ICLC 2025 Catalogue

Live Coding and Audio Synthesis in the Browser with Wax

Michael Cella

Wax is a free, open-source, browser-based audio synthesis environment accessible to anyone with an internet connection. With the capabilities of modern phones, it is possible to run highly complex, efficient, low-latency DSP routines directly in the browser using Web Assembly and AudioWorklets. In this workshop, par- ticipants will learn how to design their own audio synthesis algorithms in Wax, which uses a flow-based programming paradigm similar to Max and Pure Data, where the user adds and connects together devices in a workspace. Participants will also learn how to record sessions to WAV files, modify sound with a phone’s accelerometer, save and share system states with others, access connected mi- crophones, and live code custom wavetabeles using Facet, a JavaScript-based live-coding framework that is incorporated as a nested live-coding environment via Wax’s “pattern” object.