14 DAY TRIAL // The web is becoming more and more capable, as a platform. One area that is seeing some interesting developments is audio. On the one hand, you have utilitarian stuff such as WebRTC and its getUserMedia API which enables access to the webcam and mic.
On the other, you have the Web Audio API designed for real-time audio processing, particularly useful for things like games and, well, audio apps.
The API is only supported in Chrome at this point, Firefox is working on it, but developers are already making the most out of it.
There are MP3 and Flac players written in JavaScript, silly or less silly apps that let you do amazing stuff with audio and now, finally, a library for guitar effects, complete with the graphical elements.
Pedalboard.js is a great name for the library as it effectively describes it. The JavaScript library comes with several guitar effects built in, the graphics for the UI and all you need to link up effects on top of each other.
But Pedalboard.js does more than that, it allows developers to create their own effects and add them to the mix.
There's a demo available, natch, and you can even plug in your actual guitar to test it since it supports audio input from the mic if you're using Chrome 23 and above.
"Pedalboard.js is a ground-breaking, first of its kind, novel open-source JavaScript framework for developing audio effects and applying them to sound sources, and it's particularly good at guitar effects," the developers explained.
"The API and all the abstraction is built around the concept of guitar effects — pedals and stomp boxes, pots and switches," they added.
"You design your pedal with the powerful Webkit audio API, attach pots and switches to it, style it via CSS3 and voila."
"Bring multiple pedals together to create a pedalboard, easily adjust their settings and routing. Prepare as many pedalboards as you'd like, e.g. for your favorite styles. Easily switch pedalboards for a completely different sound," they said.
Pedalboard.js is available for download here.