Re: Dropping AudioBuffer in AudioProcessingEvent?

Yes, it's not really a big change, and probably does not do much for
performance at the moment.

My reasoning comes from two observations:

1) All attributes are redundant (as pointed out by Chris), and I'm
personally not a big fan of API overlap (it tends to confuse
developers and lead to diverging coding styles).

2) I have always thought of the AudioBuffer as an abstract interface
to data that is primarily owned and managed by the audio engine, and
should typically be used more like a "handle" than for actually
inspecting/modifying the data (typical example usage: load & decode
sound file -> AudioBuffer, then tell audio engine to play
AudioBuffer). The AudioProcessingEvent is the most notable exception
from this model, where the AudioBuffer is used exclusively for
inspecting and modifying the raw data. As we've discussed earlier (too
long ago for me to remember), if at some point we want to add support
for non-Float32 internal formats (e.g. for saving memory on the
client), it might be beneficial to minimize JS-side data access to
AudioBuffers (since each getChannelData() call would potentially
require a format conversion operation).

In short: it seems a bit odd to use AudioBuffers in the
AudioProcessingEvent, and it might even be a bad thing (TM) for the
API in the future.

Anyway, just my two cents.

/Marcus

2014-08-27 18:13 GMT+02:00 Chris Wilson <cwilso@google.com>:
> I'm not sure there's a significant win from doing so, although I guess I'm
> okay with it.  None of the descriptive info in AudioBuffer interface is
> needed: the .sampleRate is redundant (same as GlobalScope sampleRate), as is
> the .length (since it's the length of each of the Float32Arrays) and the
> .numberOfChannels (the length of the channelbuffer arrays); duration is just
> a nice-to-have (i.e. calculatable from the length and the sampleRate).  But
> you'd still need to have a couple of sequences of Float32Arrays, so you're
> not really simplifying or enabling fewer objects, just getting rid of the
> use of AudioBuffer and dropping a few parameters that don't change.
>
> Current interface:
>
> interface AudioProcessingEvent : Event {
>     readonly    attribute double      playbackTime;
>     readonly    attribute AudioBuffer inputBuffer;
>     readonly    attribute AudioBuffer outputBuffer;
>     readonly    attribute object      parameters;
> };
>
>
> Interface with arrays of Float32Arrays:
>
> interface AudioProcessingEvent : Event {
>     readonly    attribute double      playbackTime;
>     readonly    attribute Float32Array[] inputChannelBuffers;
>     readonly    attribute Float32Array[] outputChannelBuffer;
>     readonly    attribute object      parameters;
> };
>
> Thoughts from others?
>
>
> On Wed, Aug 27, 2014 at 6:54 AM, Joseph Berkovitz <joe@noteflight.com>
> wrote:
>>
>> Marcus,
>>
>> I would presently favor keeping AudioBuffer since it includes useful
>> descriptive info and since people have already written code to handle it.
>> Even if the descriptive info is redundant (and I’m not sure it is) we may
>> want to add other attributes in the future, and an array of arrays will not
>> afford that opportunity for extension.
>>
>> It seems to me that getChannelData() simply becomes a trivial operation
>> and that we remove the verbiage about “acquiring contents of an AudioBuffer”
>> from the spec. The copy() methods can be deprecated but do not need to be
>> broken.
>>
>> I might have missed some point of discussion in the past, please correct
>> me if I have.
>>
>> …Joe
>>
>>
>> On Aug 27, 2014, at 2:49 AM, Marcus Geelnard <mage@opera.com> wrote:
>>
>> Hi!
>>
>> First off, the interface looks good to me. The wording related to
>> ScriptProcessorNode and AudioProcessingEvent may need to be update though
>> (e.g. in 2.15, AudioWorkerNodes should be mentioned).
>>
>> Now to my question: Is now a good time to replace the AudioBuffer
>> attributes in AudioProcessingEvent (inputBuffer, outputBuffer) with arrays
>> of Float32Arrays? Or do we need to keep the AudioBuffer interface for some
>> reason?
>>
>> /Marcus
>>
>>
>> Den 2014-08-25 17:29, Chris Wilson skrev:
>>
>> I've done some tweaking to the Audio Worker (issue #113) proposal, and
>> most significantly added the ability to create AudioParams on Audio Workers
>> (issue #134).
>>
>> The fork is hosted on my fork (http://cwilso.github.io/web-audio-api/).
>> Start here to review the creation method, and the bulk of the text begins at
>> http://cwilso.github.io/web-audio-api/#the-audio-worker.
>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> Marcus Geelnard
>> Opera Software
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> .            .       .    .  . ...Joe
>>
>> Joe Berkovitz
>> President
>>
>> Noteflight LLC
>> Boston, Mass.
>> phone: +1 978 314 6271
>> www.noteflight.com
>> "Your music, everywhere"
>>
>

Received on Wednesday, 27 August 2014 16:35:19 UTC