Dynamic Waveform Visualizations with wavesurfer.js

By  on  

Waveform images are an awesome addition to boring audio widgets.  They can be functional as well as aesthetically pleasing, allowing users to navigate audio visually.  I recently found wavesurfer.js, an amazing waveform image utility that uses to Web Audio API to create super customizable waveform visualizations that take only a minute to implement.

Start by including wavesurfer.js in your page:

<script src="//cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/wavesurfer.js/1.4.0/wavesurfer.min.js"></script>

Create an instance of WaveSurfer, passing the element's selector and other configuration options:

var wavesurfer = WaveSurfer.create({
 // Use the id or class-name of the element you created, as a selector
 container: '#waveform',
 // The color can be either a simple CSS color or a Canvas gradient
 waveColor: 'grey',
 progressColor: 'hsla(200, 100%, 30%, 0.5)',
 cursorColor: '#fff',
 // This parameter makes the waveform look like SoundCloud's player
 barWidth: 3
});

Lastly, direct wavesurfer.js to load the the audio file:

wavesurfer.load('RodStewartMaggieMay.mp3');

Adding buttons to play pause, skip, and mute/unmute is easy with wavesurfer.js as well:

<button onclick="wavesurfer.skipBackward()">
  Backward
</button>

<button onclick="wavesurfer.playPause()">
  Play | Pause
</button>

<button onclick="wavesurfer.skipForward()">
  Forward
</button>

<button onclick="wavesurfer.toggleMute()">
  Toggle Mute
</button>

wavesurfer.js highlights each bar as the song moves on, even allowing you to skip throughout the song as you click on points in the waveform visualization!

wavesurfer.js takes only a moment to implement but with its massive configuration list you can spend as much time as you'd like making the waveform visualization fit your branding.

Recent Features

  • By
    How to Create a RetroPie on Raspberry Pi &#8211; Graphical Guide

    Today we get to play amazing games on our super powered game consoles, PCs, VR headsets, and even mobile devices.  While I enjoy playing new games these days, I do long for the retro gaming systems I had when I was a kid: the original Nintendo...

  • By
    7 Essential JavaScript Functions

    I remember the early days of JavaScript where you needed a simple function for just about everything because the browser vendors implemented features differently, and not just edge features, basic features, like addEventListener and attachEvent.  Times have changed but there are still a few functions each developer should...

Incredible Demos

  • By
    Create Twitter-Style Dropdowns Using jQuery

    Twitter does some great stuff with JavaScript. What I really appreciate about what they do is that there aren't any epic JS functionalities -- they're all simple touches. One of those simple touches is the "Login" dropdown on their homepage. I've taken...

  • By
    WebSocket and Socket.IO

    My favorite web technology is quickly becoming the WebSocket API. WebSocket provides a welcomed alternative to the AJAX technologies we've been making use of over the past few years. This new API provides a method to push messages from client to server efficiently...

Discussion

  1. Thanks for this guideline but player not working in IOS (Chrome & Safari)

  2. Thank you for the article! We are having difficulty showing multiple waveforms on the same page. Do you have any advice for us?

  3. ahsan

    wave surfer doesn’t load any live link .work good with local file which not helpful any longer

Wrap your code in <pre class="{language}"></pre> tags, link to a GitHub gist, JSFiddle fiddle, or CodePen pen to embed!