Canopy - a Web Audio scratch pad

Google’s Hongchan Choi has developed this incredibly useful Web Audio scratch pad. As well as providing a place to write your code, there’s also a handy zoom-able waveform visualisation to help debug any issues in the audio output. The tool comes with a built in audio node graph visualisation too, accessible using the “eye” icon, and a way to load a Github gist directly in to the editor. I can see myself making heavy use of this tool for my next project.

Modulator: A Web Audio modular synthesiser

I love this modular synthesiser from Luis Crespo. The editing interface is polished and powerful, with each individual module having its own set of parameters that can be individually tweaked. There’s a good selection of presets to help you learn how to use the synth, and a simple but effective way to save and load your own patches. The multi-octave arpeggiator is particularly fun.

Matt McKegg: I play the JavaScript

Matt McKegg, author of the Web Audio live performance and composition tool Loop Drop gave this talk at JSConf.Asia 2015 on the inspirations for his software, and how he uses the Web MIDI API to connect it to a wide range of controllers. Matt is really pushing the state-of-the-art with his software and his performances. One of the key take-aways from this talk is how the ubiquity of the web platform is allowing musicians to build their own tools that feel like the kind of instruments they’ve always wanted to play.

Monophonic Ringtone Synthesiser

Do you miss the ring tone from your very first mobile phone? If so, this synth is for you. Hook up your MIDI keyboard and annoy your office mates or fellow commuters like it’s 1997!

Little Drummer Toy

Sorry for bringing this to you too late for the festive season, but this project from Ableton will fun at any time of the year!

5:1 Web Audio demo from Dolby

This small code snippet from Dolby Laboratories points at some interesting experiments they are running with Web Audio. If you’re looking for an example of how to work with multi-channel output devices this code is a straight-forward starting point.

Making an interactive Web Audio slide-deck

Sole Penadés’s amazing WebGL and Web Audio-powered slide deck was one of my favourite Web Audio projects last year. In this video Sole explains how the slides were put together and how to use some of the tricks in your own projects.

Proper loudness metering on the web with EBU R128

I hate squashed and over-compressed music. It leads to ear-fatigue quickly, is often distorted and sounds dull and low-fi compared to dynamic music.

That’s why I created something called LoudEv, an open-source online loudness evaluator, which is compliant to EBU R128.

LoudEv uses the Web Audio API, Web Workers and the great wavesurfer.js by katspaugh to do its thing: Analyzing an audio file (on the client-side, no server upload necessary) and then creating a two-dimensional loudness map of the song as well as a dynamics map.

Modern Approaches: Producers reveal their sound philosophies

The Red Bull Music Academy are releasing a series of interesting interviews with top music producers on how they use effects, including compression and reverb, in their music. The techniques are illustrated with embedded soundcloud examples. A useful resource.

Exploring the Web Audio API with D3

This article from Scott Logic’s William Ferguson explains how to combine the Web Audio API with the D3.js visualisation framework to analyse and visualise sound.

Dear Architects: Sound Matters

An interactive article from the New York Times that uses spatialised audio to illustrate the importance of sound, or the lack of it, in our built environment.