Files
hyperframes/plans/audio-automation-lanes/SPEC.md
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Vance IngallsandClaude Sonnet 5 ea0344122c fix(engine): duck before quantising, chunk the PCM, reschedule on rate change (#3174)
* fix(core): remove the build-audio-fx-runtime.ts stray resurrected by a main merge

An earlier merge with main brought this deleted file back (git's merge/delete
handling on an unchanged-on-one-side file); package.json already points at
build-inline-artifact.ts, so it sat unreachable and duplicating that file's
config, both of which fallow flagged.

* fix(studio): pull TimelineLanes under the 600-line cap

TimelineLanes.tsx hit 620 lines. Extracted the three per-clip pointer
gestures (resize-start, pointer-down move-arm, click/razor-split) into
createClipGestureHandlers — one factory call per rendered clip instead of
~120 lines of inline handler bodies in the render loop. 529 lines now.

* fix(studio): split the extracted pointerdown handler under the CRAP threshold

Moving the ~120-line gesture logic into timelineClipGestureHandlers.ts
concentrated it into two functions fallow flagged (onPointerDown at CRAP
63.6, onResizeStart at 31.6). Split the decision logic (which gesture a
pointerdown implies) into a pure resolvePointerDownAction, then split
its own intent-blocking check into isIntentBlocked. onResizeStart's guard
moved into canStartResize. Every function now scores under 30.

* fix(studio): drop the unused DomEditSelection import in PropertyPanelFlat

CI caught it on PR #3026 (wa-12-panel-params); a later refactor in the
stack removed the last use of the type here without removing the import.

* fix(studio): close the typecheck and fallow gaps wa-18b-reschedule opened

useAutomationLanes.ts's write() assumed gesture-scoped coalescing and a
preview-only commit that useDomEditAttributeCommits.ts never grew — backported
that option support from its own later commit so the two sides of the API
agree. The paste path and its tests were missing the box selection's v0/v1
bounds a sibling commit added to AutomationSelection. The FX panel's carve
controls still edited the six mechanism numbers (maxCutDb, bands,
intelligibilityBias) after carveProfile() collapsed authoring to one Strength
knob, so those fields no longer existed on HfCarveSettings; UI now edits
strength, and analyseCarveBands is called with carveProfile(strength).

Also closes fallow's complexity, dead-code and duplication findings on this
PR's diff: extracted automationLaneDragMath.ts (pure group/point-move math)
and useAutomationRangeDrag.ts (the marquee-select gesture) out of
useAutomationLaneGestures.ts, pulled a couple of render-loop ternaries and a
resolver into named functions, dropped an export nothing outside its file
used, and shared a step-simplifier between audioCarve's two envelope
builders.

The edge-stretch vs. box-select priority test in TimelineAutomationLane.test
was still pinning the pre-box-select rule (edge wins over a point sitting on
it) that a sibling commit deliberately reversed — a point inside the box is
now selected content, so grabbing it drags the group instead. Updated the
test to the shipped rule instead of the old one.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>

* fix(core): cap the via conic's weight so an edge-clamped via point can't NaN

A via point pulled out past the segment (viaX: 5, viaY: -3) clamps to
(0.999, 0.001) — exactly on the steady region's edge, where edge - viaX is 0.
viaConic divided by that zero to get an infinite weight, and shapeVia turned
Infinity into NaN a few steps later (Infinity - Infinity in the quadratic
coefficient). NaN reaching setValueCurveAtTime silences the automated
parameter for the rest of the render.

Capped the weight at 1e6 instead of leaving it unbounded — past that point
the arc already reads as touching the via point, so nothing visible is lost.
Also hardened shapeVia's existing denominator guard (`<= 0`) to `!(> 0)`,
since NaN fails the original comparison and fell through it.

Review by Miga (PR #3208).

* fix(studio-server): fingerprint the proactive waveform cache key too

The route already keys the waveform cache on the asset's size and mtime as
well as its path, so a rebuilt-in-place file gets fresh peaks instead of
stale ones. generateWaveformCache — the proactive path that runs on upload —
still called buildWaveformCacheKey with the path alone, so it wrote to a
different key than the route reads from (making the pre-generated cache
never found) and kept the exact collision bug this fingerprint exists to fix
on its own path.

Review by Miga (PR #3211).

* style(docs): run oxfmt on the /hyperframes-audio skill docs

Table column widths had drifted out of alignment with oxfmt's own rules,
failing format:check and blocking the Preflight gate every downstream
branch inherits. Whitespace only, no content change.

* fix(core): stop \b from missing underscore-separated names, guard clipsOverlap's negative duration

\b treats `_` as a word character, so \bbed\b never matched bed_01,
music_bed_loop, or theme_song, and \bvo\b/\bvox\b/\btts\b had the same gap —
an underscore-separated bed classified as "unknown" and could end up offered
as its own carve source. Replaced the short hints with a boundary that
actually excludes letters and digits on both sides.

clipsOverlap computed end = start + duration without guarding sign, so a
negative duration put end before start — an interval that does not describe
anything, and one specific case showed it silently dropping a real overlap
(a shorter, earlier broken end rejected a clip that genuinely contained the
point). Duration clamps to zero instead: a clip cannot un-play time, and a
zero-length clip at its start is the sane reading of "duration nobody wrote
down as positive."

Review by Miga (PR #3212).

* fix(studio): widen PropertyPanel's resetModules render timeout again

The 20s margin (already once widened for the same reason) is timing out in
CI's full-monorepo Test run — the resetModules()+fresh-import render this
test needs is uncached and competes with every other package's test suite
for the same worker pool, and the same test passes in well under 2s
standalone. Went to 45s rather than re-tuning to whatever number happens to
clear the current CI load, since that number moves every time CI gains a
package.

