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WaveShaperNode.oversample

The oversample property of the WaveShaperNode interface is an enumerated value indicating if oversampling must be used. Oversampling is a technique for creating more samples (up-sampling) before applying a distortion effect to the audio signal.

Once applied, the number of samples is reduced to its initial numbers. This leads to better results by avoiding some aliasing, but comes at the expense of a lower precision shaping curve.

The possible oversample values are:

Value Effect
'none' Do not perform any oversampling.
'2x' Double the amount of samples before applying the shaping curve.
'4x' Multiply by 4 the amount of samples before applying the shaping curve.

Syntax

distortion.oversample = enumeratedValue;

Values

  • distortion is a WaveShaperNode.
  • enumeratedValue is one of 'none', '2x', or '4x'.

Example

The following example shows basic usage of an AudioContext to create a wave shaper node. For applied examples/information, check out our Voice-change-O-matic demo (see app.js for relevant code).

Note: Sigmoid functions are commonly used for distortion curves because of their natural properties. Their S-shape, for instance, helps create a smoother sounding result. We found the below distortion curve code on Stack Overflow.

var audioCtx = new (window.AudioContext || window.webkitAudioContext)();
var distortion = audioCtx.createWaveShaper();

  ...

function makeDistortionCurve(amount) {
  var k = typeof amount === 'number' ? amount : 50,
    n_samples = 44100,
    curve = new Float32Array(n_samples),
    deg = Math.PI / 180,
    i = 0,
    x;
  for ( ; i < n_samples; ++i ) {
    x = i * 2 / n_samples - 1;
    curve[i] = ( 3 + k ) * x * 20 * deg / ( Math.PI + k * Math.abs(x) );
  }
  return curve;
};

  ...

distortion.curve = makeDistortionCurve(400);
distortion.oversample = '4x';

Specifications

Specification Status Comment
Web Audio API
The definition of 'oversample' in that specification.
Working Draft

Browser compatibilityUpdate compatibility data on GitHub

Desktop
Chrome Edge Firefox Internet Explorer Opera Safari
Basic support 14 12 26 No 15 6
Mobile
Android webview Chrome for Android Edge Mobile Firefox for Android Opera for Android iOS Safari Samsung Internet
Basic support Yes 18 Yes 26 15 ? Yes

See also

© 2005–2018 Mozilla Developer Network and individual contributors.
Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License v2.5 or later.
https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/WaveShaperNode/oversample