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

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

Try it out:

npm install --save wavesurfer.js@beta

import WaveSurfer from 'wavesurfer.js'

Alternatively, import it from a CDN as a ES6 module directly in the browser:

<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.js"></script>

To import a plugin, e.g. the Timeline plugin:

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

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 via CSS using 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, large files may fail to decode 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.

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: https://github.com/wavesurfer-js/wavesurfer.js/discussions/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!