no further state transitions are possible.
While the system is suspended, MediaStreams will have their output ignored; that is, data will be lost by the real time nature of media streams. HTMLMediaElements will similarly have their output ignored until the system is resumed. Audio Workers and ScriptProcessorNodes will simply not fire their onaudioprocess events while suspended, but will resume when resumed. For the purpose of AnalyserNode window functions, the data is considered as a continuous stream - i.e. the resume()/suspend() does not cause silence to appear in the AnalyserNode's stream of data.
EventHandler
for an event that is dispatched to
AudioContext
when the state of the AudioContext has changed (i.e. when the
corresponding promise would have resolved). An event of type Event
will be
dispatched to the event handler, which can query the AudioContext's state directly. A
newly-created AudioContext will always begin in the "suspended" state, and a state change event will be fired
whenever the state changes to a different state.
response
attribute after setting the responseType
to "arraybuffer". Audio file data can be in any of the formats supported by
the audio
element.
Although the primary method of interfacing with this function is via its promise return value, the callback parameters are provided for legacy reasons.
The following steps must be performed:
DOMException
whose name is NotSupportedError
.DOMException
whose name is "EncodingError"
.AudioContext
if it is different from the sample-rate of audioData.AudioBuffer
containing the final result (after possibly
sample-rate converting).AudioBufferSourceNode
.
AudioContext
.
MediaStreamAudioDestinationNode
AudioWorker
object and loads the
associated script into an AudioWorkerGlobalScope
,
then resolves the returned Promise.
ScriptProcessorNode
for direct audio processing using
JavaScript. An IndexSizeError exception MUST be thrown if
bufferSize
or numberOfInputChannels
or
numberOfOutputChannels
are outside the valid range.
bufferSize
parameter determines the buffer size in units of
sample-frames. If it's not passed in, or if the value is 0, then the
implementation will choose the best buffer size for the given
environment, which will be constant power of 2 throughout the lifetime
of the node. Otherwise if the author explicitly specifies the
bufferSize, it must be one of the following values: 256, 512, 1024,
2048, 4096, 8192, 16384. This value controls how frequently the
audioprocess
event is
dispatched and how many sample-frames need to be processed each call.
Lower values for bufferSize
will result in a lower (better) latency. Higher
values will be necessary to avoid audio breakup and
glitches.
It is recommended for authors to not specify this buffer size and
allow the implementation to pick a good buffer size to balance between
latency and audio quality.
numberOfInputChannels
and
numberOfOutputChannels
to be zero.
AnalyserNode
.GainNode
.DelayNode
representing a variable delay line. The
initial default delay time will be 0 seconds.
BiquadFilterNode
representing a second order filter which can be configured as one of
several common filter types.
WaveShaperNode
representing a non-linear distortion.
PannerNode
.
StereoPannerNode
.
ConvolverNode
.
ChannelSplitterNode
representing a channel splitter. An IndexSizeError exception MUST be thrown
for invalid parameter values.
ChannelMergerNode
representing a channel merger. An
IndexSizeError exception MUST be thrown for invalid parameter values.
DynamicsCompressorNode
OscillatorNode
PeriodicWave
representing a waveform
containing arbitrary harmonic content. The real
and
imag
parameters must be of type Float32Array
(described in [[!TYPED-ARRAYS]]) of equal lengths greater than zero and less
than or equal to 2048 or an IndexSizeError exception MUST be thrown. These
parameters specify the Fourier coefficients of a
Fourier series
representing the partials of a periodic waveform. The created
PeriodicWave
will be used with an
OscillatorNode
and will represent a normalized
time-domain waveform having maximum absolute peak value of 1. Another way of
saying this is that the generated waveform of an
OscillatorNode
will have maximum peak value at 0dBFS.
Conveniently, this corresponds to the full-range of the signal values used by
the Web Audio API. Because the PeriodicWave will be normalized on creation,
the real
and imag
parameters represent
relative values.
As PeriodicWave objects maintain their own representation, any
modification of the arrays uses as the real
and
imag
parameters after the call to
createPeriodicWave()
will have no effect on the
PeriodicWave object.
cosine
terms (traditionally the A terms). In
audio terminology, the first element (index 0) is the
DC-offset of the periodic waveform. The second element (index
1) represents the fundamental frequency. The third element
represents the first overtone, and so on. The first element is
ignored and implementations must set it to zero internally.
sine
terms (traditionally the B terms). The first element
(index 0) should be set to zero (and will be ignored) since this term does
not exist in the Fourier series. The second element (index 1) represents
the fundamental frequency. The third element represents the first
overtone, and so on.
Once created, an AudioContext
will continue to play sound until it has no more sound to play, or
the page goes away.
The Web Audio API takes a fire-and-forget approach to audio source scheduling. That is, source nodes are created for each note during the lifetime of the AudioContext, and never explicitely removed from the graph. This is incompatible with a serialization API, since there is no stable set of nodes that could be serialized.
Moreover, having an introspection API would allow content script to be able to observe garbage collections.
OfflineAudioContext
is a particular type of AudioContext
for rendering/mixing-down
(potentially) faster than real-time. It does not render to the audio hardware, but instead renders as quickly as
possible, fulfilling the returned promise with the rendered result as an AudioBuffer
.
Each OfflineAudioContext
instance has an associated
rendering started flag that is initially
false
.
Given the current connections and scheduled changes, starts rendering audio.
Although the primary method of getting the rendered audio data is via its promise return value, the instance
will also fire an event named complete
for legacy reasons.
The following steps must be performed:
true
, return a promise rejected with a DOMException
whose name is
"InvalidStateError"
.true
.AudioBuffer
, with a
number of channels, length and sample rate equal respectively to the
numberOfChannels
, length
and
sampleRate
parameters used when this instance's constructor was called.length
sample-frames of audio into buffer.complete
at this instance, using an instance of
OfflineAudioCompletionEvent
whose
renderedBuffer
property is set to buffer.An EventHandler of type OfflineAudioCompletionEvent.
This is an Event
object which is dispatched to OfflineAudioContext
for legacy
reasons.
An AudioBuffer
containing the rendered audio data.
AudioNodes are the building blocks of an AudioContext
. This interface
represents audio sources, the audio destination, and intermediate processing
modules. These modules can be connected together to form processing graphs for rendering audio to the
audio hardware. Each node can have inputs and/or outputs.
A source node has no inputs
and a single output. An AudioDestinationNode
has
one input and no outputs and represents the final destination to the audio
hardware. Most processing nodes such as filters will have one input and one
output. Each type of AudioNode
differs in the details of how it processes or synthesizes audio. But, in general, an AudioNode
will process its inputs (if it has any), and generate audio for its outputs (if it has any).
Each output has one or more channels. The exact number of
channels depends on the details of the specific AudioNode
.
An output may connect to one or more AudioNode
inputs, thus fan-out is supported. An input initially has no connections,
but may be connected from one
or more AudioNode outputs, thus fan-in is supported. When the connect()
method is called to connect
an output of an AudioNode to an input of an
AudioNode, we call that a connection to the input.
Each AudioNode input has a specific number of channels at any given time. This number can change depending on the connection(s) made to the input. If the input has no connections then it has one channel which is silent.
For each input, an AudioNode
performs a mixing
(usually an up-mixing) of all connections to that input.
Please see for more informative details,
and the
section for normative requirements.
For performance reasons, practical implementations will need to use block
processing, with each AudioNode
processing a fixed number
of sample-frames of size block-size. In order to get uniform behavior
across implementations, we will define this value explicitly.
block-size is defined to be 128 sample-frames which corresponds to
roughly 3ms at a sample-rate of 44.1KHz.
AudioNodes are EventTargets, as described in DOM
[[!DOM]]. This means that it is possible to dispatch events to
AudioNode
s the same
way that other EventTargets accept events.
computedNumberOfChannels
is computed as the maximum of the number of channels of all connections. In this mode channelCount is ignoredcomputedNumberOfChannels
is the exact value as specified in channelCountdestination
parameter is the
AudioNode
to connect to. If the
destination
parameter is an AudioNode
that has been created using another AudioContext
, an
InvalidAccessError MUST be thrown. That is, AudioNodes
cannot be shared between AudioContext
. output
parameter is an index describing which output of the
AudioNode
from which to connect. If this paremeter is out-of-bound, an
IndexSizeError exception MUST be thrown.
It is possible to connect an AudioNode
output to more than one input
with multiple calls to connect(). Thus, "fan-out" is supported.
input
parameter is an index describing which input of
the destination AudioNode
to connect to. If this
parameter is out-of-bounds, an IndexSizeError exception MUST be thrown.
It is possible to connect an AudioNode
to another
AudioNode
which creates a cycle: an
AudioNode
may connect to another
AudioNode
, which in turn connects back to the first
AudioNode
. This is allowed only if there is at
least one DelayNode
in the cycle or a
NotSupportedError exception MUST be thrown.
There can only be one connection between a given output of one specific node and a given input of another specific node. Multiple connections with the same termini are ignored. For example:
nodeA.connect(nodeB); nodeA.connect(nodeB);
will have the same effect as
nodeA.connect(nodeB);
AudioNode
to an AudioParam
, controlling the parameter
value with an audio-rate signal.
destination
parameter is the AudioParam
to connect to.output
parameter is an index describing which output of the
AudioNode
from which to connect. If the parameter
is
out-of-bound, an IndexSizeError exception MUST be thrown.
It is possible to connect an AudioNode
output to more than one
AudioParam
with multiple calls to connect(). Thus, "fan-out" is supported.
It is possible to connect more than one AudioNode
output to a
single AudioParam
with multiple calls to connect(). Thus, "fan-in" is
supported.
An AudioParam
will take the rendered audio data from
any AudioNode
output connected to it and convert it to
mono by down-mixing if it is not already mono, then mix it together
with other such outputs and finally will mix with the intrinsic
parameter value (the value
the AudioParam
would normally have
without any audio connections), including any timeline changes scheduled
for the parameter.
There can only be one connection between a given output of one
specific node and a specific AudioParam
. Multiple connections with the
same termini are ignored. For example:
nodeA.connect(param); nodeA.connect(param);will have the same effect as
nodeA.connect(param);
Disconnects all outgoing connections from AudioNode
.
AudioNode
to disconnect. It disconnects all outgoing
connections from the given output. If this parameter is out-of-bounds, an
IndexSizeError exception MUST be thrown.
destination
parameter is the AudioNode
to disconnect. It disconnects all outgoing connections to the given
destination
. If there is no connection to destination
,
an InvalidAccessError exception MUST be thrown.
destination
parameter is the AudioNode
to disconnect. If there is no connection to the destination
from the given output, an InvalidAccessError exception MUST be thrown.
output
parameter is an index describing which output of the
AudioNode
from which to disconnect. If this parameter
is out-of-bound, an IndexSizeError exception MUST be thrown.
destination
parameter is the AudioNode
to disconnect. If there is no connection to the destination
from the given output to the given input, an InvalidAccessError exception
MUST be thrown.
output
parameter is an index describing which output of the
AudioNode
from which to disconnect. If this parameter
is out-of-bound, an IndexSizeError exception MUST be thrown.
input
parameter is an index describing which input of
the destination AudioNode
to disconnect. If this
parameter is out-of-bounds, an IndexSizeError exception MUST be thrown.
destination
parameter is the AudioParam
to disconnect. If there is no connection to the destination
, an
InvalidAccessError exception MUST be thrown.
destination
parameter is the AudioParam
to disconnect. If there is no connection to the destination
, an
InvalidAccessError exception MUST be thrown.
output
parameter is an index describing which output of the
AudioNode
from which to disconnect. If the parameter
is out-of-bound, an IndexSizeError exception MUST be thrown.
AudioContext
which owns this
AudioNode
.
AudioNode
. For
source nodes, this will be 0. This attribute is predetermined
for many AudioNode
types, but some
AudioNode
, like the
ChannelMergerNode
and the
AudioWorkerNode
have variable number of inputs.
AudioNode
. This
attribute is predetermined for some AudioNode
types,
but can be variable, like for the ChannelSplitterNode
and the AudioWorkerNode
.
The number of channels used when up-mixing and down-mixing connections to any inputs to the node. The default value is 2 except for specific nodes where its value is specially determined. This attribute has no effect for nodes with no inputs. If this value is set to zero, the implementation MUST throw a NotSupportedError exception.
Determines how channels will be counted when up-mixing and down-mixing connections to any inputs to the node. This attribute has no effect for nodes with no inputs.
Determines how individual channels will be treated when up-mixing and down-mixing connections to any inputs to the node. This attribute has no effect for nodes with no inputs.
An implementation may choose any method to avoid unnecessary resource usage and unbounded memory growth of unused/finished nodes. The following is a description to help guide the general expectation of how node lifetime would be managed.
An AudioNode
will live as long as there are any references to it.
There are several types of references:
AudioBufferSourceNode
s and OscillatorNode
s.
