# What is zvuk? · zvuk

zvuk v1.14.1 · MIT · https://zvuk.schmooky.dev/docs/

An audio engine for the web. Tiny, ESM, type-safe. Built from a real shipping slot-game stack.

Overview

# What is zvuk?

An audio engine for the web. Tiny, ESM, type-safe. Built from a real shipping slot-game stack.

**zvuk** is a Web Audio API library built around the vocabulary a game audio team already uses. There is an Engine you talk to, a Mixer made of named Buses, Sounds that spawn Voices, Snapshots that crossfade the whole mix, and Parameters that drive any value through a curve. Wwise, FMOD and Unreal all name these things the same way.

It is designed around the parts the Web Audio API leaves to you. Autoplay restrictions. iOS Safari's `AudioContext` lifecycle. Click-free parameter changes. Polyphony at scale. Disposing everything you constructed. Each of those is a named concern here, which is what keeps the code at the call site short.

## Conventions

**All time-valued options are in seconds**, matching the Web Audio API (`AudioContext.currentTime`, every `AudioParam` schedule). That includes fades (`voice.fade({ duration: 0.8 })`), crossfades (`engine.crossfade(a, b, { duration: 1.5 })`), snapshot applies (`snap.apply({ fade: 0.25 })`), and every dynamics processor's `attack`/`release`. No millisecond fields, no per-API conversions to remember.

## What's in v1.14.1

-   **Runtime:** lazy AudioContext, audio-clock scheduler, decode cache, codec ladder.
-   **Mixer:** Master with headroom + optional soft limiter, named Buses with click-free fades, FX chain inserts.
-   **Sources:** Sound + Voice with jitter, fades, pause / resume, live `setPlaybackRate`, abort signals, lifecycle promises; `createSound` for procedural buffers.
-   **Sprites:** one buffer, many named regions, one fetch. For cascades, UI variants and dialogue chunks.
-   **Streams:** `loadStream` for music tracks > 30s via `HTMLAudioElement` + `MediaElementAudioSource`.
-   **Crossfade:** `engine.crossfade(from, to, { duration })` for an equal-power music swap in one call.
-   **Concurrency:** per-bus voice limit with steal strategies (`oldest` / `lowest-priority` / `quietest` / `none`).
-   **FX:** Compressor, Reverb (synthetic IR or your own), Filter (six biquad types), Ducker (sidechain), pitch-preserving StretchProcessor (offline) plus a realtime AudioWorklet variant.
-   **Spatializer:** 2D StereoPanner + 3D HRTF PannerNode per voice, with `voice.spatializer` exposed for live `setPan` / `setPosition`.
-   **Loudness:** RMS-based normalization on load (`loadSound({ normalize: true })`) so sounds sit at uniform perceived loudness.
-   **Parameters & Snapshots:** named knobs with `bindTo` mapping; whole-mix capture and crossfade.
-   **DX:** errors carry a Levenshtein suggestion, so a mistyped bus name says `Did you mean "sfx"?`; a CLI with `zvuk transcode` and `zvuk gen bank.json`; an auto-built TypeDoc reference, Pagefind search, generated OG cards, and machine-readable [`llms.txt`](/llms.txt) plus [`llms-full.txt`](/llms-full.txt).

## What's next

The [roadmap](/roadmap/) lists sized, prioritised items and the [changelog](/changelog/) covers what has already landed. Pull requests are welcome; [CONTRIBUTING.md](https://github.com/schmooky/zvuk/blob/main/CONTRIBUTING.md) says what the gates are.

## Read next

-   [Quickstart](/docs/quickstart/) gets sound playing in two functions.
-   [The Engine](/concepts/engine/) covers lifecycle, unlock and the state machine.
-   [Asset formats](/guides/asset-formats/) is the encoding pipeline you should be using.