A collection of Web Audio components built with d3.js

D3.js is a framework for building “data driven documents”. Prong is a collection of libraries that combine D3 with Web Audio to allow things like visualisation of waveforms, note onset detection, and multi-channel editing. A great starting point for building more sophisticated applications.

Exploring the JP-8000 Supersaw

I loved this forensic deconstruction of the “Supersaw” synths sound. The classic Roland sound is analysed in the frequency domain, with sound clips, and then reconstructed using a series of PureData patches. Plenty of inspiration for recreating the sound yourself using the Web Audio API’s OscillatorNode.

Recreation of Commodore 64 sounds

The Commodore 64 computer had a built-in sound chip, the MOS Technology 6581/8580 SID (Sound Interface Device). The chip was pretty powerful for its day, having three independent oscillators and a filter. Igor Zinken has had a go emulating the chip, and the sounds of the C64 using the Web Audio API, and has added a keyboard to make it easy to create some sounds. It’s not entirely faithful, but is very capable of creating some out-there 8-bit sounds.

Paul Adenot talks about Web Audio at FOSDEM

Paul Adenot, the recently appointed co-author of the Web Audio API specification, and developer at Mozilla, gave an overview of the Web Audio API at this year’s FOSDEM conference. As well as some use cases, code snippets and demos, he also talks about some of the work that’s still to be done in the implementations and the specification.

Touch enabled Web Audio theremin

A really nicely implemented “theremin” using Web Audio by Luke Phillips of Femur Design. It supports touch events too, so is a lot of fun to play with on a touch enabled device (try Safari on recent iOS, or Chrome on Android devices).

Synth Britannia - the history of the synthesiser

An hour-and-a-half of crazy synth noises and lingering footage of old hardware, you say? Go on then, you’ve earnt it.