P5.js – Make In-Browser Audio Tools

P5.js is a programming language with the goals of the Processing – to make programming accessible to artists, educators, designers and beginners. However, P5.js uses Javascript so everybody can use their browser and, therefore, harness some of the awesome power of the internet!

Users can think of their browser as a sketch pad, drawing physical shapes, enabling animation, and, using addon libraries, you can interact with other HTML5 objects including text, mouse input, video, webcam, and (crucially for us) sound. In fact, two of the three currently available libraries are specifically for the use of audio, synthesis, and sequencing. In the demo video it also shows that you can use APIs from other sources which makes the mind boggle a little when you consider the amount of information that can be accessed through this method.

With the emphasis being on ease of use it would seem that P5.js would be a perfect gateway into creating audio applications for the web. And, of course, once you start who knows where you’ll end up? Having spent the weekend at the hugely impressive Music Tech Fest in London, Book Of Sound can only imagine what cool uses P5.js can be put to.

Watch the live demo introductory video here or crash straight in at the P5.js homepage.