AudioScheduledSourceNode: start() method

Baseline Widely available

This feature is well established and works across many devices and browser versions. It’s been available across browsers since September 2020.

The start() method on AudioScheduledSourceNode schedules a sound to begin playback at the specified time. If no time is specified, then the sound begins playing immediately.

Syntax

js
start()
start(when)

Parameters

when Optional

The time, in seconds, at which the sound should begin to play. This value is specified in the same time coordinate system as the AudioContext is using for its currentTime attribute. A value of 0 (or omitting the when parameter entirely) causes the sound to start playback immediately.

Return value

None (undefined).

Exceptions

InvalidStateNode DOMException

Thrown if the node has already been started. This error occurs even if the node is no longer running because of a prior call to stop().

RangeError

Thrown if the value specified for when is negative.

Examples

This example demonstrates how to create an OscillatorNode which is scheduled to start playing in 2 seconds and stop playing 1 second after that. The times are calculated by adding the desired number of seconds to the context's current time stamp returned by AudioContext.currentTime.

js
context = new AudioContext();
osc = context.createOscillator();
osc.connect(context.destination);

/* Schedule the start and stop times for the oscillator */

osc.start(context.currentTime + 2);
osc.stop(context.currentTime + 3);

Specifications

Specification
Web Audio API
# dom-audioscheduledsourcenode-start

Browser compatibility

desktop mobile
Chrome
Edge
Firefox
Opera
Safari
Chrome Android
Firefox for Android
Opera Android
Safari on iOS
Samsung Internet
WebView Android
WebView on iOS
start
Chrome – Full support
Chrome 24 (Release date: 2013-01-10)
footnote Full support
Edge – Full support
Edge 12 (Release date: 2015-07-29)
footnote Full support
Firefox – Full support
Firefox 25 (Release date: 2013-10-29)
footnote Full support
Opera – Full support
Opera 15 (Release date: 2013-07-02)
footnote Full support
Safari – Full support
Safari 7 (Release date: 2013-10-22)
footnote Full support
Chrome Android – Full support
Chrome Android 25 (Release date: 2013-02-27)
footnote Full support
Firefox for Android – Full support
Firefox for Android 25 (Release date: 2013-10-29)
footnote Full support
Opera Android – Full support
Opera Android 14 (Release date: 2013-05-21)
footnote Full support
Safari on iOS – Full support
Safari on iOS 7 (Release date: 2013-09-18)
footnote Full support
Samsung Internet – Full support
Samsung Internet 1.5 (Release date: 2013-09-25)
footnote Full support
WebView Android – Full support
WebView Android 4.4 (Release date: 2013-12-09)
footnote Full support
WebView on iOS – Full support
WebView on iOS 7 (Release date: 2013-09-18)
footnote Full support

Legend

Tip: you can click/tap on a cell for more information.

Full support
Full support

See also