5 Top Audio Processing Libraries for JavaScript
Best libraries for your web app’s audio processing
Implementing web applications with high-fidelity audio processing can be a challenging task. But, if you know the correct tools, you can make it a whole lot easier.
In this article, I will introduce the 5 best audio processing libraries for JavaScript to help you choose the best one for your requirement.
1. Howler.js — Free and Reliable Feature-rich Library
Howler.js utilizes the power of Web Audio API and HTML5 Audio to provide highly reliable, cross-platform audio support.
It is an open-source library and has some existing features like audio sprites, automatic caching, codec support, etc.
Pros
- Single API provides many services.
- Variety of codecs support enabling cross-browser support.
- 3D-spatial sounds and many state-of-the-art features.
- Dolby audio playback support.
- Large developer community and good documentation.
Cons
- Noise cancellation is not supported yet.
- Not very developer-friendly for beginners.
Howler.js has more than 19K GitHub stars and 145,000+ weekly downloads in NPM.
You can easily install Howler.js using npm or yarn like below:
# Install with npm
npm install howler# Install with Yarn
yarn add howler
2. Audo AI — Developer Friendly Speech Enhancement API
Audo is a commercial product that can be used to remove background noises from audio clips. It provides 2 different modes as follows:
- Batch Processing — Remove noise from multiple audio files.
- Stream Processing — Real-time noise cancellation.
Audo API uses an AI-based noise removal algorithm to detect and remove any undesirable background noises automatically.
Also, it is much better than traditional audio filter-based noise removal since it delivers sound with minimum distortion.
Pros
- AI-based noise cancellation leads to high-quality output.
- Free 200 minutes of API usage for developers.
- Real-time audio processing support.
- Supports a variety of file formats, including video files.
Cons
- Not an open-source service.
- Still in the early development phase compared to other libraries.
The pricing plan of Audo AI is pretty simple. It will only cost $0.05 per minute of API usage.
Even though Audo API is a commercial product, the developers have released another audio processing tool called “Magic Mic.” This is a desktop application for real-time noise cancellation. You can try this open-source tool from their GitHub.
3. Dolby.io — Studio Quality Web Audio in Real-time
If you are looking for a commercial-level web audio solution, Dolby.io is one of the best libraries available.
You can use Dolby.io services for building audio conferencing applications, virtual classrooms, live-streaming apps, social apps, and many more.
Pros
- High-fidelity audio quality.
- Free 30,000 usage minutes for building communication apps + 200 monthly minutes for building other media processing apps.
- Provides a trial version for free without a credit card.
- Good documentation and tutorials, including example apps.
- Thousands of features, including noise cancellation, spatial audio, loudness correction, background hum removal available.
Cons
- Expensive service compared to other commercially available services.
Dolby.io offers two packages, “Communications and Streaming Package” and the “Media Package.”
Both these packages offer a pay-as-you-go pricing model. For example, if your usage is between 200 and 10k minutes, enhancing feature of the Media package will cost 0.043 USD per month.
You can find a detailed description of the pricing models in their documentation.
4. Tone.js — Create Interactive Music in the Browser
Tone.js is a web audio framework that allows you to create music using JavaScript.
It is an incredibly extensive library, and you can set up your music studio with instruments for free with Tone.js.
For example,
Tone.Transport.bpm.value = 120will define the beats per minute of your track.
Pros
- Free to use.
- An extensive framework allows heavy customizations.
- Good documentation and active developer community.
- Supports external audio inputs with WebRTC protocol.
- Provides audio synthesis, noise and effect generation, loops and tracking music time, and many more.
Cons
- Does not support real-time noise cancellation by default.
- Requires a heavy learning curve to explore advanced features.
Tone.js has more than 11K GitHub stars and 10000 weekly downloads in NPM.
If you are looking for options to create web-based audio applications, Tone.js is the best option.
# install with npm
npm install tone5. Twilio — Programmable Voice to Make and Receive Calls
Twilio is widely used to generate automated audio communication features in javascript-based applications.
Twilio Voice JavaScript SDK enables many new features like monitoring audio data quality with multiple metrics, web-based VoIP with javascript, and generating transcriptions based on audio recordings.
Pros
- WebRTC support allows browser-based embedded call management.
- Built-in Text to Speech support.
- Speech recognition.
- Call quality monitoring tool.
- Good documentation and technical support.
Cons
- More focus toward telecommunication sector, but not media streaming.
- JavaScript SDK is free, but to consume Twilio API services, you need to pay.
Twilio also has a Pay-as-you-go pricing model, starting from $0.0040 per minute of browser-based voice processing.
In addition to that, an additional cost will be charged for other features you choose to include. For example, if you choose audio metrics and monitoring, you will be charged $0.0025/min per participant.
If you are focusing on implementing a web-based telecommunication app, Twilio Voice is the best pick, and you can find more details in their documentation.
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Summary
In this article, I discussed 5 best options to develop high-fidelity audio processing. The following graph will give you a better understanding of the unique features of those libraries.
I hope my suggestions will help you choose the best high-fidelity audio library for your next JavaScript project. And don’t forget to share your thoughts after working with these libraries.
Thank you for Reading!!!