These nodes maintain a playing
reference to themselves while they are currently playing.AudioNode
is connected to it. AudioNode
maintains on itself as long as it has
any internal processing state which has not yet been emitted. For example, a ConvolverNode
has
a tail which continues to play even after receiving silent input (think about clapping your hands in a large concert
hall and continuing to hear the sound reverberate throughout the hall). Some AudioNode
s have this
property. Please see details for specific nodes.
Any AudioNode
s which are connected in a cycle and are directly or indirectly connected to the
AudioDestinationNode
of the AudioContext
will stay alive as long as the AudioContext
is alive.
When an AudioNode
has no references it will be deleted. Before it is deleted, it will disconnect itself
from any other AudioNode
s which it is connected to. In this way it releases all connection references (3) it has to other nodes.
Regardless of any of the above references, it can be assumed that the AudioNode
will be deleted when its AudioContext
is deleted.
This is an AudioNode
representing the final audio destination and is
what the user will ultimately hear. It can often be considered as an audio
output device which is connected to speakers. All rendered audio to be heard
will be routed to this node, a "terminal" node in the AudioContext
's routing
graph. There is only a single AudioDestinationNode per AudioContext
, provided
through the destination
attribute of AudioContext
.
numberOfInputs : 1 numberOfOutputs : 0 channelCount = 2; channelCountMode = "explicit"; channelInterpretation = "speakers";
The maximum number of channels that the
channelCount
attribute
can be set to. An AudioDestinationNode
representing the audio
hardware end-point (the normal case) can potentially output more than 2
channels of audio if the audio hardware is multi-channel.
maxChannelCount
is the maximum number of channels that this
hardware is capable of supporting. If this value is 0, then this indicates
that channelCount may not be
changed. This will be the case for an AudioDestinationNode
in an
OfflineAudioContext
and also for basic implementations with hardware
support for stereo output only.
channelCount defaults to 2 for
a destination in a normal AudioContext
, and may be set to any
non-zero value less than or equal to maxChannelCount
. An
IndexSizeError
exception MUST be thrown if this value is not within
the valid range. Giving a concrete example, if the audio hardware
supports 8-channel output, then we may set channelCount to 8, and render
8-channels of output.
For anAudioDestinationNode
in an
OfflineAudioContext
, the
channelCount
is
determined when the offline context is created and this value may not be
changed.
AudioParam
controls an individual aspect of an AudioNode
's functioning,
such as volume. The parameter can be set immediately to a particular value
using the value
attribute. Or, value changes can be scheduled to
happen at very precise times (in the coordinate system of
AudioContext
's currentTime
attribute), for envelopes, volume fades, LFOs, filter sweeps,
grain windows, etc. In this way, arbitrary timeline-based automation curves
can be set on any AudioParam
. Additionally, audio signals from the outputs of
AudioNode
s can be connected to an AudioParam
, summing with the
intrinsic parameter value.
Some synthesis and processing AudioNode
s have
AudioParams
as attributes whose values must be taken into account
on a per-audio-sample basis. For other AudioParams
,
sample-accuracy is not important and the value changes can be sampled more
coarsely. Each individual AudioParam
will specify that it is
either an a-rate parameter which means that its values must be taken
into account on a per-audio-sample basis, or it is a k-rate
parameter.
Implementations must use block processing, with each AudioNode
processing 128 sample-frames in each block.
For each 128 sample-frame block, the value of a k-rate parameter must be sampled at the time of the very first sample-frame, and that value must be used for the entire block. a-rate parameters must be sampled for each sample-frame of the block.
An AudioParam
maintains a time-ordered event list which is
initially empty. The times are in the time coordinate system of
the AudioContext
's currentTime attribute. The events define a mapping from time to value.
The following methods can change the event list by adding a new event into the
list of a type specific to the method. Each event has a time associated with
it, and the events will always be kept in time-order in the list. These
methods will be called automation methods:
The following rules will apply when calling these methods:
The parameter's floating-point value. This attribute is initialized to
the defaultValue
. If value
is set during a time
when there are any automation events scheduled then it will be ignored and
no exception will be thrown.
value
attribute.
Schedules a parameter value change at the given time.
The value
parameter is the value the parameter
will change to at the given time.
The startTime
parameter is the time
in the same time coordinate system as the AudioContext
's currentTime attribute. An InvalidAccessError exception MUST be
thrown if startTime
is negative or is not a finite number.
If there are no more events after this SetValue event, then for t
>= startTime
, v(t) = value. In other words, the value
will remain constant.
If the next event (having time T1) after this SetValue event is not of type LinearRampToValue or ExponentialRampToValue, then, for t:
startTime <= t < T1, v(t) = value
In other words, the value will remain constant during this time interval, allowing the creation of "step" functions.
If the next event after this SetValue event is of type LinearRampToValue or ExponentialRampToValue then please see details below.
Schedules a linear continuous change in parameter value from the previous scheduled parameter value to the given value.
The value
parameter is the value the parameter will linearly ramp
to at the given time.
The endTime
parameter is the time in the same time coordinate
system as the AudioContext
's currentTime attribute. An
InvalidAccessError exception MUST be thrown if endTime
is
negative or is not a finite number.
The value during the time interval T0 <= t < T1 (where T0 is the time
of the previous event and T1 is the endTime
parameter passed
into this method) will be calculated as:
v(t) = V0 + (V1 - V0) * ((t - T0) / (T1 - T0))
Where V0 is the value at the time T0 and V1 is the value parameter passed into this method.
If there are no more events after this LinearRampToValue event then for t >= T1, v(t) = V1.
Schedules an exponential continuous change in parameter value from the previous scheduled parameter value to the given value. Parameters representing filter frequencies and playback rate are best changed exponentially because of the way humans perceive sound.
The value
parameter is the value the parameter
will exponentially ramp to at the given time. A NotSupportedError exception
MUST be thrown if this value is less than or equal to 0, or if the value at
the time of the previous event is less than or equal to 0.
The endTime
parameter is the time in the same
time coordinate system as the AudioContext
's currentTime attribute. An
InvalidAccessError exception MUST be thrown if endTime
is
negative or is not a finite number.
The value during the time interval T0 <= t < T1 (where T0 is the time of the previous event and T1 is the endTime parameter passed into this method) will be calculated as:
v(t) = V0 * (V1 / V0) ^ ((t - T0) / (T1 - T0))
Where V0 is the value at the time T0 and V1 is the value parameter passed into this method.
If there are no more events after this ExponentialRampToValue event then for t >= T1, v(t) = V1
Start exponentially approaching the target value at the given time with a rate having the given time constant. Among other uses, this is useful for implementing the "decay" and "release" portions of an ADSR envelope. Please note that the parameter value does not immediately change to the target value at the given time, but instead gradually changes to the target value.
The target
parameter is the value
the parameter will start changing to at the given time.
The startTime
parameter is the time in the
same time coordinate system as the AudioContext
's currentTime attribute. An InvalidAccessError exception MUST be
thrown if start
is negative or is not a finite number.
The timeConstant parameter is the time-constant value of first-order filter (exponential) approach to the target value. The larger this value is, the slower the transition will be.
More precisely, timeConstant is the time it takes a first-order linear continuous time-invariant system to reach the value 1 - 1/e (around 63.2%) given a step input response (transition from 0 to 1 value).
During the time interval: T0 <= t < T1, where T0
is the startTime
parameter and T1 represents the time of the
event following this event (or infinity if there are no following
events):
v(t) = V1 + (V0 - V1) * exp(-(t - T0) / timeConstant)
Where V0 is the initial value (the .value attribute) at T0 (the
startTime
parameter) and V1 is equal to the target
parameter.
Sets an array of arbitrary parameter values starting at the given time for the given duration. The number of values will be scaled to fit into the desired duration.
The values
parameter is a Float32Array
representing a parameter value curve. These values will apply starting at
the given time and lasting for the given duration. Any modification to the
the array used as values
argument
after the call won't have any effect on the AudioParam.
The startTime
parameter is the time in the same time
coordinate system as the AudioContext
's currentTime attribute. An
InvalidAccessError exception MUST be thrown if startTime
is
negative or is not a finite number.
The duration parameter is the amount of time in seconds (after the time parameter) where values will be calculated according to the values parameter.
During the time interval: startTime
<= t <
startTime
+ duration, values will be calculated:
v(t) = values[N * (t - startTime) / duration]
where N is the length of the values array.
After the end of the curve time interval (t >= startTime
+
duration), the value will remain constant at the final curve
value, until there is another automation event (if any).
Cancels all scheduled parameter changes with times greater than or
equal to startTime
.
The startTime
parameter is the starting time at and after
which any previously scheduled parameter changes will be cancelled. It
is a time in the same time coordinate system as
the AudioContext
's
currentTime attribute.
An InvalidAccessError exception MUST be thrown if startTime
is negative or is not a finite number.
computedValue is the final value controlling the audio DSP and is computed by the audio rendering thread during each rendering time quantum. It must be internally computed as follows:
value
attribute,
or, if there are any scheduled parameter changes (automation events) with times before or at this time,
the value as calculated from these events. If the value
attribute
is set after any automation events have been scheduled, then these events will be removed. When read, the value
attribute
always returns the intrinsic value for the current time. If automation events are removed from a given time range, then the
intrinsic value will remain unchanged and stay at its previous value until either the value
attribute is directly set, or automation events are added
for the time range.
AudioParam
will take the rendered audio data from any AudioNode
output connected to it and convert it to mono by down-mixing if it is not
already mono, then mix it together with other such outputs. If there are no AudioNode
s connected to it, then this value is 0, having no
effect on the computedValue.
var t0 = 0;
var t1 = 0.1;
var t2 = 0.2;
var t3 = 0.3;
var t4 = 0.4;
var t5 = 0.6;
var t6 = 0.7;
var t7 = 1.0;
var curveLength = 44100;
var curve = new Float32Array(curveLength);
for (var i = 0; i < curveLength; ++i)
curve[i] = Math.sin(Math.PI * i / curveLength);
param.setValueAtTime(0.2, t0);
param.setValueAtTime(0.3, t1);
param.setValueAtTime(0.4, t2);
param.linearRampToValueAtTime(1, t3);
param.linearRampToValueAtTime(0.15, t4);
param.exponentialRampToValueAtTime(0.75, t5);
param.exponentialRampToValueAtTime(0.05, t6);
param.setValueCurveAtTime(curve, t6, t7 - t6);
Changing the gain of an audio signal is a fundamental operation in audio
applications. The GainNode
is one of the building blocks for
creating mixers. This interface is an
AudioNode
with a single input and single output:
numberOfInputs : 1 numberOfOutputs : 1 channelCountMode = "max"; channelInterpretation = "speakers";
Each sample of each channel of the input data of the
GainNode
MUST be multiplied by the computedValue of
the gain
AudioParam
.
The implementation must make gain changes to the audio stream smoothly, without introducing noticeable clicks or glitches. This process is called "de-zippering".
value
is 1
(no gain change). The nominal minValue
is 0, but may be set
negative for phase inversion. The nominal maxValue
is 1, but
higher values are allowed (no
exception thrown).This parameter is a-rate
A delay-line is a fundamental building block in audio applications. This
interface is an AudioNode
with a single input and single output:
numberOfInputs : 1 numberOfOutputs : 1 channelCountMode = "max"; channelInterpretation = "speakers";
The number of channels of the output always equals the number of channels of the input.
It delays the incoming audio signal by a certain amount. Specifically, at each
time t, input signal input(t), delay time
delayTime(t) and output signal output(t), the output will be
output(t) = input(t - delayTime(t)). The default
delayTime
is 0 seconds (no delay). When the delay time is
changed, the implementation must make the transition smoothly, without
introducing noticeable clicks or glitches to the audio stream.
An AudioParam
object representing the amount of delay
(in seconds) to apply. Its default value
is 0 (no delay). The
minimum value is 0 and the maximum value is determined by the
maxDelayTime
argument to the AudioContext
method
createDelay
.
If DelayNode
is part of a cycle, then the value
of the delayTime
attribute is clamped to a minimum of
128 frames (one block).
This parameter is a-rate.
This interface represents a memory-resident audio asset (for one-shot sounds
and other short audio clips). Its format is non-interleaved IEEE 32-bit linear
PCM with a nominal range of -1 -> +1. It can contain one or more channels.
Typically, it would be expected that the length of the PCM data would be
fairly short (usually somewhat less than a minute). For longer sounds, such
as music soundtracks, streaming should be used with the audio
element and MediaElementAudioSourceNode
.
An AudioBuffer may be used by one or more
AudioContext
s, and can be shared between an
OfflineAudioContext
and an
AudioContext
.
