BaseAudioContext.createPeriodicWave()

The createPeriodicWave() method of the BaseAudioContext Interface is used to create a PeriodicWave, which is used to define a periodic waveform that can be used to shape the output of an OscillatorNode.

Syntax

var wave = AudioContext.createPeriodicWave(real, imag[, constraints]);

Parameters

real
An array of cosine terms (traditionally the A terms).
imag
An array of sine terms (traditionally the B terms).
constraints Optional
An dictionary object that specifies whether normalization should be disabled (if not specified, normalization is enabled by default.) It takes one property:
• disableNormalization: If set to true, normalization is disabled for the periodic wave. The default is false.

If normalized, the resulting wave will have a maximum absolute peak value of 1.

Example

The following example illustrates simple usage of createPeriodicWave(), to create a PeriodicWave object containing a simple sine wave.

var real = new Float32Array(2);
var imag = new Float32Array(2);
var ac = new AudioContext();
var osc = ac.createOscillator();

real[0] = 0;
imag[0] = 0;
real[1] = 1;
imag[1] = 0;

var wave = ac.createPeriodicWave(real, imag, {disableNormalization: true});

osc.setPeriodicWave(wave);

osc.connect(ac.destination);

osc.start();
osc.stop(2);

This works because a sound that contains only a fundamental tone is by definition a sine wave

Here, we create a PeriodicWave with two values. The first value is the DC offset, which is the value at which the oscillator starts. 0 is good here, because we want to start the curve at the middle of the [-1.0; 1.0] range.

The second and subsequent values are sine and cosine components. You can think of it as the result of a Fourier transform, where you get frequency domain values from time domain value. Here, with createPeriodicWave(), you specify the frequencies, and the browser performs an inverse Fourier transform to get a time domain buffer for the frequency of the oscillator. Here, we only set one component at full volume (1.0) on the fundamental tone, so we get a sine wave.

The coefficients of the Fourier transform should be given in ascending order (i.e. etc.) and can be positive or negative.  A simple way of manually obtaining such coefficients (though not the best) is to use a graphing calculator.

Specifications

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

Browser compatibility

FeatureChromeEdgeFirefoxInternet ExplorerOperaSafari
Basic support

591

57

10

Yes25 No

22

15

6
Possible to disable normalisation Yes Yes No No ? ?
FeatureAndroid webviewChrome for AndroidEdge mobileFirefox for AndroidOpera AndroidiOS SafariSamsung Internet
Basic support

591

57

33

591

57

33

Yes26 Yes No ?
Possible to disable normalisation ? ? Yes No ? ? ?

1. Default values supported