sound

Note: This documentation is for the old 1.0.0 version of A-Frame. Check out the documentation for the current 1.6.0 version

The sound component defines the entity as a source of sound or audio. The sound component is positional and is thus affected by the components-position.

NOTE: Playing sound on iOS — in any browser — requires a physical user interaction. This is a browser limitation, and internal A-Frame events (like fusing cursors) do not count as interaction. Ways to deal with this include using a Begin Experience button to start ambient music, or creating audio sprites with libraries like Howler.js.

Example

<a-entity id="river" geometry="primitive: plane" material="color: blue"
position="-10 0 0" sound="src: url(river.mp3); autoplay: true"></a-entity>

Properties

Property Description Default Value
autoplay Whether to automatically play sound once set. false
distanceModel linear, inverse, or exponential inverse
loop Whether to loop the sound once the sound finishes playing. false
maxDistance Maximum distance between the audio source and the listener, after which the volume is not reduced any further. 10000
on An event for the entity to listen to before playing sound. null
poolSize Numbers of simultaneous instances of this sound that can be playing at the same time 1
positional Whether or not the audio is positional (movable). true
refDistance Reference distance for reducing volume as the audio source moves further from the listener. 1
rolloffFactor Describes how quickly the volume is reduced as the source moves away from the listener. 1
src Selector to an asset <audio>or url()-enclosed path to sound file. null
volume How loud to play the sound. 1

Methods

Event Name Description
pauseSound Pause sound.
playSound Play sound.
stopSound Stop sound.

Events

Event Name Description
sound-loaded Triggered when sound file is loaded. Event detail will contain the sound’s name and id.
sound-ended Triggered when sound finishes playing. Event detail will contain the sound’s name and id.

Playing on an Event

The sound component can also listen to an event before playing as well. For example, we might have a laughing sound play every time we click a monster:

<a-entity cursor position="0 0 -5"></a-entity>

<a-entity id="elmo" geometry="primitive: box" material="src: elmo.png"
sound="src: url(ticklelaugh.mp3); on: click"></a-entity>

Preloading a Sound Asset

For performance, we recommend to block the scene on the sound asset to preload and cache. We can do so through the asset management system:

<a-scene>
<a-assets>
<audio id="river" src="river.mp3" preload="auto"></audio>
</a-assets>

<a-entity sound="src: #river"></a-entity>
</a-scene>

Pause and Resume

To programmatically pause or resume a playing sound, we can tell the entity to pause or resume:

var entity = document.querySelector('[sound]');
entity.components.sound.stopSound();

Or to pause only the sound:

entity.components.sound.pauseSound();

And to play the sound:

entity.components.sound.playSound();