Float32Array
representing the PCM audio data for
the specific channel.
numberOfChannels
or an IndexSizeError
exception MUST be thrown.
copyFromChannel
method copies the samples from the
specified channel of the AudioBuffer to the
destination
array.
channelNumber
is greater or equal than the number of
channel of the AudioBuffer, an IndexSizeError
MUST
be thrown.
startInChannel
is greater than the length
of the
AudioBuffer, an IndexSizeError
MUST be thrown.
copyToChannel
method copies the samples to the
specified channel of the AudioBuffer, from the
source
array.
channelNumber
is greater or equal than the number of
channel of the AudioBuffer, an IndexSizeError
MUST
be thrown.
startInChannel
is greater than the length
of the AudioBuffer, an IndexSizeError
MUST be
thrown.
The methods copyToChannel
and copyFromChannel
can be
used to fill part of an array by passing in a Float32Array
that's
a view onto the larger array.
When reading data from an AudioBuffer's channels, and the data can be
processed in chunks, copyFromChannel
should be preferred to
calling getChannelData
and accessing the resulting array, because
it may avoid unnecessary memory allocation and copying.
An internal operation acquire the contents of
an AudioBuffer
is invoked when the contents of an
AudioBuffer are needed by some API implementation. This operation
returns immutable channel data to the
invoker.
When an acquire the content operation occurs on an AudioBuffer, run the following steps:
ArrayBuffer
have
been neutered, abort these steps, and return a zero-length channel data
buffers to the invoker. ArrayBuffer
s for arrays previously returned by
getChannelData
on this AudioBuffer.ArrayBuffer
s
and return references to them to the invoker.ArrayBuffer
s containing copies of the data to the
AudioBuffer, to be returned by the next call to
getChannelData
.AudioBufferSourceNode.start
is called, it
acquires the contents of the node's
buffer
. If the operation fails, nothing is played.buffer
is set to an
AudioBuffer while the node is connected to an output node, or a
ConvolverNode is connected to an output node while the
ConvolverNode's buffer
is set to an
AudioBuffer, it acquires the
content of the AudioBuffer.outputBuffer
.
This interface represents an audio source from an in-memory audio asset in an
AudioBuffer
. It is useful for playing short audio assets which
require a high degree of scheduling flexibility (can playback in rhythmically
perfect ways). The start() method is used to schedule when sound playback will
happen. The playback will stop automatically when the buffer's audio data has
been completely played (if the loop
attribute is false), or when
the stop() method has been called and the specified time has been reached.
Please see more details in the start() and stop() description. start() and
stop() may not be issued multiple times for a given AudioBufferSourceNode.
numberOfInputs : 0 numberOfOutputs : 1
The number of channels of the output always equals the number of channels of the AudioBuffer assigned to the .buffer attribute, or is one channel of silence if .buffer is NULL.
value
is 1. This parameter is k-rate.
loop
attribute is true. Its default value
is 0,
and it may usefully be set to any value between 0 and the duration of the
buffer.
loop
attribute is true. Its default value
is 0,
and it may usefully be set to any value between 0 and the duration of the
buffer.
when
parameter describes at what time (in seconds) the sound
should start playing. It is in the same time coordinate system as
the AudioContext
's currentTime attribute. If 0 is passed in for this value or if the
value is less than currentTime, then the sound will start playing
immediately. start
may only be called one time and must be
called before stop
is called or an InvalidStateError
exception MUST be thrown. An InvalidAccessError exception MUST be
thrown if when
is negative or is not a finite number.
offset
is negative or is not a finite number.
duration
parameter describes the
duration of the portion (in seconds) to be played. If this parameter is
not passed, the duration will be equal to the total duration of the
AudioBuffer minus the offset
parameter. Thus if neither
offset
nor duration
are specified then the
implied duration is the total duration of the AudioBuffer. An
InvalidAccessError exception MUST be thrown if duration
is negative or is not a finite number.
when
parameter describes at what time (in seconds) the sound
should stop playing. It is in the same time coordinate system as
the AudioContext
's
currentTime attribute. If 0
is passed in for this value or if the value
is less than currentTime
, then the sound will stop playing
immediately. An InvalidAccessError exception MUST be thrown if
when
is negative or is not a finite number. If stop
is called again after already have been
called, the last invocation will be the only one applied; stop times set by previous
calls will not be applied, unless the buffer has already stopped prior to any
subsequent calls. If the buffer has already stopped, further calls to
stop
will have no effect. If a stop time is reached prior to the
scheduled start time, the sound will not play.
EventHandler
(described in
HTML[[!HTML]]) for the ended event that is dispatched to
AudioBufferSourceNode
node types. When the playback of the buffer for an
AudioBufferSourceNode
is finished, an event of type Event
(described in HTML
[[!HTML]]) will be dispatched to the event handler.
Both playbackRate
and detune
are k-rate
parameters and are used together to determine a computedPlaybackRate
value:
computedPlaybackRate(t) = playbackRate(t) * pow(2, detune(t) / 1200)The
computedPlaybackRate
is the effective speed at which the
AudioBuffer
of this AudioBufferSourceNode
MUST be played.
If the loop
attribute is true when start()
is called, then playback will continue indefinitely
until stop()
is called and the stop time is reached. We'll call this "loop" mode. Playback always starts at the point in the buffer indicated
by the offset
argument of start()
, and in loop mode will continue playing until it reaches the actualLoopEnd position
in the buffer (or the end of the buffer), at which point it will wrap back around to the actualLoopStart position in the buffer, and continue
playing according to this pattern.
In loop mode then the actual loop points are calculated as follows from the loopStart
and loopEnd
attributes:
if ((loopStart || loopEnd) && loopStart >= 0 && loopEnd > 0 && loopStart < loopEnd) { actualLoopStart = loopStart; actualLoopEnd = min(loopEnd, buffer.duration); } else { actualLoopStart = 0; actualLoopEnd = buffer.duration; }
Note that the default value
s for loopStart
and loopEnd
are both 0, which indicates that looping should occur from the very start
to the very end of the buffer.
Please note that as a low-level implementation detail, the AudioBuffer is at a
specific sample-rate (usually the same as the AudioContext
sample-rate), and that the loop times (in seconds) must be converted to the
appropriate sample-frame positions in the buffer according to this sample-rate.
When scheduling the beginning and the end of playback using the
start()
and stop()
methods, the resulting start or
stop time MUST be rounded to the nearest sample-frame in the sample rate of
the AudioContext
. That is, no sub-sample scheduling is
possible.
This interface represents an audio source from an audio
or
video
element.
numberOfInputs : 0 numberOfOutputs : 1
The number of channels of the output corresponds to the number of channels of the media referenced by the HTMLMediaElement
.
Thus, changes to the media element's .src attribute can change the number of channels output by this node.
If the .src attribute is not set, then the number of channels output will be one silent channel.
A MediaElementAudioSourceNode is created given an
HTMLMediaElement
using the AudioContext
createMediaElementSource()
method.
The number of channels of the single output equals the number of channels of
the audio referenced by the HTMLMediaElement
passed in as the
argument to createMediaElementSource()
, or is 1 if the
HTMLMediaElement
has no audio.
The HTMLMediaElement
must behave in an identical fashion
after the MediaElementAudioSourceNode has been created, except
that the rendered audio will no longer be heard directly, but instead will be
heard as a consequence of the MediaElementAudioSourceNode being
connected through the routing graph. Thus pausing, seeking, volume,
src
attribute changes, and other aspects of the
HTMLMediaElement
must behave as they normally would if
not used with a MediaElementAudioSourceNode.
var mediaElement = document.getElementById('mediaElementID'); var sourceNode = context.createMediaElementSource(mediaElement); sourceNode.connect(filterNode);
HTMLMediaElement
allows the playback of cross-origin resources.
Because Web Audio can allows one to inspect the content of the resource
(e.g. using a MediaElementAudioSourceNode, and a
ScriptProcessorNode to read the samples), information leakage can
occur if scripts from one origin
inspect the content of a resource from another origin.
To prevent this, a MediaElementAudioSourceNode MUST output
silence instead of the normal output of the
HTMLMediaElement
if it has been created using an HTMLMediaElement
for which the
execution of the fetch
algorithm labeled the resource as CORS-cross-origin.
An AudioWorker object is the main-thread representation of a worker "thread" that supports processing of audio in Javascript. This AudioWorker object is a factory that is used to create multiple audio nodes of the same type; this enables easy sharing of code, program data and global state across nodes. An AudioWorker can then be used to create instances of AudioWorkerNode, which is the main-thread representation of an individual node processed by that AudioWorker.
These main thread objects cause the instantiation of a Web Worker-like thread context, which executes in the audio thread. All audio processing by AudioWorkerNodes run in the audio processing thread. This has a few side effects that bear mentioning: blocking the audio worker's thread can cause glitches in the audio, and if the audio thread is normally elevated in thread priority (to reduce glitching possibility), it must be demoted to normal thread priority (in order to avoid escalating thread priority of user-supplied script code).
From inside an audio worker script, the Audio Worker factory is represented
by an AudioWorkerGlobalScope
object representing the
node's contextual information, and individual audio nodes created by the factory
are represented by AudioWorkerNodeScope
objects.
In addition, all AudioWorkerNodes that are created by the same AudioWorker share an AudioWorkerGlobalScope; this can allow them to share context and data across nodes (for example, loading a single instance of a shared database used by the individual nodes, or sharing context in order to implement oscillator synchronization).
Causes a correspondingly-named read-only AudioParam to be
present on any AudioWorkerNodes created (previously or
subsequently) by this AudioWorker, and a correspondingly-named
read-only Float32Array to be present on the
parameters
object exposed on the
AudioProcessEvent on subsequent audio processing events for
such nodes. The AudioParam may immediately have its scheduling methods
called, its .value set, or AudioNodes connected to it.
The name
parameter is the name used for the read-only
AudioParam added to the AudioWorkerNode, and the name used for the
read-only Float32Array
that will be present on the
parameters
object exposed on subsequent
AudioProcessEvents.
The defaultValue parameter is the default value for the AudioParam's value attribute, as well as therefore the default value that will appear in the Float32Array in the worker script (if no other parameter changes or connections affect the value).
Removes a previously-added parameter named name
from all
AudioWorkerNodes associated with this AudioWorker and its
AudioWorkerGlobalScope. This will also remove the correspondingly-named
read-only AudioParam from the AudioWorkerNode, and will
remove the correspondingly-named read-only Float32Arrays from the
AudioProcessEvent's parameters
member on
subsequent audio processing events. A
NotFoundError exception must be thrown if no parameter with that name
exists on this AudioWorker.
The name
parameter identifies the parameter to be
removed.
Note that AudioWorkerNode objects will also have read-only
AudioParam objects for each named parameter added via the
addParameter
method. As this is dynamic, it cannot be captured
in IDL.
As the AudioWorker interface inherits from Worker, AudioWorkers must implement the Worker interface for communication with the audio worker script.
This interface represents an AudioNode
which interacts
with a Worker thread to generate, process, or analyse audio directly.
The user creates a separate audio processing worker script, which is hosted
inside the AudioWorkerGlobalScope and runs inside the audio processing
thread, rather than the main UI thread. The AudioWorkerNode represents the
processing node in the main processing thread's node graph; the
AudioWorkerGlobalScope represents the context in which the user's audio
processing script is run.
Nota bene that if the Web Audio implementation normally runs audio process at higher than normal thread priority, utilizing AudioWorkerNodes may cause demotion of the priority of the audio thread (since user scripts cannot be run with higher than normal priority).
numberOfInputs : variable numberOfOutputs : variable channelCount = numberOfInputChannels; channelCountMode = "explicit"; channelInterpretation = "speakers";
The number of input and output channels specified in the createAudioWorkerNode() call determines the initial number of input and output channels (and the number of channels present for each input and output in the AudioBuffers passed to the AudioProcess event handler inside the AudioWorkerGlobalScope). It is invalid for both numberOfInputChannels
and numberOfOutputChannels
to be zero.
Example usage:
var bitcrusherFactory = context.createAudioWorker( "bitcrusher.js" ); var bitcrusherNode = bitcrusherFactory.createNode();
Note that AudioWorkerNode objects will also have read-only
AudioParam objects for each named parameter added via the
addParameter
method on the AudioWorker. As this is dynamic,
it cannot be captured here in IDL.
This interface represents the description of an AudioWorkerNode AudioParam - in short, its name and default value. This enables easy iteration over the AudioParams from an AudioWorkerGlobalScope (which does not have an instance of those AudioParams).
This interface is a DedicatedWorkerGlobalScope
-derived
object representing the context in which an audio processing script is run;
it is designed to enable the generation, processing, and analysis of audio
data directly using JavaScript in a Worker thread, with shared context between
multiple instances of audio nodes. This facilitates nodes that may have
substantial shared data, e.g. a convolution node.
The AudioWorkerGlobalScope
handles
- audioprocess events dispatched
- synchronously to process audio frame blocks for nodes created by this worker.
- audioprocess
events are only
- dispatched for nodes that have at least one input
- or one output connected. TODO: should this be true?
