Web Audio Modules 2.0: An Open Web Audio Plugin Standard

Abstract

A group of academic researchers and developers from the computer music industry have joined forces for over a year to propose a new version of Web Audio Modules, an open source framework facilitating the development of high-performance Web Audio plugins (instruments, realtime audio effects and MIDI processors). While JavaScript and Web standards are becoming increasingly flexible and powerful, C, C++, and domain-specific languages such as FAUST or Csound remain the prevailing languages used by professional developers of native plugins. Fortunately, it is now possible to compile them in WebAssembly, which means they can be integrated with the Web platform. Our work aims to create a continuum between native and browser based audio app development and to appeal to programmers from both worlds. This paper presents our proposal including guidelines and implementations for an open Web Audio plugin standard -essentially the infrastructure to support high level audio plugins for the browser.

WAM-Studio: A Web-Based Digital Audio Workstation to Empower Cochlear Implant Users

“…To apply a chain of effect plugins, WAM-Studio provides a special plugin, called Pedalboard [2], that acts as a central host for all other plugins, as illustrated by Figure 3. The Pedalboard connects to a plugin server that sends back the list of plugins available as a JSON array of URIs.…”

“…Online DAWs present distinct advantages over conventional DAWs such as lower barriers to entry and the ability to easily share and access projects from any device with an internet connection. A large variety of audio plugins (a kind of software module) extends the functionality of DAWs, offering users greater flexibility and control over their music production [2]. Since 1997, a significant market has developed for thirdparty plugin developers offering thousands of plugins that are compatible with all major DAWs.…”