# Why another audio lib? · zvuk

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

Howler exists. Tone.js exists. Raw Web Audio exists. Here is the gap zvuk fills.

Background

# Why another audio lib?

Howler exists. Tone.js exists. Raw Web Audio exists. Here is the gap zvuk fills.

## The problem

Game audio on the web has three failure modes.

1.  **Autoplay and iOS Safari.** Roughly half of the audio bug reports I have seen on shipped web games are some version of "no sound on iPhone".
2.  **Polyphony.** Spam a reel-stop sound thirty times and the second one cuts off the first, because the same `HTMLAudioElement` is being recycled underneath.
3.  **Mix discipline.** Ducking music under dialogue. Crossfading menu states. Reverb on ambience but not on UI. Web Audio gives you nodes. Nobody gives you the routing model.

## Should I use zvuk or Howler?

Use Howler if you want to play clips and stop them, you need the widest possible browser support, and your mix is a volume slider. It is battle-tested and it will outlive us all.

Use zvuk if your audio has structure. Named buses, ducking, snapshots, voice limits, per-voice control. That is the part Howler does not model, and the part you end up writing yourself.

 

zvuk

Howler

Tone.js

pixi-sound

Named mixer buses

yes

no

channels

no

Sidechain ducking

built in

no

build it

no

Mix snapshots

yes

no

no

no

Voice limits and stealing

per bus

no

no

no

Synthesis and transport

no

no

yes

no

Codec ladder

yes

yes

manual

yes

Renderer coupling

none

none

none

PixiJS

Use it if

your mix has structure

you just need clips

you are writing music

you already ship Pixi

## Should I use zvuk or Tone.js?

Tone is a music framework. It has a transport, a synthesis graph, and scheduling built around musical time. If you are sequencing notes or building an instrument, use Tone and don't look back. zvuk plays and mixes recorded assets. There is no oscillator in it.

## What zvuk adds

-   An [Engine](/concepts/engine/) with an explicit state machine, running `cold`, `unlocking`, `live`, `suspended`, `interrupted`, `closed`.
-   A [Mixer](/concepts/mixer/) declared in `createEngine` config, with named buses and click-free fades.
-   A [Voice](/concepts/voice/) per `play()` call, carrying abort signals, lifecycle promises and an async iterator of cues.
-   A codec ladder, so `['sfx.webm', 'sfx.m4a']` ships Opus to the world and AAC only to the devices that need it.
-   An iOS Safari resume sequence that has survived production slot games. On iOS 15 an immediate `resume()` after a visibility change failed often enough to be a bug report; a 200 ms delay stopped it.

## What zvuk is not

-   A synthesis framework. There is no oscillator graph and no transport.
-   A streaming music player. `Stream` wraps `<audio>` for long files, and stops there.
-   A native bridge. v1 runs in browsers.

If you are shipping a slot game, an arcade title, a casual mobile-web game, or an interactive explainer where the sound has to hold together as a mix rather than as a pile of clips, that is the shape of the hole zvuk fills.