Causes a correspondingly-named read-only AudioParam to be
present on previously-created and subsequently-created
AudioWorkerNodes created by this factory, and a
correspondingly-named read-only Float32Array to be present on
the parameters
object exposed on the
AudioProcessEvent on subsequent audio processing events for
nodes created from this factory.
It is purposeful that AudioParams can be added (or removed) from an Audio Worker from either the main thread or the worker script; this enables immediate creation of worker-based nodes and their prototypes, but also enables packaging an entire worker including its AudioParam configuration into a single script. It is recommended that nodes be used only after the AudioWorkerNode's oninitialized has been called, in order to allow the worker script to configure the node.
The name
parameter is the name used for the read-only
AudioParam added to the AudioWorkerNode, and the name used for the
read-only Float32Array
that will be present on the
parameters
object exposed on subsequent
AudioProcessEvents.
The defaultValue parameter is the default value for the AudioParam's value attribute, as well as therefore the default value that will appear in the Float32Array in the worker script (if no other parameter changes or connections affect the value).
Removes a previously-added parameter named name
from nodes
processed by this factory. This will also remove the correspondingly-named
read-only AudioParam from the AudioWorkerNode, and will
remove the correspondingly-named read-only Float32Array from the
AudioProcessEvent's parameters
member on
subsequent audio processing events. A
NotFoundError exception must be thrown if no parameter with that name
exists on this node.
The name
parameter identifies the parameter to be
removed.
EventHandler
(described in [[!HTML]]) for the
audioprocess
event that is dispatched to
AudioWorkerGlobalScope
to process audio while the
associated nodes are connected (to at least
one input or output). An event of type AudioProcessEvent
will be dispatched to the event handler.
EventHandler
(described
in [[!HTML]]) for the
nodecreate
event that is dispatched to
AudioWorkerGlobalScope
when a new
AudioWorkerNode
has been created. This enables
the scope to do node-level initialization of the AudioNodeProcessor
object. An event of type AudioWorkerNodeCreationEvent
will be dispatched to the event handler.
An object supporting this interface represents each individual node
instantiated in an AudioWorkerGlobalScope
;
it is designed to manage the data for an individual node.
Shared context between multiple instances of audio nodes is accessible from the
AudioWorkerGlobalScope; this object represents the individual node and can
be used for data storage or main-thread communication.
Bitcrushing is a mechanism by which the audio quality of an audio stream is reduced - both by quantizing the value (simulating lower bit-depth in integer-based audio), and by quantizing in time (simulating a lower digital sample rate). This example shows how to use AudioParams (in this case, treated as a-rate) inside an AudioWorker.
var bitcrusherFactory = null; audioContext.createAudioWorker("bitcrusher_worker.js").then( function(factory) { // cache 'factory' in case you want to create more nodes! bitcrusherFactory = factory; var bitcrusherNode = factory.createNode(); bitcrusherNode.bits.setValueAtTime(8,0); bitcrusherNode.connect(output); input.connect(bitcrusherNode); } );
// Custom parameter - number of bits to crush down to - default 8 this.addParameter( "bits", 8 ); // Custom parameter - frequency reduction, 0-1, default 0.5 this.addParameter( "frequencyReduction", 0.5 ); onnodecreate=function(e) { e.node.phaser = 0; e.node.lastDataValue = 0; } onaudioprocess= function (e) { for (var channel=0; channel<e.inputs[0].length; channel++) { var inputBuffer = e.inputs[0][channel]; var outputBuffer = e.outputs[0][channel]; var bufferLength = inputBuffer.length; var bitsArray = e.parameters.bits; var frequencyReductionArray = e.parameters.frequencyReduction; for (var i=0; i<bufferLength; i++) { var bits = bitsArray ? bitsArray[i] : 8; var frequencyReduction = frequencyReductionArray ? frequencyReductionArray[i] : 0.5; var step = Math.pow(1/2, bits); e.node.phaser += frequencyReduction; if (e.node.phaser >= 1.0) { e.node.phaser -= 1.0; e.node.lastDataValue = step * Math.floor(inputBuffer[i] / step + 0.5); } outputBuffer[i] = e.node.lastDataValue; } } };
Another common need is a clip-detecting volume meter. This example shows how to communicate basic parameters (that do not need AudioParam scheduling) across to a Worker, as well as communicating data back to the main thread. This node does not use any output.
function setupNodeMessaging(node) { // This handles communication back from the volume meter node.onmessage = function (event) { if (event.data instanceof Object ) { if (event.data.hasOwnProperty("clip") this.clip = event.data.clip; if (event.data.hasOwnProperty("volume") this.volume = event.data.volume; } } // Set up some default configuration parameters node.postMessage( { "smoothing": 0.9, // Smoothing parameter "clipLevel": 0.9, // Level to consider "clipping" "clipLag": 750, // How long to keep "clipping" lit up after clip (ms) "updating": 100 // How frequently to update volume and clip param (ms) }); // Set up volume and clip attributes. These will be updated by our onmessage. node.volume = 0; node.clip = false; } var vuNode = null; audioContext.createAudioWorker("vu_meter_worker.js").then( function(factory) { // cache 'factory' in case you want to create more nodes! vuFactory = factory; vuNode = factory.createNode([1], []); // we don't need an output, and let's force to mono setupNodeMessaging(vuNode); } ); window.requestAnimationFrame( function(timestamp) { if (vuNode) { // Draw a bar based on vuNode.volume and vuNode.clip } });
// Custom parameter - number of bits to crush down to - default 8 this.addParameter( "bits", 8 ); // Custom parameter - frequency reduction, 0-1, default 0.5 this.addParameter( "frequencyReduction", 0.5 ); onnodecreate=function(e) { e.node.timeToNextUpdate = 0.1 * sampleRate; e.node.smoothing = 0.5; e.node.clipLevel = 0.95; e.node.clipLag = 1; e.node.updatingInterval = 150; // This just handles setting attribute values e.node.onmessage = function ( event ) { if (event.data instanceof Object ) { if (event.data.hasOwnProperty("smoothing") this.smoothing = event.data.smoothing; if (event.data.hasOwnProperty("clipLevel") this.clipLevel = event.data.clipLevel; if (event.data.hasOwnProperty("clipLag") this.clipLag = event.data.clipLag / 1000; // convert to seconds if (event.data.hasOwnProperty("updating") // convert to samples this.updatingInterval = event.data.updating * sampleRate / 1000 ; } }; } onaudioprocess = function ( event ) { var buf = event.inputs[0][0]; // Node forces mono var bufLength = buf.length; var sum = 0; var x; // Do a root-mean-square on the samples: sum up the squares... for (var i=0; i<bufLength; i++) { x = buf[i]; if (Math.abs(x)>=event.node.clipLevel) { event.node.clipping = true; event.node.unsentClip = true; // Make sure, for every clip, we send a message. event.node.lastClip = event.playbackTime + (i/sampleRate); } sum += x * x; } // ... then take the square root of the sum. var rms = Math.sqrt(sum / bufLength); // Now smooth this out with the smoothing factor applied // to the previous sample - take the max here because we // want "fast attack, slow release." event.node.volume = Math.max(rms, event.node.volume*event.node.smoothing); if (event.node.clipping && (!event.node.unsentClip) && (event.playbackTime > (this.lastClip + clipLag))) event.node.clipping = false; // How long has it been since our last update? event.node.timeToNextUpdate -= event.node.last; if (event.node.timeToNextUpdate<0) { event.node.timeToNextUpdate = event.node.updatingInterval; event.node.postMessage( { "volume": event.node.volume, "clip": event.node.clipping }); event.node.unsentClip = false; } };
This worker shows how to merge inputs into a single output channel.
var mergerNode = audioContext.createAudioWorker("merger_worker.js", [1,1,1,1,1,1], [6] );
var mergerFactory = null; audioContext.createAudioWorker("merger_worker.js").then( function(factory) { // cache 'factory' in case you want to create more nodes! mergerFactory = factory; var merger6channelNode = factory.createNode( [1,1,1,1,1,1], [6] ); // connect inputs and outputs here } );
onaudioprocess= function (e) { for (var input=0; input<e,node.inputs.length; input++) e.node.outputs[0][input].set(e.node.inputs[input][0]); };
This interface is an AudioNode
which can generate, process, or analyse audio
directly using JavaScript. This node type is deprecated, to be replaced by the AudioWorkerNode; this text is only here for informative purposes until implementations remove this node type.
numberOfInputs : 1 numberOfOutputs : 1 channelCount = numberOfInputChannels; channelCountMode = "explicit"; channelInterpretation = "speakers";
The ScriptProcessorNode
is constructed with a bufferSize which must
be one of the following values: 256, 512, 1024, 2048, 4096, 8192, 16384. This
value controls how frequently the audioprocess
event is dispatched and how many sample-frames need to be processed each
call. audioprocess
events are
only dispatched if the ScriptProcessorNode
has at least one
input or one output connected. Lower numbers for bufferSize will result in a
lower (better) latency. Higher numbers will be necessary
to avoid audio breakup and glitches. This value
will be picked by the implementation if the bufferSize argument to
createScriptProcessor
is not passed in, or is set to 0.
numberOfInputChannels and numberOfOutputChannels
determine the number of input and output channels. It is invalid for both
numberOfInputChannels
and numberOfOutputChannels
to
be zero.
var node = context.createScriptProcessor(bufferSize, numberOfInputChannels, numberOfOutputChannels);
EventHandler
(described in
HTML[[!HTML]]) for the audioprocess
event that is
dispatched to ScriptProcessorNode
node types. An event of
type AudioProcessingEvent
will be dispatched to the event
handler.
onaudioprocess
is called. Legal values are (256, 512,
1024, 2048, 4096, 8192, 16384).
This is an Event
object which is dispatched to
AudioWorkerGlobalScope
objects when a new node instance
is created. This allows AudioWorkers to initialize any node-local data (e.g.
allocating a delay or initializing local variables).
This is an Event
object which is dispatched to
AudioWorkerGlobalScope
objects to perform processing.
The event handler processes audio from the input (if any) by accessing the
audio data from the inputBuffers
attribute. The audio data which
is the result of the processing (or the synthesized data if there are no
inputs) is then placed into the outputBuffers
.
AudioContext
's currentTime.
playbackTime
allows for very
tight synchronization between processing directly in JavaScript with the
other events in the context's rendering graph.
A readonly Array of Arrays of Float32Arrays. The top-level Array is organized by input; each input may contain multiple channels; each channel contains a Float32Array of sample data. The initial size of the channel array will be determined by the number of channels specified for that input in the createAudioWorkerNode() method. However, an onprocess handler may alter this number of channels in the input dynamically, either by adding a Float32Array of blocksize length (128) or by reducing the Array (by reducing the Array.length or by using Array.pop() or Array.slice(). The event object, the Array and the Float32Arrays will be reused by the processing system, in order to minimize memory churn.
Any reordering performed on the Array for an input will not reorganize the connections to the channels for subsequent events.
A readonly Array of Arrays of Float32Arrays. The top-level Array is organized by output; each output may contain multiple channels; each channel contains a Float32Array of sample data. The initial size of the channel array will be determined by the number of channels specified for that output in the createAudioWorkerNode() method. However, an onprocess handler may alter this number of channels in the output dynamically, either by adding a Float32Array of blocksize length (128) or by reducing the Array (by reducing the Array.length or by using Array.pop() or Array.slice(). The event object, the Array and the Float32Arrays will be reused by the processing system, in order to minimize memory churn.
Any reordering performed on the Array for an output will not reorganize the connections to the channels for subsequent events.
This is an Event
object which is dispatched to
ScriptProcessorNode
nodes. It will be removed
when the ScriptProcessorNode is removed, as the replacement
AudioWorker uses the AudioProcessEvent.
The event handler processes audio from the input (if any) by accessing the
audio data from the inputBuffer
attribute. The audio data which
is the result of the processing (or the synthesized data if there are no
inputs) is then placed into the outputBuffer
.
AudioContext
's currentTime.
playbackTime
allows for very
tight synchronization between processing directly in JavaScript with the
other events in the context's rendering graph.
numberOfInputChannels
parameter of the
createScriptProcessor() method. This AudioBuffer is only valid while in
the scope of the onaudioprocess
function. Its values will be
meaningless outside of this scope.
numberOfOutputChannels
parameter of the createScriptProcessor() method. Script code within the
scope of the onaudioprocess
function is expected to modify
the Float32Array
arrays representing channel data in this
AudioBuffer. Any script modifications to this AudioBuffer outside of this
scope will not produce any audible effects.
This interface represents a processing node which
positions / spatializes an incoming audio
stream in three-dimensional space. The spatialization is in relation to the AudioContext's AudioListener
(listener
attribute).
numberOfInputs : 1 numberOfOutputs : 1 channelCount = 2; channelCountMode = "clamped-max"; channelInterpretation = "speakers";
The input of this node is either mono (1 channel) or stereo (2 channels) and cannot be increased. Connections from nodes with fewer or more channels will be up-mixed or down-mixed appropriately, but a NotSupportedError MUST be thrown if an attempt is made to set channelCount to a value greater than 2 or if channelCountMode is set to "max".
