Browser Audio Protips

The song of my people.....

A Lightning Talk by Jesse Harlin

1

Use the <Audio /> Tag for the simple stuff

<Audio />

Makes A Native Player

You can (sorta) customize it

<audio controls>
  <source 
     src="myAudio.mp3" 
     type="audio/mpeg">
  <source 
     src="myAudio.ogg" 
     type="audio/ogg">
  <p>Your browser doesn't 
      support HTML5 audio. 
      Here is a <a href="myAudio.mp4">
      link to the audio</a> 
      instead.</p>
</audio>

Straightforward

(with effort)

2

Consider MIDI when you normally wouldn't

simple protocol,
has velocity information
browser support since 2015
can be used for more than just music (lighting, machinery)
doesn't have to be USB/ 5-pin DIMM, can be over a network, etc.
most stable protocol ever. EVER. since 1981, no breaking changes (yet)
Use MidiAccess:
- https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/MIDIAccess
More examples Here:
- http://digitalsoundandmusic.com/6-2-5-non-musical-applications-for-midi/

MIDI

https://websynths.com/

Gather All The MIDI inputs!

3

window
  .navigator
  .requestMIDIAccess()
  .then(midiAccess => {
  
      if (midiAccess.inputs) {
        window['d'] = midiAccess.inputs;
        
        midiAccess.inputs.forEach(input => {
          input.onmidimessage = listener;
        });
        
      }
});

4

Use Tone.js for sound Generation

http://www.whitevinyldesign.com/solarbeat/

Use Howler.js for Playback

5

6

Use Soundsprites

7

Videogames: There's one best format

WEBM

(With MP3 fallback)

.ogg?

.wav?

SURPRISE, ITS

.mp3?

Google's project
small file size ( use Vorbis encoding)
100% royalty-free
"fully" supported by html5 browsers*
days of 'weird' fallbacks are (almost) over

8

Make a Start Screen

(Or clever first interaction)

An AudioContext must be created or resumed after the document received a user gesture to enable audio playback.

9

Use BFXR for quick sound effects

https://www.bfxr.net/

Fun Button

10

Create-Phaser-App has a Sound Processor Now

$ yarn process-sounds
yarn run v1.15.2
$ node ./scripts/sound-processor/index.js
[ 'src/assets/sounds/raw/Angry_Blip.ogg',
  'src/assets/sounds/raw/Blip_Choose.ogg',
  'src/assets/sounds/raw/Blip_Select.ogg',
  'src/assets/sounds/raw/Default.ogg',
  'src/assets/sounds/raw/Explosion.ogg',
  'src/assets/sounds/raw/Heavy_Shoot.ogg',
  'src/assets/sounds/raw/Hit_Hurt.ogg',
  'src/assets/sounds/raw/Hit_Hurt2.ogg',
  'src/assets/sounds/raw/Hit_Hurt3.ogg',
  'src/assets/sounds/raw/Laser_Scan.ogg',
  'src/assets/sounds/raw/Laser_Scan_High.ogg',
  'src/assets/sounds/raw/Laser_Scan_Low.ogg',
  'src/assets/sounds/raw/Laser_Shoot.ogg',
  'src/assets/sounds/raw/Lemon_Star_Zero.ogg',
  'src/assets/sounds/raw/Music_Fanfare.ogg',
  'src/assets/sounds/raw/Music_Game_Over.ogg',
  'src/assets/sounds/raw/Music_Level.ogg',
  'src/assets/sounds/raw/Music_Start_Screen.ogg',
  'src/assets/sounds/raw/OuchLemon.ogg',
  'src/assets/sounds/raw/Powerup.ogg',
  'src/assets/sounds/raw/Robo_Fart.ogg',
  'src/assets/sounds/raw/Sad_Lemon.ogg',
  'src/assets/sounds/raw/ScreechLemon.ogg',
  'src/assets/sounds/raw/Screech_Lemon.ogg',
  'src/assets/sounds/raw/Strange_Electronics.ogg',
  'src/assets/sounds/raw/Takeoff_Long.ogg',
  'src/assets/sounds/raw/Thud.ogg',
  'src/assets/sounds/raw/Vaporize.ogg' ]
All Sounds Processed
Done in 14.52s.

import sounds, { soundsConfig } from '../../assets/sounds/processed/index.js';

sounds.play('Music_Fanfare');

Thank You For Listening

Jesse Harlin

Github: the-simian

Twitter: @simian

jesseharlin.net