OfflineAudioContext

The OfflineAudioContext interface is an AudioContext interface representing an audio-processing graph built from linked together AudioNodes. In contrast with a standard AudioContext, an OfflineAudioContext doesn't render the audio to the device hardware; instead, it generates it, as fast as it can, and outputs the result to an AudioBuffer.

Constructor

OfflineAudioContext.OfflineAudioContext()
Creates a new OfflineAudioContext instance.

Properties

Implements properties from its parent, AudioContext.

OfflineAudioContext.length Read only
An integer representing the size of the buffer in sample-frames.

Event handlers

OfflineAudioContext.oncomplete
Is an EventHandler called when processing is terminated, that is when the complete event (of type OfflineAudioCompletionEvent) is raised, after the event-based version of OfflineAudioContext.startRendering() is used.

Methods

Also implements methods from its parent, AudioContext, and EventTarget too.

OfflineAudioContext.resume()
Resumes the progression of time in an audio context that has been suspended.
OfflineAudioContext.suspend()
Schedules a suspension of the time progression in the audio context at the specified time and returns a promise.
OfflineAudioContext.startRendering()
Starts rendering the audio, taking into account the current connections and the current scheduled changes. This page covers both the event-based version and the promise-based version.

Example

In this simple example, we declare both an AudioContext and an OfflineAudioContext object. We use the AudioContext to load an audio track via XHR (AudioContext.decodeAudioData), then the OfflineAudioContext to render the audio into an AudioBufferSourceNode and play the track through. After the offline audio graph is set up, you need to render it to an AudioBuffer using OfflineAudioContext.startRendering.

When the startRendering() promise resolves, rendering has completed and the output AudioBuffer is returned out of the promise.

At this point we create another audio context, create an AudioBufferSourceNode inside it, and set its buffer to be equal to the promise AudioBuffer. This is then played as part of a simple standard audio graph.

Note: For a working example, see our offline-audio-context-promise Github repo (see the source code too.)

// define online and offline audio context
var audioCtx = new AudioContext();
var offlineCtx = new OfflineAudioContext(2,44100*40,44100);
source = offlineCtx.createBufferSource();
// use XHR to load an audio track, and
// decodeAudioData to decode it and OfflineAudioContext to render it
function getData() {
  request = new XMLHttpRequest();
  request.open('GET', 'viper.ogg', true);
  request.responseType = 'arraybuffer';
  request.onload = function() {
    var audioData = request.response;
    audioCtx.decodeAudioData(audioData, function(buffer) {
      myBuffer = buffer;
      source.buffer = myBuffer;
      source.connect(offlineCtx.destination);
      source.start();
      //source.loop = true;
      offlineCtx.startRendering().then(function(renderedBuffer) {
        console.log('Rendering completed successfully');
        var audioCtx = new (window.AudioContext || window.webkitAudioContext)();
        var song = audioCtx.createBufferSource();
        song.buffer = renderedBuffer;
        song.connect(audioCtx.destination);
        play.onclick = function() {
          song.start();
        }
      }).catch(function(err) {
          console.log('Rendering failed: ' + err);
          // Note: The promise should reject when startRendering is called a second time on an OfflineAudioContext
      });
    });
  }
  request.send();
}
// Run getData to start the process off
getData();

Specifications

Specification Status Comment
Web Audio API
The definition of 'OfflineAudioContext' in that specification.
Working Draft Initial definition

Browser compatibility

Feature Chrome Edge Firefox (Gecko) Internet Explorer Opera Safari (WebKit)
Basic support 10.0webkit (Yes) 25.0 (25.0) No support 15.0webkit
22 (unprefixed)
6.0webkit
Promise-based startRendering() 42.0 ? 37.0 (37.0) ? ? ?
suspend(), resume() 49.0 ?        
length 51.0 ?        
Feature Android Webview Firefox Mobile (Gecko) Firefox OS Edge IE Mobile Opera Mobile Safari Mobile Chrome for Android
Basic support 33.0 26.0 1.2 (Yes) ? ? ? (Yes)
Promise-based startRendering() 42.0 37.0 2.2 ? ? ? ? 42.0
suspend(), resume() 49.0     ?       49.0
length 51.0     ?       51.0

See also

Document Tags and Contributors

 Last updated by: fscholz,