The output of this node is hard-coded to stereo (2 channels) and currently cannot be configured.
The PanningModelType
enum determines which spatialization
algorithm will be used to position the audio in 3D space. The default is
"equal-power"
.
The DistanceModelType
enum determines which algorithm will be used to
reduce the volume of an audio source as it moves away from the listener. The
default is "inverse".
1 - rolloffFactor * (distance - refDistance) / (maxDistance - refDistance)
An inverse distance model which calculates distanceGain according to:
refDistance / (refDistance + rolloffFactor * (distance - refDistance))
An exponential distance model which calculates distanceGain according to:
pow(distance / refDistance, -rolloffFactor)
PannerNode
. Defaults to
"HRTF"
.
Sets the position of the audio source relative to the
listener
attribute. A 3D cartesian coordinate system is used.
The x, y, z
parameters represent the coordinates
in 3D space.
The default value is (0,0,0)
Describes which direction the audio source is pointing in the 3D cartesian coordinate space. Depending on how directional the sound is (controlled by the cone attributes), a sound pointing away from the listener can be very quiet or completely silent.
The x, y, z
parameters represent a direction
vector in 3D space.
The default value is (1,0,0)
Sets the velocity vector of the audio source. This vector controls both the direction of travel and the speed in 3D space. This velocity relative to the listener's velocity is used to determine how much doppler shift (pitch change) to apply. The units used for this vector is meters / second and is independent of the units used for position and orientation vectors.
The x, y, z
parameters describe a direction
vector indicating direction of travel and intensity.
The default value is (0,0,0)
PannerNode
. Defaults to "inverse"
.
coneOuterGain
. The default value is 360 and the value
is used modulo 360.
coneOuterAngle
. The default
value is 0, and the value is used modulo 360.
This interface represents the position and orientation of the person
listening to the audio scene. All PannerNode
objects
spatialize in relation to the AudioContext
's listener
. See the Spatialization/Panning section for more details about
spatialization.
Sets the position of the listener in a 3D cartesian coordinate
space. PannerNode
objects use this position relative to
individual audio sources for spatialization.
The x, y, z
parameters represent
the coordinates in 3D space.
The default value is (0,0,0)
Describes which direction the listener is pointing in the 3D cartesian coordinate space. Both a front vector and an up vector are provided. In simple human terms, the front vector represents which direction the person's nose is pointing. The up vector represents the direction the top of a person's head is pointing. These values are expected to be linearly independent (at right angles to each other). For normative requirements of how these values are to be interpreted, see the spatialization section.
The x, y, z
parameters represent a front direction
vector in 3D space, with the default value being (0,0,-1).
The xUp, yUp, zUp
parameters represent an up direction
vector in 3D space, with the default value being (0,1,0).
Sets the velocity vector of the listener. This vector controls both the direction of travel and the speed in 3D space. This velocity relative to an audio source's velocity is used to determine how much doppler shift (pitch change) to apply. The units used for this vector is meters / second and is independent of the units used for position and orientation vectors.
The x, y, z
parameters describe a direction vector
indicating direction of travel and intensity.
The default value is (0,0,0)
This interface represents a processing node which positions an incoming audio stream in a stereo image using a low-cost equal-power panning algorithm. This panning effect is common in positioning audio components in a stereo stream.
numberOfInputs : 1 numberOfOutputs : 1 channelCount = 2; channelCountMode = "clamped-max"; channelInterpretation = "speakers";
The input of this node is stereo (2 channels) and cannot be increased.
Connections from nodes with fewer or more channels will be
up-mixed or down-mixed
appropriately , but a NotSupportedError will be thrown if an attempt is
made to set channelCount
to a value great than 2 or if
channelCountMode
is set to "max"
.
The output of this node is hard-coded to stereo (2 channels) and cannot be configured.
This interface represents a processing node which applies a linear convolution effect given an impulse response. Normative requirements for multi-channel convolution matrixing are described here.
numberOfInputs : 1 numberOfOutputs : 1 channelCount = 2; channelCountMode = "clamped-max"; channelInterpretation = "speakers";
The input of this node is either mono (1 channel) or stereo (2 channels) and cannot be increased. Connections from nodes with fewer or more channels will be up-mixed or down-mixed appropriately, but a NotSupportedError MUST be thrown if an attempt is made to set channelCount to a value great than 2 or if channelCountMode is set to "max".
AudioBuffer
containing
the (possibly multi-channel) impulse response used by the
ConvolverNode
. The AudioBuffer
must have
1, 2, or 4 channels or a NotSupportedError exception MUST be thrown. This
AudioBuffer
must be of the same sample-rate as the
AudioContext
or an NotSupportedError exception MUST be
thrown. At the time when this attribute is set, the buffer and
the state of the normalize attribute will be used to configure
the ConvolverNode
with this impulse response having
the given normalization. The initial value of this attribute is null.
Controls whether the impulse response from the buffer will be scaled by an
equal-power normalization when the buffer
atttribute is set.
Its default value is true
in order to achieve a more uniform
output level from the convolver when loaded with diverse impulse
responses. If normalize
is set to false
, then
the convolution will be rendered with no pre-processing/scaling of the
impulse response. Changes to this value do not take effect until the next
time the buffer attribute is set.
If the normalize attribute is false when the buffer
attribute is set then the ConvolverNode
will perform a linear convolution
given the exact impulse response contained within the buffer.
Otherwise, if the normalize attribute is true when the
buffer attribute is set then the ConvolverNode
will
first perform a scaled RMS-power analysis of the audio data contained
within buffer to calculate a normalizationScale given
this algorithm:
float calculateNormalizationScale(buffer) { const float GainCalibration = 0.00125; const float GainCalibrationSampleRate = 44100; const float MinPower = 0.000125; // Normalize by RMS power. size_t numberOfChannels = buffer->numberOfChannels(); size_t length = buffer->length(); float power = 0; for (size_t i = 0; i < numberOfChannels; ++i) { float* sourceP = buffer->channel(i)->data(); float channelPower = 0; int n = length; while (n--) { float sample = *sourceP++; channelPower += sample * sample; } power += channelPower; } power = sqrt(power / (numberOfChannels * length)); // Protect against accidental overload. if (isinf(power) || isnan(power) || power < MinPower) power = MinPower; float scale = 1 / power; // Calibrate to make perceived volume same as unprocessed. scale *= GainCalibration; // Scale depends on sample-rate. if (buffer->sampleRate()) scale *= GainCalibrationSampleRate / buffer->sampleRate(); // True-stereo compensation. if (buffer->numberOfChannels() == 4) scale *= 0.5; return scale; }
During processing, the ConvolverNode will then take this calculated normalizationScale value and multiply it by the result of the linear convolution resulting from processing the input with the impulse response (represented by the buffer) to produce the final output. Or any mathematically equivalent operation may be used, such as pre-multiplying the input by normalizationScale, or pre-multiplying a version of the impulse-response by normalizationScale.
This interface represents a node which is able to provide real-time frequency and time-domain analysis information. The audio stream will be passed un-processed from input to output.
numberOfInputs : 1 numberOfOutputs : 1 Note that this output may be left unconnected. channelCount = 1; channelCountMode = "max"; channelInterpretation = "speakers";
Copies the current frequency data into the passed floating-point
array. If the array has fewer elements than the frequencyBinCount
, the
excess elements will be dropped. If the array has more elements than
the frequencyBinCount
, the excess elements will be ignored.
Copies the current frequency data into the passed unsigned byte
array. If the array has fewer elements than the frequencyBinCount
, the
excess elements will be dropped. If the array has more elements than
the frequencyBinCount
, the excess elements will be ignored.
Copies the current time-domain (waveform) data into the passed
floating-point array. If the array has fewer elements than the value of
fftSize
, the excess elements will be dropped. If the array has
more elements than fftSize
, the excess elements will be ignored.
Copies the current time-domain (waveform) data into the passed unsigned
byte array. If the array has fewer elements than the value of
fftSize
, the excess elements will be dropped. If the array has
more elements than fftSize
, the excess elements will be ignored.
maxDecibels
, an IndexSizeError exception MUST be thrown.
minDecibels
, an IndexSizeError exception MUST be thrown.
buffer
:
function blackmanWindow(buffer) { var alpha = 0.16; var a0 = 0.5 * (1.0 - alpha); var a1 = 0.5; var a2 = 0.5 * alpha; for (var i = 0; i < buffer.length; i++) { var x = i / buffer.length; buffer[i] *= a0 - a1 * Math.cos(2 * Math.PI * x) + a2 * Math.cos(4 * Math.PI * x); } }Smoothing over time frequency data consists in the following operation:
fftSize
be the value of fftSize
for this
AnalyserNode.
outputBuffer
be an array that contains
the frequency data that will be made available to the author via getFloatFrequencyData
,
or getByteFrequencyData
.
lastOutputBuffer
be the result of this operation on the
previous block. The previous block is defined as being the
buffer returned by the previous smoothing over
time operation, or an array of fftSize
zeros if this is the
first time we are smoothing over time.
smoothingConstant
be the value of the smoothingTimeConstant
attribute for
this AnalyserNode
.
real
and imag
be two arrays of length
fftSize
, that contain the result of the previously applied Fourier
transform.
function smoothingOverTime(outputBuffer, lastOutputBuffer, smoothingConstant, real, imag, fftSize) { for (var i = 0; i < outputBuffer.length; i++) { var magnitude = Math.sqrt(real[i] * real[i] + imag[i] * imag[i]) / fftSize; outputBuffer[i] = smoothingTimeConstant * lastOutputBuffer[i] + (1.0 - smoothingTimeConstant) * magnitude; } }
The ChannelSplitterNode
is for use in more advanced applications
and would often be used in conjunction with ChannelMergerNode
.
numberOfInputs : 1 numberOfOutputs : Variable N (defaults to 6) // number of "active" (non-silent) outputs is determined by number of channels in the input channelCountMode = "max"; channelInterpretation = "speakers";
This interface represents an AudioNode
for accessing the individual channels
of an audio stream in the routing graph. It has a single input, and a number
of "active" outputs which equals the number of channels in the input audio
stream. For example, if a stereo input is connected to an
ChannelSplitterNode
then the number of active outputs will be two
(one from the left channel and one from the right). There are always a total
number of N outputs (determined by the numberOfOutputs
parameter
to the AudioContext
method createChannelSplitter()
),
The default number is 6 if this value is not provided. Any outputs which are
not "active" will output silence and would typically not be connected to
anything.
Please note that in this example, the splitter does not interpret the channel identities (such as left, right, etc.), but simply splits out channels in the order that they are input.
One application for ChannelSplitterNode
is for doing "matrix
mixing" where individual gain control of each channel is desired.
The ChannelMergerNode
is for use in more advanced applications
and would often be used in conjunction with ChannelSplitterNode
.
numberOfInputs : Variable N (default to 6) numberOfOutputs : 1 channelCount = 1; channelCountMode = "explicit"; channelInterpretation = "speakers";
This interface represents an AudioNode
for combining channels from
multiple audio streams into a single audio stream. It has a variable number of
inputs (defaulting to 6), but not all of them need be connected. There is a
single output whose audio stream has a number of channels equal to the number
of inputs.
To merge multiple inputs into one stream, each input gets downmixed into one channel (mono) based on the specified mixing rule. An unconnected input still counts as one silent channel in the output. Changing input streams does not affect the order of output channels.
For ChannelMergerNode
, channelCount
and
channelCountMode
properties cannot be changed. InvalidState
error MUST be thrown when they changed.
For example, if a default ChannelMergerNode
has two connected
stereo inputs, the first and second input will be downmixed to mono respectively
before merging. The output will be a 6-channel stream whose first two channels
are be filled with the first two (downmixed) inputs and the rest of channels will
be silent.
Also the ChannelMergerNode
can be used to arrange multiple
audio streams in a certain order for the multi-channel speaker array such as
5.1 surround set up. The merger does not interpret the channel identities (such
as left, right, etc.), but simply combines channels in the order that they are
input.
DynamicsCompressorNode
is an AudioNode
processor implementing a dynamics compression effect.
Dynamics compression is very commonly used in musical production and game audio. It lowers the volume of the loudest parts of the signal and raises the volume of the softest parts. Overall, a louder, richer, and fuller sound can be achieved. It is especially important in games and musical applications where large numbers of individual sounds are played simultaneous to control the overall signal level and help avoid clipping (distorting) the audio output to the speakers.
numberOfInputs : 1 numberOfOutputs : 1 channelCount = 2; channelCountMode = "explicit"; channelInterpretation = "speakers";
value
is -24, with a nominal range of -100 to 0.
value
is 30, with a nominal range of 0 to 40.
value
is 12, with a nominal range of 1 to 20.
value
is 0.003, with a nominal range of 0 to 1.
value
is 0.250, with a nominal range of 0 to 1.
