
Resonance Audio: Multi-platform spatial audio at scale - jamest
https://www.blog.google/products/google-vr/resonance-audio-multi-platform-spatial-audio-scale/
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minus7
Please, Google, I don't care about related articles while I'm reading this
one, bugger off.

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glenneroo
Same with YouTube. Why would I possibly click to jump to another video while
I'm watching something? Why not wait until the end? Are they trying to train
everyone to have ADHD?

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ndarilek
I'm poking the docs, can't find an answer for this, so am hoping someone
smarter than me can help. For years I've wanted to build audio games on the
web (see [http://audiogames.net](http://audiogames.net) for examples of what I
mean.) The resource requirements for these just aren't that intense, so JS/the
web seems like an interesting delivery platform, but the Web Audio API's
support for what I'd need to do this is...disappointing is the nicest way I'd
put it.

My biggest missing feature is a listener/sound source API that renders to
5.1/7.1 surround. Does Resonance do that? Yes I understand that
headphones/binaural rendering is ideal, but I have a decent surround system
and sometimes I want to put it through its paces. :)

The Getting Started section demonstrates stereo downmixing. Peeking at the API
indicates I can pass something called an ambisonic order into some functions,
but even the constant for the default gives me no obvious indication of what
this means. So maybe this is something audio developers know, but as someone
trying to evaluate Resonance, it seems like they've just handwaved around this
concept.

And if Resonance doesn't do this, does _anything_? Even if I compiled to wasm,
which is certainly something I'm open to, it looks like the only wasm options
are SDL-based, meaning simple stereo and no spatialization. But maybe I've
just picked terrible keywords to search for.

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drewbitllama
Hi!

Thanks for expressing your interest in using Resonance Audio SDK for the Web
(formally Songbird). We don't currently offer a 5.1 rendering of the audio as
an available option. However, we do offer .ambisonicOutput which outputs
ambisonic content directly and this can be rendered to a 5.1 target using 3rd
party tools
([http://www.radio.uqam.ca/ambisonic/b_g.html](http://www.radio.uqam.ca/ambisonic/b_g.html)).
If we see a large need for 5.1 rendering, it may be worth considering posting
an issue to Omnitone
([https://github.com/GoogleChrome/omnitone/issues](https://github.com/GoogleChrome/omnitone/issues))
which is our ambisonic renderer on the web. :)

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ndarilek
Got it, thanks. Do other platforms support 5.1+? Also, can Resonance be used
in wasm projects? Wondering how practical it would be to use binaural output
for the web, then recompile and port to native platforms if 5.1+ is needed.
Wasm at least would eliminate the need for a rewrite from JS.

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drewbitllama
Hi! Just to let you know, I've decided to add support for stereo, 5.1 and 7.1
speaker layouts in the Web version of Resonance Audio.
[https://github.com/resonance-audio/resonance-audio-web-
sdk/i...](https://github.com/resonance-audio/resonance-audio-web-sdk/issues/1)
Follow the repo to find out when the work is completed (hopefully soonish :) )

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science404
guess this superceeded Songbird:
[https://google.github.io/songbird/](https://google.github.io/songbird/),
previously on HN:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15031828](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15031828)

edit: indeed,
[https://github.com/google/songbird](https://github.com/google/songbird) now
redirects to [https://github.com/google/resonance-
audio](https://github.com/google/resonance-audio)

~~~
drewbitllama
Indeed. The bird has left the nest. ;)

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smustin
nice work!

