Looping

One of the first things to try if you’re learning the Web Audio API is to load short samples and and loop them. It’s an easy way to explore the power of sample-accurate scheduling, and gives you a platform to try out some more advanced effects. Daniel Gagan has put together this looping demo, with accompanying blog post - there’s a lot to learn by looking at the code.

Web MIDI synthesiser

Chris Wilson, the editor of the Web MIDI specification, has proposed some additions to the spec. He’s added a example of how to build a simple MIDI synthesiser which shows how the Web MIDI and Web Audio specifications work together. It’s early days for adoption of the API, but the demo should work in Chrome Canary.

Custom-shaped Online Noise Machines

If you work in a noisy office, but find music too distracting, try these randomly generated noise sources. Dr. Stéphane Pigeon uses the Web Audio API where available to create and modify ambient noise. The code is unminified and well-explained, and shows how to process loops using a variety of Web Audio node types.

Building a Synthesizer with the Web Audio API

The folks at Treehouse have written a tutorial on building a theremin-style synth. It’s a nice example of hooking up Web Audio to a user interface. I tried the demo on my android phone using Google Chrome, and I was surprised how well it worked with the touch interface. We might see some exciting audio applications coming to mobile soon!