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AudioContext: createMediaElementSource() method

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

createMediaElementSource(myMediaElement)

Parameters

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

Return value

A MediaElementAudioSourceNode.

Examples

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.

Note: You can also view this example running live, or view the source.

const audioCtx = new AudioContext();
const myAudio = document.querySelector("audio");

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

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

// Create variables to store mouse pointer Y coordinate
// and HEIGHT of screen
let curY;
const HEIGHT = window.innerHeight;

// Get new mouse pointer coordinates when mouse is moved
// then set new gain value
document.onmousemove = updatePage;

function updatePage(e) {
  curY = e.pageY;
  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