wavesurfer.js

New TypeScript version

wavesurfer.js v7 beta is a TypeScript rewrite of wavesurfer.js that brings several improvements:

• Typed API for better development experience
• Enhanced decoding and rendering performance
• New and improved plugins

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ℹ️ Looking for the old stable version? V6 is here: https://github.com/katspaugh/wavesurfer.js/tree/v6

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Try it out:

npm install --save wavesurfer.js@beta

import WaveSurfer from 'wavesurfer.js'

Alternatively, import it from a CDN as a ES6 module:

<script type="module">
  import WaveSurfer from 'https://unpkg.com/wavesurfer.js@beta'

  const wavesurfer = WaveSurfer.create({ ... })
</script>

Or, as a UMD script tag which exports the library as a global WaveSurfer variable:

<script src="https://unpkg.com/wavesurfer.js@beta/dist/wavesurfer.min.cjs"></script>

To import one of the plugins, e.g. the Timeline plugin:

import Timeline from 'wavesurfer.js/dist/plugins/timeline.js'

// or, with a CDN:

import Timeline from 'https://unpkg.com/wavesurfer.js@beta/dist/plugins/timeline.js'

TypeScript types are included in the package, so there's no need to install @types/wavesurfer.js.

See more examples.

Documentation

See the documentation on wavesurfer.js methods, options and events on our website.

Plugins

The "official" plugins have been completely rewritten and enhanced:

• Regions – visual overlays and markers for regions of audio
• Timeline – displays notches and time labels below the waveform
• Minimap – a small waveform that serves as a scrollbar for the main waveform
• Envelope – a graphical interface to add fade-in and -out effects and control volume
• Record – records audio from the microphone and renders a waveform
• Spectrogram – visualization of an audio frequency spectrum (written by @akreal)

CSS styling

wavesurfer.js v7 is rendered into a Shadow DOM tree. This isolates its CSS from the rest of the web page. However, it's still possible to style various wavesurfer.js elements with CSS via the ::part() pseudo-selector. For example:

#waveform ::part(cursor):before {
  content: '🏄';
}
#waveform ::part(region) {
  font-family: fantasy;
}

You can see which elements you can style in the DOM inspector – they will have a part attribute. See this example for play around with styling.

Upgrading from v6

Most options, events, and methods are similar to those in previous versions.

Notable differences

• The backend option is removed – HTML5 audio (or video) is the only playback mechanism. However, you can still connect wavesurfer to Web Audio via MediaElementSourceNode. See this example.
• The Markers plugin is removed – use the Regions plugin with just a startTime.
• No Microphone plugn – superseded by the new Record plugin with more features.
• No Cursor and Playhead plugins yet – to be done.

Removed options

• backend, audioContext, closeAudioContext', 'audioScriptProcessor – there's no Web Audio backend, so no AudioContext
• autoCenterImmediately – autoCenter is now always immediate unless the audio is playing
• backgroundColor, hideCursor – this can be easily set via CSS
• mediaType, mediaControls – you should instead pass an entire media element in the media option. Example.
• partialRender – done by default
• pixelRatio – window.devicePixelRatio is used by default
• renderer – there's just one renderer for now, so no need for this option
• responsive – responsiveness is enabled by default
• scrollParent – the container will scroll if minPxPerSec is set to a higher value
• skipLength – there's no skipForward and skipBackward methods anymore
• splitChannelsOptions – you should now use splitChannels to pass the channel options. Pass height: 0 to hide a channel. See this example.
• xhr, drawingContextAttributes, maxCanvasWidth, forceDecode – removed to reduce code complexity

Removed methods

• getFilters, setFilter – as there's no Web Audio "backend"
• drawBuffer – to redraw the waveform, use setOptions instead and pass new rendering options
• cancelAjax – ajax is replaced by fetch
• loadBlob – use URL.createObjectURL() to convert a blob to a URL and call load(url) instead
• skipForward, skipBackward, setPlayEnd – can be implemented using setTime(time)
• exportPCM is renamed to getDecodedData and doesn't take any params
• toggleMute is now called setMuted(true | false)
• setHeight, setWaveColor, setCursorColor, etc. – use setOptions with the corresponding params instead. E.g., wavesurfer.setOptions({ height: 300, waveColor: '#abc' })

See the complete documentation of the new API.

Questions

Have a question about integrating wavesurfer.js on your website? Feel free to ask in our Discussions forum.

FAQ

• Q: Does wavesurfer support large files?
• A: Since wavesurfer decodes audio entirely in the browser using Web Audio, large clips may result in an innacurately timed waveform or fail to decode at all due to memory constraints. We recommend using pre-decoded peaks for large files (see this example). You can use a tool like bbc/audiowaveform to generate peaks.

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• Q: What about streaming audio?
• A: Streaming isn't supported because wavesurfer needs to download the entire audio file to decode and render it.

Development

To get started with development, follow these steps:

1. Install dev dependencies:

yarn

2. Start the TypeScript compiler in watch mode and launch an HTTP server:

yarn start

This command will open http://localhost:9090 in your browser with live reload, allowing you to see the changes as you develop.

Tests

The tests are written in the Cypress framework. They are a mix of e2e and visual regression tests. To run the test suite locally:

yarn cypress

Feedback

We appreciate your feedback and contributions! Join the conversation and share your thoughts here: katspaugh#2789

If you encounter any issues or have suggestions for improvements, please don't hesitate to open an issue or submit a pull request on the GitHub repository.

We hope you enjoy using wavesurfer.ts and look forward to hearing about your experiences with the library!