Ten Years of Web Audio Modules: Audio Plug-ins for the Web

Buffa M, Burns T, Ferrari C, Kleimola J, Larkin O, Lebrun J, Letz S, Orlarey Y, Ren S, Yi S. Ten Years of Web Audio Modules: Audio Plug-ins for the Web. J Audio Eng Soc. 2025;73(12):804-826. doi:10.17743/jaes.2022.0238

@article{Buffa2025_23110,
  author = {Buffa, Michel and Burns, Tom and Ferrari, Cesare and Kleimola, Jari and Larkin, Oliver and Lebrun, Jerome and Letz, Stéphane and Orlarey, Yann and Ren, Shihong and Yi, Steven},
  title = {{Ten Years of Web Audio Modules: Audio Plug-ins for the Web}},
  journal = {Journal of the Audio Engineering Society},
  volume = {73},
  number = {12},
  pages = {804--826},
  year = {2025},
  month = dec,
  publisher = {Audio Engineering Society},
  doi = {10.17743/jaes.2022.0238},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.17743/jaes.2022.0238}
}

TY  - JOUR
TI  - Ten Years of Web Audio Modules: Audio Plug-ins for the Web
AU  - Buffa, Michel
AU  - Burns, Tom
AU  - Ferrari, Cesare
AU  - Kleimola, Jari
AU  - Larkin, Oliver
AU  - Lebrun, Jerome
AU  - Letz, Stéphane
AU  - Orlarey, Yann
AU  - Ren, Shihong
AU  - Yi, Steven
T2  - Journal of the Audio Engineering Society
J2  - J. Audio Eng. Soc.
VL  - 73
IS  - 12
SP  - 804
EP  - 826
PY  - 2025
DA  - 2025/12/16
DO  - 10.17743/jaes.2022.0238
UR  - https://doi.org/10.17743/jaes.2022.0238
PB  - Audio Engineering Society
LA  - en
AB  - Web Audio Modules (WAM) is a mature proposal for Web Audio plug-ins. Started in 2015, this open-source proposal reached version 2.0 in 2021. This paper reviews the background that led to the publication of the WAM standard and then details its characteristics. The second part is devoted to an analysis of the ecosystem that has grown up around the standard, focusing on notable achievements and applications, particularly those that have demonstrated their value within the web platform for which it was designed. Since its release, WAM V2.0 has been the subject of numerous publications, demonstrations, and presentations at various international conferences. As a direct result, there is now a large set of plug-ins and hosts in the WAM format, along with new online tutorials and tools to facilitate plug-in development (online IDEs, etc.), the vast majority being open source. An initiative called the WAM Community has also emerged to encourage the sharing of plug-ins, accompanied by an API and many online tools. New WAM hosts have been introduced, including two DAWs, collaborative applications, and compatible visual programming languages. Additionally, the WAM format now supports extensions, and this article describes some of them.
ER  -