BiquadFilterNode
is an AudioNode
processor implementing very common low-order filters.
Low-order filters are the building blocks of basic tone controls (bass, mid,
treble), graphic equalizers, and more advanced filters. Multiple
BiquadFilterNode
filters can be combined to form more
complex filters. The filter parameters such as frequency
can be changed over time for filter sweeps, etc. Each
BiquadFilterNode
can be configured as one of a number of
common filter types as shown in the IDL below. The default filter type is
"lowpass"
.
Both frequency
and detune
are
a-rate parameters and are used together to determine a
computedFrequency value:
computedFrequency(t) = frequency(t) * pow(2, detune(t) / 1200)
numberOfInputs : 1 numberOfOutputs : 1 channelCountMode = "max"; channelInterpretation = "speakers";
The number of channels of the output always equals the number of channels of the input.
A lowpass filter allows frequencies below the cutoff frequency to pass through and attenuates frequencies above the cutoff. It implements a standard second-order resonant lowpass filter with 12dB/octave rolloff.
- frequency
- The cutoff frequency
- Q
- Controls how peaked the response will be at the cutoff frequency. A large value makes the response more peaked. Please note that for this filter type, this value is not a traditional Q, but is a resonance value in decibels.
- gain
- Not used in this filter type
A highpass filter is the opposite of a lowpass filter. Frequencies above the cutoff frequency are passed through, but frequencies below the cutoff are attenuated. It implements a standard second-order resonant highpass filter with 12dB/octave rolloff.
- frequency
- The cutoff frequency below which the frequencies are attenuated
- Q
- Controls how peaked the response will be at the cutoff frequency. A large value makes the response more peaked. Please note that for this filter type, this value is not a traditional Q, but is a resonance value in decibels.
- gain
- Not used in this filter type
A bandpass filter allows a range of frequencies to pass through and attenuates the frequencies below and above this frequency range. It implements a second-order bandpass filter.
- frequency
- The center of the frequency band
- Q
- Controls the width of the band. The width becomes narrower as the Q value increases.
- gain
- Not used in this filter type
The lowshelf filter allows all frequencies through, but adds a boost (or attenuation) to the lower frequencies. It implements a second-order lowshelf filter.
- frequency
- The upper limit of the frequences where the boost (or attenuation) is applied.
- Q
- Not used in this filter type.
- gain
- The boost, in dB, to be applied. If the value is negative, the frequencies are attenuated.
The highshelf filter is the opposite of the lowshelf filter and allows all frequencies through, but adds a boost to the higher frequencies. It implements a second-order highshelf filter
- frequency
- The lower limit of the frequences where the boost (or attenuation) is applied.
- Q
- Not used in this filter type.
- gain
- The boost, in dB, to be applied. If the value is negative, the frequencies are attenuated.
The peaking filter allows all frequencies through, but adds a boost (or attenuation) to a range of frequencies.
- frequency
- The center frequency of where the boost is applied.
- Q
- Controls the width of the band of frequencies that are boosted. A large value implies a narrow width.
- gain
- The boost, in dB, to be applied. If the value is negative, the frequencies are attenuated.
The notch filter (also known as a band-stop or band-rejection filter) is the opposite of a bandpass filter. It allows all frequencies through, except for a set of frequencies.
- frequency
- The center frequency of where the notch is applied.
- Q
- Controls the width of the band of frequencies that are attenuated. A large value implies a narrow width.
- gain
- Not used in this filter type.
An allpass filter allows all frequencies through, but changes the phase relationship between the various frequencies. It implements a second-order allpass filter
- frequency
- The frequency where the center of the phase transition occurs. Viewed another way, this is the frequency with maximal group delay.
- Q
- Controls how sharp the phase transition is at the center frequency. A larger value implies a sharper transition and a larger group delay.
- gain
- Not used in this filter type.
All attributes of the BiquadFilterNode
are k-rate
AudioParam
.
BiquadFilterNode
. The exact meaning of the other
parameters depend on the value of the type
attribute.
BiquadFilterNode
will operate, in Hz.
Its default value is 350Hz, and its nominal range is from 10Hz to half the
Nyquist frequency.
Given the current filter parameter settings, calculates the frequency response for the specified frequencies.
There are multiple ways of implementing the type of filters available
through the BiquadFilterNode
each having very different
characteristics. The formulas in this section describe the filters that a
conforming implementation MUST implement, as they determine the
characteristics of the different filter type. They are derived from formulas
found in the Audio EQ
Cookbook.
The transfer function for the filters implemented by the
BiquadFilterNode
is:
The initial filter state is 0.
The coefficients in the transfer function above are different for each node
type. The following intermediate variable are necessary for their
computation, based on the computedValue of the
AudioParam
s of the BiquadFilterNode
.
sampleRate
attribute for this
AudioContext.computedFrequency
.
gain
AudioParam
.Q
AudioParam
.peaking
,
highshelf
and lowshelf
;
The six coefficients ( , , , , , ) for each filter type, are:
lowpass
highpass
bandpass
notch
allpass
peaking
lowshelf
highshelf
WaveShaperNode
is an AudioNode
processor implementing non-linear
distortion effects.
Non-linear waveshaping distortion is commonly used for both subtle non-linear warming, or more obvious distortion effects. Arbitrary non-linear shaping curves may be specified.
numberOfInputs : 1 numberOfOutputs : 1 channelCountMode = "max"; channelInterpretation = "speakers";
The number of channels of the output always equals the number of channels of the input.
The shaping curve used for the waveshaping effect. The input signal is nominally within the range [-1; 1]. Each input sample within this range will index into the shaping curve, with a signal level of zero corresponding to the center value of the curve array if there are an odd number of entries, or interpolated between the two centermost values if there are an even number of entries in the array. Any sample value less than -1 will correspond to the first value in the curve array. Any sample value greater than +1 will correspond to the last value in the curve array.
The implementation must perform linear interpolation between adjacent points in the curve. Initially the curve attribute is null, which means that the WaveShaperNode will pass its input to its output without modification.
Values of the curve are spread with equal spacing in the [-1; 1] range.
This means that a curve
with a even number of value
will not have a value for a signal at zero, and a
curve
with an odd number of value will have a value
for a signal at zero.
A InvalidAccessError
MUST be thrown if this attribute is set
with a Float32Array
that has a length
less than
2.
Specifies what type of oversampling (if any) should be used when applying the shaping curve. The default value is "none", meaning the curve will be applied directly to the input samples. A value of "2x" or "4x" can improve the quality of the processing by avoiding some aliasing, with the "4x" value yielding the highest quality. For some applications, it's better to use no oversampling in order to get a very precise shaping curve.
A value of "2x" or "4x" means that the following steps must be performed:
AudioContext
. Thus for each processing block of 128 samples,
generate 256 (for 2x) or 512 (for 4x) samples.
AudioContext
.
Thus taking the 256 (or 512) processed samples, generating 128 as the
final result.
The exact up-sampling and down-sampling filters are not specified, and can be tuned for sound quality (low aliasing, etc.), low latency, and performance.
OscillatorNode
represents an audio source generating a periodic waveform.
It can be set to a few commonly used waveforms. Additionally, it can be set to
an arbitrary periodic waveform through the use of a PeriodicWave
object.
Oscillators are common foundational building blocks in audio synthesis. An
OscillatorNode will start emitting sound at the time specified by the
start()
method.
Mathematically speaking, a continuous-time periodic waveform can have very high (or infinitely high) frequency information when considered in the frequency domain. When this waveform is sampled as a discrete-time digital audio signal at a particular sample-rate, then care must be taken to discard (filter out) the high-frequency information higher than the Nyquist frequency (half the sample-rate) before converting the waveform to a digital form. If this is not done, then aliasing of higher frequencies (than the Nyquist frequency) will fold back as mirror images into frequencies lower than the Nyquist frequency. In many cases this will cause audibly objectionable artifacts. This is a basic and well understood principle of audio DSP.
There are several practical approaches that an implementation may take to avoid this aliasing. Regardless of approach, the idealized discrete-time digital audio signal is well defined mathematically. The trade-off for the implementation is a matter of implementation cost (in terms of CPU usage) versus fidelity to achieving this ideal.
It is expected that an implementation will take some care in achieving this ideal, but it is reasonable to consider lower-quality, less-costly approaches on lower-end hardware.
Both .frequency and .detune are a-rate parameters and are used together to determine a computedFrequency value:
computedFrequency(t) = frequency(t) * pow(2, detune(t) / 1200)
The OscillatorNode's instantaneous phase at each time is the time integral of computedFrequency.
numberOfInputs : 0 numberOfOutputs : 1 (mono output)
setPeriodicWave()
method can be
used to set a custom waveform, which results in this attribute being set to
"custom". The default value is "sine". When this attribute is set, the
phase of the oscillator MUST be conserved.
value
is 440. This parameter is a-rate.
frequency
by
the given amount. Its default value
is 0. This parameter is
a-rate.
when
parameter of the
AudioBufferSourceNode
AudioBufferSourceNode
.PeriodicWave
.
EventHandler
(described in HTML[[HTML]])
for the ended event that is dispatched to OscillatorNode
node types. When the OscillatorNode
has finished playing
(i.e. its stop time has been reached), an event of type Event
(described in HTML[[HTML]])
will be dispatched to the event handler.
The idealized mathematical waveforms for the various oscillator types are defined here. In summary, all waveforms are defined mathematically to be an odd function with a positive slope at time 0. The actual waveforms produced by the oscillator may differ to prevent aliasing affects.
PeriodicWave represents an arbitrary periodic waveform to be used with an
OscillatorNode
. Please see
createPeriodicWave() and setPeriodicWave() and for more details.
This interface represents an audio source from a MediaStream
. The
first AudioMediaStreamTrack
from the MediaStream
will
be used as a source of audio. Those interfaces are described in
[[!mediacapture-streams]].
numberOfInputs : 0 numberOfOutputs : 1
The number of channels of the output corresponds to the number of channels of
the AudioMediaStreamTrack
. If there is no valid audio track,
then the number of channels output will be one silent channel.
This interface is an audio destination representing a
MediaStream
with a single AudioMediaStreamTrack
. This
MediaStream is created when the node is created and is accessible via the
stream attribute. This stream can be used in a similar way as a
MediaStream
obtained via getUserMedia()
, and can, for
example, be sent to a remote peer using the RTCPeerConnection
(described in [[!webrtc]])
addStream()
method.
numberOfInputs : 1 numberOfOutputs : 0 channelCount = 2; channelCountMode = "explicit"; channelInterpretation = "speakers";
The number of channels of the input is by default 2 (stereo). Any connections to the input are up-mixed/down-mixed to the number of channels of the input.
One of the most important considerations when dealing with audio processing graphs is how to adjust the gain (volume) at various points. For example, in a standard mixing board model, each input bus has pre-gain, post-gain, and send-gains. Submix and master out busses also have gain control. The gain control described here can be used to implement standard mixing boards as well as other architectures.
The inputs to AudioNode
s have
the ability to accept connections from multiple outputs. The input then acts as
a unity gain summing junction with each output signal being added with the
others:
In cases where the channel layouts of the outputs do not match, a mix (usually up-mix) will occur according to the mixing rules.
No clipping is applied at the inputs or outputs of the
AudioNode
to allow a maximum of dynamic range within
the audio graph.
In many scenarios, it's important to be able to control the gain for each of
the output signals. The GainNode
gives this
control:
Using these two concepts of unity gain summing junctions and GainNodes, it's possible to construct simple or complex mixing scenarios.
In a routing scenario involving multiple sends and submixes, explicit control is needed over the volume or "gain" of each connection to a mixer. Such routing topologies are very common and exist in even the simplest of electronic gear sitting around in a basic recording studio.
