AudioContext.createMediaElementSource()

The createMediaElementSource() method of the AudioContext Interface is used to create a new MediaElementAudioSourceNode object, given an existing HTML <audio> or <video> element, the audio from which can then be played and manipulated.

For more details about media element audio source nodes, check out the MediaElementAudioSourceNode reference page.

Syntax

var audioCtx = new AudioContext();
var source = audioCtx.createMediaElementSource(myMediaElement);

Parameters

myMediaElement

An HTMLMediaElement object that you want to feed into an audio processing graph to manipulate.

Returns

A MediaElementAudioSourceNode.

Example

This simple example creates a source from an <audio> element using createMediaElementSource(), then passes the audio through a GainNode before feeding it into the AudioDestinationNode for playback. When the mouse pointer is moved, the updatePage() function is invoked, which calculates the current gain as a ratio of mouse Y position divided by overall window height. You can therefore increase and decrease the volume of the playing music by moving the mouse pointer up and down.

var audioCtx = new (window.AudioContext || window.webkitAudioContext)();
var myAudio = document.querySelector('audio');
var pre = document.querySelector('pre');
var myScript = document.querySelector('script');

pre.innerHTML = myScript.innerHTML;

// Create a MediaElementAudioSourceNode
// Feed the HTMLMediaElement into it
var source = audioCtx.createMediaElementSource(myAudio);

// Create a gain node
var gainNode = audioCtx.createGain();

// Create variables to store mouse pointer Y coordinate
// and HEIGHT of screen
var CurY;
var HEIGHT = window.innerHeight;

// Get new mouse pointer coordinates when mouse is moved
// then set new gain value

document.onmousemove = updatePage;

function updatePage(e) {
    CurY = (window.Event) ? e.pageY : event.clientY + (document.documentElement.scrollTop ? document.documentElement.scrollTop : document.body.scrollTop);

    gainNode.gain.value = CurY/HEIGHT;
}

// connect the AudioBufferSourceNode to the gainNode
// and the gainNode to the destination, so we can play the
// music and adjust the volume using the mouse cursor
source.connect(gainNode);
gainNode.connect(audioCtx.destination);

Note: As a consequence of calling createMediaElementSource(), audio playback from the HTMLMediaElement will be re-routed into the processing graph of the AudioContext. So playing/pausing the media can still be done through the media element API and the player controls.

Specifications

Specification
Web Audio API
# dom-audiocontext-createmediaelementsource

Browser compatibility

BCD tables only load in the browser

See also