Audio Analysis

AudioAnalysis

Real-time audio signal analysis attached to any entity that already has an AudioSource, AudioStream, or VideoPlayer. The renderer analyzes the audio frame buffer and writes results back into the component each tick. Scenes read those results to drive visualizers, beat-reactive geometry, audio-driven lights, etc.

Authoring split

The audio-emitting entity (a speaker / radio / video screen) is static and belongs in main-entities.ts with its AudioSource / AudioStream / VideoPlayer component. AudioAnalysis itself is not in the supported declarative list — attach it at runtime in src/index.ts via getEntityOrNullByName. Reactive entities (pulsing cubes, EQ bars) are likewise added in code since their visuals are driven dynamically.

// main-entities.ts — the audio source
dj_speaker: {
  components: {
    Transform: { position: { x: 8, y: 1, z: 8 } },
    AudioSource: { audioClipUrl: 'sounds/track.mp3', playing: true, loop: true, volume: 0.8 }
  }
}

// src/index.ts — attach analysis + reactive systems
import { engine, AudioAnalysis, PBAudioAnalysisMode, Transform } from '@dcl/sdk/ecs'
import { Vector3 } from '@dcl/sdk/math'

export function main() {
  const speaker = engine.getEntityOrNullByName('dj_speaker')
  if (!speaker) return
  AudioAnalysis.createAudioAnalysis(speaker, PBAudioAnalysisMode.MODE_LOGARITHMIC)
  // ... reactive systems below
}

RULE: Requires an audio-emitting component on the same entity

AudioAnalysis does nothing on its own. The entity MUST also have one of: AudioSource, AudioStream, or VideoPlayer. The renderer taps that component's audio frame buffer to compute amplitude/bands. An entity with only AudioAnalysis produces no data.

RULE: Audio must be playing for non-zero output

Values are derived from live audio frames. If the source is paused, muted, or not yet loaded, amplitude and all bands[] stay at 0. There is no "ready" event — start your reactive systems unconditionally, they will simply animate toward 0 while silent.

RULE: Only the Unity explorer implements this

Bevy and the mobile Godot explorer ignore the component (no analysis written). Treat AudioAnalysis as a Unity-explorer-only enhancement and design fallbacks (e.g. a base scale that doesn't depend on amplitude) so the scene still looks reasonable elsewhere.

RULE: Read via readIntoView into a pre-allocated view

readIntoView / tryReadIntoView write into a caller-owned AudioAnalysisView = { amplitude: number, bands: number[] }. Allocate the view once at scene init and reuse it every frame — do not new it inside the system. The bands array MUST be pre-sized to 8.

RULE: Use createAudioAnalysis, not create

Use the helper AudioAnalysis.createAudioAnalysis(entity, mode?, amplitudeGain?, bandsGain?). It pre-fills all required protobuf fields (8 bands + amplitude + mode) with safe defaults. Calling the raw AudioAnalysis.create(entity, {...}) requires you to provide every band/amplitude field manually. Use createOrReplaceAudioAnalysis to overwrite an existing one without throwing.

Import

import {
  AudioAnalysis,
  AudioAnalysisView,
  PBAudioAnalysisMode,
  AudioSource, // or AudioStream / VideoPlayer
  engine,
  Transform
} from '@dcl/sdk/ecs'
import { Vector3 } from '@dcl/sdk/math'

AudioAnalysisView is a TypeScript type alias (not a component), exported from @dcl/sdk/ecs.

Component fields

Output (filled by the renderer; read in your systems):

Inputs (configure once at create time):

Values are unbounded floats — gains can push them above 1. Clamp or scale in your system if the visual you drive needs 0..1. For typical music at default gains, expect peaks roughly in 0..1 with normal content sitting 0..0.5.

AudioAnalysisView

type AudioAnalysisView = {
  amplitude: number
  bands: number[]  // length 8 — bands[0] = lowest freq, bands[7] = highest
}

Reading the data

const view: AudioAnalysisView = { amplitude: 0, bands: new Array<number>(8) }

engine.addSystem(() => {
  AudioAnalysis.readIntoView(audioEntity, view)
  // Or, defensive variant — returns false if the component is missing:
  // if (!AudioAnalysis.tryReadIntoView(audioEntity, view)) return

  // view.amplitude and view.bands[0..7] are now populated
})

Common patterns

// 1. Pulse an entity's scale to overall amplitude
const view: AudioAnalysisView = { amplitude: 0, bands: new Array<number>(8) }
engine.addSystem(() => {
  AudioAnalysis.readIntoView(audioEntity, view)
  const t = Transform.getMutable(pulseEntity)
  const s = 1 + view.amplitude * 10
  t.scale = Vector3.create(s, s, s)
})

// 2. 8-bar equalizer (one entity per band, scale Y by bands[i])
for (const [entity, _] of engine.getEntitiesWith(VisualBar, Transform)) {
  const i = VisualBar.get(entity).index   // 0..7
  Transform.getMutable(entity).scale = Vector3.create(1, view.bands[i] * BAR_HEIGHT, 1)
}

// 3. Bass-only kick
const bass = view.bands[0] + view.bands[1]
if (bass > 0.7) { /* trigger flash */ }

// 4. Custom gains (less sensitive amplitude, punchier bands)
AudioAnalysis.createAudioAnalysis(
  audioEntity,
  PBAudioAnalysisMode.MODE_LOGARITHMIC,
  2.0,
  0.1
)

Mode selection

• MODE_LOGARITHMIC (default) — bands are log-spaced and gain-scaled to roughly fit 0..1 for typical music. Use for visualizers, scaling, color reactivity. amplitudeGain / bandsGain apply.
• MODE_RAW — raw FFT-derived magnitudes, linearly spaced. Lower bands dominate visually because most musical energy is there. Gains are ignored. Use only if you intend to do your own normalization.

Gotchas

• Output values can exceed 1.0 with high gains or loud sources. Clamp downstream if you feed UI bars or alpha channels expecting 0..1.
• Throttled updates. Renderer runs analysis under a frame-time budget — values may skip frames under load. Drive smooth animations with dt interpolation.
• Multi-source scenes. Each audio-emitting entity needs its own AudioAnalysis. No global mix-down.
• Works on VideoPlayer audio too. The same audio frame buffer interface backs AudioStream and VideoPlayer, so you can react to a video's soundtrack.
• No pitch interaction. AudioSource.pitch changes playback speed; analysis runs on the actual played frames, so a higher pitch shifts perceived band energy upward.
• Don't call readIntoView before createAudioAnalysis. Reading without the component throws. Use tryReadIntoView if the component may not be attached yet.

Permissions

No special scene permission beyond what AudioSource / AudioStream / VideoPlayer already requires. Streamed audio still needs ALLOW_MEDIA_HOSTNAMES in scene.json for its hostname (see audio-video skill).