Web audio playback contains clicks - web-audio-api

Question

I am trying to build a midi player using web audio API. I used tonejs to parse midi file into JSON. I am using mp3 files to play notes. Following are the relevant parts of the code:
//create audio samples
static async setupSample(audioContext, filepath) {
const response = await fetch(filepath);
const arrayBuffer = await response.arrayBuffer();
const audioBuffer = await audioContext.decodeAudioData(arrayBuffer);
return audioBuffer;
}
//play a single sample
static playSample(audioContext, audioBuffer, time) {
const sampleSource = new AudioBufferSourceNode(audioContext, {
buffer: audioBuffer,
playbackRate: 1,
});
sampleSource.connect(audioContext.destination);
sampleSource.start(time);
return sampleSource;
}
Scheduling samples:
async start() {
this.startTime = this.audioCtx.currentTime;
this.play();
}
play() {
let nextNote = this.notes[this.noteIndex];
//schedule samples
while ((nextNote.time + this.startTime) - this.audioCtx.currentTime <= 0.250) {
let s = Audio.playSample(this.audioCtx, this.samples[nextNote.midi], this.startTime + nextNote.time);
s.stop(this.startTime + nextNote.time + nextNote.duration);
this.noteIndex++;
if (this.noteIndex == this.notes.length) {
break;
}
nextNote = this.notes[this.noteIndex];
}
if (this.noteIndex == this.notes.length) {
return;
}
requestAnimationFrame(() => {
this.play();
});
}
I am testing code with a midi file which contains C major scale. I have tested the midi file using timidity and it is fine.
The code does play the midi file correctly execpet a small problem: I hear some clicking sounds during playback. The clicking increases with increasing tempo but does not completely go away even with tempo as small as 50bpm. Any ideas what could be going wrong?
Full code can be viewed at : https://test.meedee.in/

Answer 1

Nothing is "wrong". You are observing a phenomenon intrinsic to the physics of audio.
Chopping audio samples arbitrarily like this creates clicks at the transitions. Any instantaneous change in level is heard as a click. To get rid of the clicks, apply an envelope to the sample, blend adjacent notes, or apply a low-pass filter.