Here's an example with two send mixers and a main mixer. Although possible, for simplicity's sake, pre-gain control and insert effects are not illustrated:
This diagram is using a shorthand notation where "send 1", "send 2", and
"main bus" are actually inputs to AudioNode
s, but here are represented as
summing busses, where the intersections g2_1, g3_1, etc. represent the "gain"
or volume for the given source on the given mixer. In order to expose this
gain, an GainNode
is used:
Here's how the above diagram could be constructed in JavaScript:
var context = 0; var compressor = 0; var reverb = 0; var delay = 0; var s1 = 0; var s2 = 0; var source1 = 0; var source2 = 0; var g1_1 = 0; var g2_1 = 0; var g3_1 = 0; var g1_2 = 0; var g2_2 = 0; var g3_2 = 0; // Setup routing graph function setupRoutingGraph() { context = new AudioContext(); compressor = context.createDynamicsCompressor(); // Send1 effect reverb = context.createConvolver(); // Convolver impulse response may be set here or later // Send2 effect delay = context.createDelay(); // Connect final compressor to final destination compressor.connect(context.destination); // Connect sends 1 & 2 through effects to main mixer s1 = context.createGain(); reverb.connect(s1); s1.connect(compressor); s2 = context.createGain(); delay.connect(s2); s2.connect(compressor); // Create a couple of sources source1 = context.createBufferSource(); source2 = context.createBufferSource(); source1.buffer = manTalkingBuffer; source2.buffer = footstepsBuffer; // Connect source1 g1_1 = context.createGain(); g2_1 = context.createGain(); g3_1 = context.createGain(); source1.connect(g1_1); source1.connect(g2_1); source1.connect(g3_1); g1_1.connect(compressor); g2_1.connect(reverb); g3_1.connect(delay); // Connect source2 g1_2 = context.createGain(); g2_2 = context.createGain(); g3_2 = context.createGain(); source2.connect(g1_2); source2.connect(g2_2); source2.connect(g3_2); g1_2.connect(compressor); g2_2.connect(reverb); g3_2.connect(delay); // We now have explicit control over all the volumes g1_1, g2_1, ..., s1, s2 g2_1.gain.value = 0.2; // For example, set source1 reverb gain // Because g2_1.gain is an "AudioParam", // an automation curve could also be attached to it. // A "mixing board" UI could be created in canvas or WebGL controlling these gains. }
This section is non-normative. Please see AudioContext lifetime and AudioNode lifetime for normative requirements.
In addition to allowing the creation of static routing configurations, it should also be possible to do custom effect routing on dynamically allocated voices which have a limited lifetime. For the purposes of this discussion, let's call these short-lived voices "notes". Many audio applications incorporate the ideas of notes, examples being drum machines, sequencers, and 3D games with many one-shot sounds being triggered according to game play.
In a traditional software synthesizer, notes are dynamically allocated and released from a pool of available resources. The note is allocated when a MIDI note-on message is received. It is released when the note has finished playing either due to it having reached the end of its sample-data (if non-looping), it having reached a sustain phase of its envelope which is zero, or due to a MIDI note-off message putting it into the release phase of its envelope. In the MIDI note-off case, the note is not released immediately, but only when the release envelope phase has finished. At any given time, there can be a large number of notes playing but the set of notes is constantly changing as new notes are added into the routing graph, and old ones are released.
The audio system automatically deals with tearing-down the part of the
routing graph for individual "note" events. A "note" is represented by an
AudioBufferSourceNode
, which can be directly connected to other
processing nodes. When the note has finished playing, the context will
automatically release the reference to the AudioBufferSourceNode
,
which in turn will release references to any nodes it is connected to, and so
on. The nodes will automatically get disconnected from the graph and will be
deleted when they have no more references. Nodes in the graph which are
long-lived and shared between dynamic voices can be managed explicitly.
Although it sounds complicated, this all happens automatically with no extra
JavaScript handling required.
The low-pass filter, panner, and second gain nodes are directly connected from the one-shot sound. So when it has finished playing the context will automatically release them (everything within the dotted line). If there are no longer any JavaScript references to the one-shot sound and connected nodes, then they will be immediately removed from the graph and deleted. The streaming source, has a global reference and will remain connected until it is explicitly disconnected. Here's how it might look in JavaScript:
var context = 0; var compressor = 0; var gainNode1 = 0; var streamingAudioSource = 0; // Initial setup of the "long-lived" part of the routing graph function setupAudioContext() { context = new AudioContext(); compressor = context.createDynamicsCompressor(); gainNode1 = context.createGain(); // Create a streaming audio source. var audioElement = document.getElementById('audioTagID'); streamingAudioSource = context.createMediaElementSource(audioElement); streamingAudioSource.connect(gainNode1); gainNode1.connect(compressor); compressor.connect(context.destination); } // Later in response to some user action (typically mouse or key event) // a one-shot sound can be played. function playSound() { var oneShotSound = context.createBufferSource(); oneShotSound.buffer = dogBarkingBuffer; // Create a filter, panner, and gain node. var lowpass = context.createBiquadFilter(); var panner = context.createPanner(); var gainNode2 = context.createGain(); // Make connections oneShotSound.connect(lowpass); lowpass.connect(panner); panner.connect(gainNode2); gainNode2.connect(compressor); // Play 0.75 seconds from now (to play immediately pass in 0) oneShotSound.start(context.currentTime + 0.75); }
This section is normative.
describes how an input to an AudioNode
can be connected from one or more outputs
of an AudioNode
. Each of these connections from an output represents a stream with
a specific non-zero number of channels. An input has mixing rules for combining the channels
from all of the connections to it. As a simple example, if an input is connected from a mono output and
a stereo output, then the mono connection will usually be up-mixed to stereo and summed with
the stereo connection. But, of course, it's important to define the exact mixing rules for
every input to every AudioNode
. The default mixing rules for all of the inputs have been chosen so that
things "just work" without worrying too much about the details, especially in the very common
case of mono and stereo streams. Of course, the rules can be changed for advanced use cases, especially
multi-channel.
To define some terms, up-mixing refers to the process of taking a stream with a smaller number of channels and converting it to a stream with a larger number of channels. down-mixing refers to the process of taking a stream with a larger number of channels and converting it to a stream with a smaller number of channels.
An AudioNode
input use three basic pieces of information to determine how to mix all the outputs
connected to it. As part of this process it computes an internal value computedNumberOfChannels
representing the actual number of channels of the input at any given time:
The AudioNode
attributes involved in channel up-mixing and down-mixing rules are defined
above. The following is a more precise specification
on what each of them mean.
channelCount
is used to help compute computedNumberOfChannels
.channelCountMode
determines how computedNumberOfChannels
will be computed.
Once this number is computed, all of the connections will be up or down-mixed to that many channels. For most nodes,
the default value is "max"
.
"max"
: computedNumberOfChannels
is computed as the maximum of the number of channels of all connections.
In this mode channelCount
is ignored."clamped-max"
: same as “max” up to a limit of the channelCount
"explicit"
: computedNumberOfChannels
is the exact value as specified
in channelCount
channelInterpretation
determines how the individual channels will be treated.
For example, will they be treated as speakers having a specific layout, or will they
be treated as simple discrete channels? This value influences exactly how the up and down mixing is
performed. The default value is "speakers".
“speakers”
:
use up-down-mix equations for
mono/stereo/quad/5.1. In cases where the number of channels do not match
any of these basic speaker layouts, revert to "discrete".
“discrete”
:
up-mix by filling channels until they run out then zero out remaining channels.
down-mix by filling as many channels as possible, then dropping remaining
channels
For each input of an AudioNode
, an implementation must:
computedNumberOfChannels
.computedNumberOfChannels
according to channelInterpretation
.
When
channelInterpretation
is
"speakers" then the
up-mixing and down-mixing is defined for specific channel layouts.
Mono (one channel), stereo (two channels), quad (four channels), and 5.1 (six channels) MUST be supported. Other channel layout may be supported in future version of this specification.
Mono 0: M: mono Stereo 0: L: left 1: R: right
Quad 0: L: left 1: R: right 2: SL: surround left 3: SR: surround right 5.1 0: L: left 1: R: right 2: C: center 3: LFE: subwoofer 4: SL: surround left 5: SR: surround right
Mono up-mix: 1 -> 2 : up-mix from mono to stereo output.L = input; output.R = input; 1 -> 4 : up-mix from mono to quad output.L = input; output.R = input; output.SL = 0; output.SR = 0; 1 -> 5.1 : up-mix from mono to 5.1 output.L = 0; output.R = 0; output.C = input; // put in center channel output.LFE = 0; output.SL = 0; output.SR = 0; Stereo up-mix: 2 -> 4 : up-mix from stereo to quad output.L = input.L; output.R = input.R; output.SL = 0; output.SR = 0; 2 -> 5.1 : up-mix from stereo to 5.1 output.L = input.L; output.R = input.R; output.C = 0; output.LFE = 0; output.SL = 0; output.SR = 0; Quad up-mix: 4 -> 5.1 : up-mix from quad to 5.1 output.L = input.L; output.R = input.R; output.C = 0; output.LFE = 0; output.SL = input.SL; output.SR = input.SR;
A down-mix will be necessary, for example, if processing 5.1 source material, but playing back stereo.
Mono down-mix: 2 -> 1 : stereo to mono output = 0.5 * (input.L + input.R); 4 -> 1 : quad to mono output = 0.25 * (input.L + input.R + input.SL + input.SR); 5.1 -> 1 : 5.1 to mono output = 0.7071 * (input.L + input.R) + input.C + 0.5 * (input.SL + input.SR) Stereo down-mix: 4 -> 2 : quad to stereo output.L = 0.5 * (input.L + input.SL); output.R = 0.5 * (input.R + input.SR); 5.1 -> 2 : 5.1 to stereo output.L = L + 0.7071 * (input.C + input.SL) output.R = R + 0.7071 * (input.C + input.SR) Quad down-mix: 5.1 -> 4 : 5.1 to quad output.L = L + 0.7071 * input.C output.R = R + 0.7071 * input.C output.SL = input.SL output.SR = input.SR
// Set gain node to explicit 2-channels (stereo). gain.channelCount = 2; gain.channelCountMode = "explicit"; gain.channelInterpretation = "speakers"; // Set "hardware output" to 4-channels for DJ-app with two stereo output busses. context.destination.channelCount = 4; context.destination.channelCountMode = "explicit"; context.destination.channelInterpretation = "discrete"; // Set "hardware output" to 8-channels for custom multi-channel speaker array // with custom matrix mixing. context.destination.channelCount = 8; context.destination.channelCountMode = "explicit"; context.destination.channelInterpretation = "discrete"; // Set "hardware output" to 5.1 to play an HTMLAudioElement. context.destination.channelCount = 6; context.destination.channelCountMode = "explicit"; context.destination.channelInterpretation = "speakers"; // Explicitly down-mix to mono. gain.channelCount = 1; gain.channelCountMode = "explicit"; gain.channelInterpretation = "speakers";
A common feature requirement for modern 3D games is the ability to dynamically spatialize and move multiple audio sources in 3D space. Game audio engines such as OpenAL, FMOD, Creative's EAX, Microsoft's XACT Audio, etc. have this ability.
Using an PannerNode
, an audio stream can be spatialized or
positioned in space relative to an AudioListener
. An
AudioContext
will contain a
single AudioListener
. Both panners and listeners have a position
in 3D space using a right-handed cartesian coordinate system.
The units used in the coordinate system are not defined, and do not need to be
because the effects calculated with these coordinates are independent/invariant
of any particular units such as meters or feet. PannerNode
objects (representing the source stream) have an orientation
vector representing in which direction the sound is projecting. Additionally,
they have a sound cone representing how directional the sound is.
For example, the sound could be omnidirectional, in which case it would be
heard anywhere regardless of its orientation, or it can be more directional and
heard only if it is facing the listener. AudioListener
objects
(representing a person's ears) have an orientation and
up vector representing in which direction the person is facing.
Because both the source stream and the listener can be moving, they both have a
velocity vector representing both the speed and direction of
movement. Taken together, these two velocities can be used to generate a
doppler shift effect which changes the pitch.
During rendering, the PannerNode
calculates an azimuth
and elevation. These values are used internally by the implementation in
order to render the spatialization effect. See the Panning Algorithm section for
details of how these values are used.
The following algorithm must be used to calculate the azimuth
and elevation: for the PannerNode
// Calculate the source-listener vector. vec3 sourceListener = source.position - listener.position; if (sourceListener.isZero()) { // Handle degenerate case if source and listener are at the same point. azimuth = 0; elevation = 0; return; } sourceListener.normalize(); // Align axes. vec3 listenerFront = listener.orientation; vec3 listenerUp = listener.up; vec3 listenerRight = listenerFront.cross(listenerUp); listenerRight.normalize(); vec3 listenerFrontNorm = listenerFront; listenerFrontNorm.normalize(); vec3 up = listenerRight.cross(listenerFrontNorm); float upProjection = sourceListener.dot(up); vec3 projectedSource = sourceListener - upProjection * up; projectedSource.normalize(); azimuth = 180 * acos(projectedSource.dot(listenerRight)) / PI; // Source in front or behind the listener. float frontBack = projectedSource.dot(listenerFrontNorm); if (frontBack < 0) azimuth = 360 - azimuth; // Make azimuth relative to "front" and not "right" listener vector. if ((azimuth >= 0) && (azimuth <= 270)) azimuth = 90 - azimuth; else azimuth = 450 - azimuth; elevation = 90 - 180 * acos(sourceListener.dot(up)) / PI; if (elevation > 90) elevation = 180 - elevation; else if (elevation < -90) elevation = -180 - elevation;
Mono-to-stereo and stereo-to-stereo panning must be supported. Mono-to-stereo processing is used when all connections to the input are mono. Otherwise stereo-to-stereo processing is used.
This is a simple and relatively inexpensive algorithm which provides basic,
but reasonable results. It is used for the StereoPannerNode
,
and for the PannerNode
when the panningModel
attribute is set to "equalpower"
, in which case the the
elevation value is ignored.
For a PannerNode
, the following algorithm MUST be implemented.
Let azimuth be the value computed in the azimuth and elevation section.
The azimuth value is first contained to be within the range [-90, 90] according to:
// First, clamp azimuth to allowed range of [-180, 180]. azimuth = max(-180, azimuth); azimuth = min(180, azimuth); // Then wrap to range [-90, 90]. if (azimuth < -90) azimuth = -180 - azimuth; else if (azimuth > 90) azimuth = 180 - azimuth;
A normalized value x is calculated from azimuth for a mono input as:
x = (azimuth + 90) / 180;
Or for a stereo input as:
if (azimuth <= 0) { // -90 ~ 0 // Transform the azimuth value from [-90, 0] degrees into the range [-90, 90]. x = (azimuth + 90) / 90; } else { // 0 ~ 90 // Transform the azimuth value from [0, 90] degrees into the range [-90, 90]. x = azimuth / 90; }
For a StereoPannerNode
, the following algorithm MUST
be implemented.
Let pan be the computedValue of the pan
AudioParam of this StereoPannerNode
.
Clamp pan to [-1, 1].
pan = max(-1, pan); pan = min(1, pan);
Calculate x by normalizing pan value to [0, 1]. For mono input:
x = (pan + 1) / 2;
For stereo input:
if (pan <= 0) x = pan + 1; else x = pan;
Then following steps are used to achieve equal-power panning:
Left and right gain values are calculated as:
gainL = cos(x * Math.PI / 2); gainR = sin(x * Math.PI / 2);
For mono input, the stereo output is calculated as:
outputL = input * gainL; outputR = input * gainR;
Else for stereo input, the output is calculated as:
if (pan <= 0) { // Pass through inputL to outputL and equal-power pan inputR as in mono case. outputL = inputL + inputR * gainL; outputR = inputR * gainR; } else { // Pass through inputR to outputR and equal-power pan inputR as in mono case. outputL = inputL * gainL; outputR = inputR + inputL * gainR; }
This requires a set of HRTF (Head-related Transfer Function) impulse responses recorded at a variety of azimuths and elevations. The implementation requires a highly optimized convolution function. It is somewhat more costly than "equal-power", but provides more perceptually spatialized sound.
Sounds which are closer are louder, while sounds further away are quieter. Exactly how a sound's volume changes according to distance from the listener depends on the distanceModel attribute.
During audio rendering, a distance value will be calculated based on the panner and listener positions according to:
v = panner.position - listener.position
distance = sqrt(dot(v, v))
distance will then be used to calculate distanceGain which depends on the distanceModel attribute. See the distanceModel section for details of how this is calculated for each distance model. The value computed by the distanceModel equations are to be clamped to [0, 1].
As part of its processing, the PannerNode
scales/multiplies the input audio signal by distanceGain
to make distant sounds quieter and nearer ones louder.
The listener and each sound source have an orientation vector describing which way they are facing. Each sound source's sound projection characteristics are described by an inner and outer "cone" describing the sound intensity as a function of the source/listener angle from the source's orientation vector. Thus, a sound source pointing directly at the listener will be louder than if it is pointed off-axis. Sound sources can also be omni-directional.
The following algorithm must be used to calculate the gain contribution due
to the cone effect, given the source (the PannerNode
)
and the listener:
if (source.orientation.isZero() || ((source.coneInnerAngle == 0) && (source.coneOuterAngle == 0))) return 1; // no cone specified - unity gain // Normalized source-listener vector vec3 sourceToListener = listener.position - source.position; sourceToListener.normalize(); vec3 normalizedSourceOrientation = source.orientation; normalizedSourceOrientation.normalize(); // Angle between the source orientation vector and the source-listener vector float dotProduct = sourceToListener.dot(normalizedSourceOrientation); float angle = 180 * acos(dotProduct) / PI; float absAngle = fabs(angle); // Divide by 2 here since API is entire angle (not half-angle) float absInnerAngle = fabs(source.coneInnerAngle) / 2; float absOuterAngle = fabs(source.coneOuterAngle) / 2; float gain = 1; if (absAngle <= absInnerAngle) // No attenuation gain = 1; else if (absAngle >= absOuterAngle) // Max attenuation gain = source.coneOuterGain; else { // Between inner and outer cones // inner -> outer, x goes from 0 -> 1 float x = (absAngle - absInnerAngle) / (absOuterAngle - absInnerAngle); gain = (1 - x) + source.coneOuterGain * x; } return gain;
The following algorithm must be used to calculate the doppler shift value
which is used as an additional playback rate scalar for all
AudioBufferSourceNode
s connecting directly or indirectly
to the PannerNode
:
float dopplerShift = 1; // Initialize to default value float dopplerFactor = listener.dopplerFactor; if (dopplerFactor > 0) { float speedOfSound = listener.speedOfSound; // Don't bother if both source and listener have no velocity. if (!source.velocity.isZero() || !listener.velocity.isZero()) { // Calculate the source to listener vector. vec3 sourceToListener = source.position - listener.position; float sourceListenerMagnitude = sourceToListener.length(); float listenerProjection = sourceToListener.dot(listener.velocity) / sourceListenerMagnitude; float sourceProjection = sourceToListener.dot(source.velocity) / sourceListenerMagnitude; listenerProjection = -listenerProjection; sourceProjection = -sourceProjection; float scaledSpeedOfSound = speedOfSound / dopplerFactor; listenerProjection = min(listenerProjection, scaledSpeedOfSound); sourceProjection = min(sourceProjection, scaledSpeedOfSound); dopplerShift = ((speedOfSound - dopplerFactor * listenerProjection) / (speedOfSound - dopplerFactor * sourceProjection)); fixNANs(dopplerShift); // Avoid illegal values // Limit the pitch shifting to 4 octaves up and 3 octaves down. dopplerShift = min(dopplerShift, 16); dopplerShift = max(dopplerShift, 0.125); } }
Convolution is a mathematical process which can be applied to an audio signal to achieve many interesting high-quality linear effects. Very often, the effect is used to simulate an acoustic space such as a concert hall, cathedral, or outdoor amphitheater. It can also be used for complex filter effects, like a muffled sound coming from inside a closet, sound underwater, sound coming through a telephone, or playing through a vintage speaker cabinet. This technique is very commonly used in major motion picture and music production and is considered to be extremely versatile and of high quality.
Each unique effect is defined by an impulse response. An impulse response can be represented as an audio file and can be recorded from a real acoustic space such as a cave, or can be synthetically generated through a great variety of techniques.
A key feature of many game audio engines (OpenAL, FMOD, Creative's EAX, Microsoft's XACT Audio, etc.) is a reverberation effect for simulating the sound of being in an acoustic space. The code used to generate this effect has generally been custom and algorithmic (generally using a hand-tweaked set of delay lines and allpass filters which feedback into each other). In nearly all cases, not only is the implementation custom, but the code is proprietary and closed-source, each company adding its own "black magic" to achieve its unique quality. Each implementation being custom with a different set of parameters makes it impossible to achieve a uniform desired effect. And the code being proprietary makes it impossible to adopt a single one of the implementations as a standard. Additionally, algorithmic reverberation effects are limited to a relatively narrow range of different effects, regardless of how the parameters are tweaked.
A convolution effect solves these problems by using a very precisely defined mathematical algorithm as the basis of its processing. An impulse response represents an exact sound effect to be applied to an audio stream and is easily represented by an audio file which can be referenced by URL. The range of possible effects is enormous.
Linear convolution can be implemented efficiently. Here are some notes describing how it can be practically implemented.
This section is normative.
In the general case the source has N input channels, the impulse response has K channels, and the playback system has M output channels. Thus it's a matter of how to matrix these channels to achieve the final result.
The subset of N, M, K below must be implemented (note that the first image in the diagram is just illustrating
the general case and is not normative, while the following images are normative).
Without loss of generality, developers desiring more complex and arbitrary
matrixing can use multiple ConvolverNode
objects in conjunction with an ChannelMergerNode
.
Single channel convolution operates on a mono audio input, using a mono impulse response, and generating a mono output. To achieve a more spacious sound, 2 channel audio inputs and 1, 2, or 4 channel impulse responses will be considered. The following diagram, illustrates the common cases for stereo playback where N and M are 1 or 2 and K is 1, 2, or 4.
For web applications, the time delay between mouse and keyboard events (keydown, mousedown, etc.) and a sound being heard is important.
This time delay is called latency and is caused by several factors (input device latency, internal buffering latency, DSP processing latency, output device latency, distance of user's ears from speakers, etc.), and is cummulative. The larger this latency is, the less satisfying the user's experience is going to be. In the extreme, it can make musical production or game-play impossible. At moderate levels it can affect timing and give the impression of sounds lagging behind or the game being non-responsive. For musical applications the timing problems affect rhythm. For gaming, the timing problems affect precision of gameplay. For interactive applications, it generally cheapens the users experience much in the same way that very low animation frame-rates do. Depending on the application, a reasonable latency can be from as low as 3-6 milliseconds to 25-50 milliseconds.
When an acquire the content operation is
performed on an AudioBuffer, the entire operation can usually be
implemented without copying channel data. In particular, the last step should be
performed lazily at the next
getChannelData
call. That means a sequence of consecutive
acquire the contents operations with no
intervening
getChannelData
(e.g. multiple
AudioBufferSourceNode
s playing the same
AudioBuffer
) can be implemented with no allocations or
copying.
Implementations can perform an additional optimization: if
getChannelData is called on an AudioBuffer, fresh
ArrayBuffer
s have not yet been allocated, but all invokers of
previous acquire the content operations on
an AudioBuffer have stopped using the AudioBuffer's data, the
raw data buffers can be recycled for use with new AudioBuffers,
avoiding any reallocation or copying of the channel data.
Audio glitches are caused by an interruption of the normal continuous audio stream, resulting in loud clicks and pops. It is considered to be a catastrophic failure of a multi-media system and must be avoided. It can be caused by problems with the threads responsible for delivering the audio stream to the hardware, such as scheduling latencies caused by threads not having the proper priority and time-constraints. It can also be caused by the audio DSP trying to do more work than is possible in real-time given the CPU's speed.
When giving various information on
available AudioNode
s, the Web Audio API potentially exposes information on
characteristic features of the client (such as audio hardware sample-rate) to
any page that makes use of the AudioNode
interface. Additionally, timing
information can be collected through the AnalyserNode
or
ScriptProcessorNode
interface. The information could subsequently be used to
create a fingerprint of the client.
Currently audio input is not specified in this document, but it will involve gaining access to the client machine's audio input or microphone. This will require asking the user for permission in an appropriate way, probably via the getUserMedia() API.
Please see Example Applications
This specification is the collective work of the W3C Audio Working Group.
Members of the Working Group are (at the time of writing, and by alphabetical order):
Adenot, Paul (Mozilla Foundation) - Specification Co-editor;
Akhgari, Ehsan (Mozilla Foundation);
Berkovitz, Joe (Hal Leonard/Noteflight) – WG Chair;
Bossart, Pierre (Intel Corporation);
Carlson, Eric (Apple, Inc.);
Choi, Hongchan (Google, Inc.);
Geelnard, Marcus (Opera Software);
Goode, Adam (Google, Inc.);
Gregan, Matthew (Mozilla Foundation);
Jägenstedt, Philip (Opera Software);
Kalliokoski, Jussi (Invited Expert);
Lilley, Chris (W3C Staff);
Lowis, Chris (Invited Expert. WG co-chair from December 2012 to September 2013, affiliated with British Broadcasting Corporation);
Mandyam, Giridhar (Qualcomm Innovation Center, Inc);
Noble, Jer (Apple, Inc.);
O'Callahan, Robert(Mozilla Foundation);
Onumonu, Anthony (British Broadcasting Corporation);
Paradis, Matthew (British Broadcasting Corporation);
Raman, T.V. (Google, Inc.);
Schepers, Doug (W3C/MIT);
Shires, Glen (Google, Inc.);
Smith, Michael (W3C/Keio);
Thereaux, Olivier (British Broadcasting Corporation);
Toy, Raymond (Google, Inc.);
Verdie, Jean-Charles (MStar Semiconductor, Inc.);
Wilson, Chris (Google,Inc.) - Specification Co-editor;
ZERGAOUI, Mohamed (INNOVIMAX)
Former members of the Working Group and contributors to the specification include:
Caceres, Marcos (Invited Expert);
Cardoso, Gabriel (INRIA);
Chen, Bin (Baidu, Inc.);
MacDonald, Alistair (W3C Invited Experts) — WG co-chair from March 2011 to July 2012;
Michel, Thierry (W3C/ERCIM);
Rogers, Chris (Google, Inc.) – Specification Editor until August 2013;
Wei, James (Intel Corporation);
See changelog.html.