* fix(studio): stop the single-candidate auto-apply carve firing twice

Two auto-apply effects both fire when sourceOptions.length === 1: the
multi-candidate effect only guards length === 0, so a single candidate
passes it too, and the single-candidate effect passes its own guard right
after — both compute the same sources list and both call setCarve, so the
common case (one narrator, one bed) triggered two decodes, two FFT runs, and
two concurrent attribute writes for one decision.

The multi-candidate effect now defers to its sibling for exactly one
candidate, which already has its own detailed handling for that case.

Review by Miga (PR #3213).

* feat(core): carve against every voice over a bed, always (#3212)

* feat(core): carve against every voice over a bed, always dynamically

A bed usually runs under a whole sequence — a narrator, an interview answer, a
second presenter — and carving against one of them left the others fighting it.
`source` becomes `sources`, and `mixCarveSources` sums every voice onto the BED's
clock before anything is measured. That is what keeps one analysis sufficient: the
chain is fixed, so there is no per-voice filter to switch between, and bands drawn
from all the speech there is with envelopes that rise wherever any of it happens
answer the actual question — where and when is speech masking this bed.

Summed rather than averaged: two people talking at once mask more than either
alone. Audio before the bed starts is dropped rather than folded in at zero, since
it plays over nothing and shifting it would put a cut where there is no voice.

`dynamic` is gone. A fixed depth thins the bed through every pause, and once both
have been heard there is no reason to want it, so every carve follows the speech.

Two helpers the panel and the headless script now share instead of each carrying a
copy — two definitions of "what does this name suggest" drift, and then the two
disagree about which track is the voice:

- `classifyAudioName` reads a track's kind from its id and filename together.
  `unknown` is deliberately common: treating an unrecognised name as "not a voice"
  would hide the one track somebody needs to pick.
- `clipsOverlap` keeps out a voice that never plays while the bed does. An unwritten
  duration counts as unbounded, not zero — refusing a clip whose length the
  composition leaves to the media would drop the commonest case there is.

Files written before this still load: a single `source` reads as a one-voice list,
a stored `dynamic` is ignored, and an absent attribute means the defaults whole.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>

* fix(core): stop \b from missing underscore-separated names, guard clipsOverlap's negative duration

\b treats `_` as a word character, so \bbed\b never matched bed_01,
music_bed_loop, or theme_song, and \bvo\b/\bvox\b/\btts\b had the same gap —
an underscore-separated bed classified as "unknown" and could end up offered
as its own carve source. Replaced the short hints with a boundary that
actually excludes letters and digits on both sides.

clipsOverlap computed end = start + duration without guarding sign, so a
negative duration put end before start — an interval that does not describe
anything, and one specific case showed it silently dropping a real overlap
(a shorter, earlier broken end rejected a clip that genuinely contained the
point). Duration clamps to zero instead: a clip cannot un-play time, and a
zero-length clip at its start is the sane reading of "duration nobody wrote
down as positive."

Review by Miga (PR #3212).

---------

Co-authored-by: Claude Opus 5 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>

* fix(studio): port the carve UI off the removed source/dynamic fields

#3212 (accidentally squash-merged into this branch instead of main) changed
HfCarveSettings from a single `source` + `dynamic` toggle to a `sources`
list with dynamic mode removed outright — the multi-voice UI consumer that
goes with that shape lands in the very next PR, so this branch was left with
a type that no longer matched its own code.

Minimal port, not the multi-voice redesign that PR does properly: the
"Listen to" picker and analyse() treat sources[0] as the one voice this UI
still understands, and every dynamic-mode branch (the automated envelope
lanes, the toggle, the checkbox) is gone along with the field — a carve is
now always the static value the analysis computes, matching what the type
change made permanent. Test suite trimmed the same way: the automation-lane
and toggle tests covered behavior that no longer exists.

* fix(cli): stop render.test.ts from downloading a real browser

The "render command explicit composition" test drives the full render.js
command handler, which takes the plan-based execute.ts path instead of the
renderLocal path the other tests in this file exercise. That path calls
ensureBrowser directly, bypassing the mocked preflight.js, and performs a
real network install of chrome-headless-shell into the shared
~/.cache/hyperframes/chrome cache as a side effect of running the test suite.
In CI this raced with the engine's audioFxRender browser tests running in a
parallel worker against the same HOME, producing an intermittent EACCES on
the partially-installed binary.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Sonnet 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>

---------

Co-authored-by: Claude Opus 5 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
2026-08-13 05:23:40 -07:00

13 KiB

Audio automation lanes

Breakpoint envelopes on audio tracks, edited in the timeline the way Ableton Live edits arrangement automation: expand a lane under the track, pick a parameter, click to add points, drag to shape. Applies to track volume and to FX-chain parameters.

Status: SPEC — not implemented. Builds on the wa-* Web Audio FX stack.


1. Why this shape

Two facts make this cheaper here than in most editors:

  1. Web Audio has native envelope playback. AudioParam scheduling (linearRampToValueAtTime, setValueCurveAtTime) is sample-accurate and runs on the audio thread. No per-frame JS evaluates the envelope; the studio only schedules it.
  2. Preview and render share one graph. The render runs the same builders in an OfflineAudioContext, so an envelope scheduled the same way in both places is identical by construction. No parity harness needed.

And one fact makes the UI cheap: the FX registry already declares min / max / step / unit / scale for every parameter. A lane's y-axis, clamping, and log/linear mapping are read from the registry — the lane component knows nothing about any specific effect (same principle as the panel).

2. What exists today (grounding)

  • Static volume: data-volume on the element; baseline gain.
  • GSAP volume tweens: tl.to("#bgm", { volume: 0 }) — probed at 60 Hz into volumeKeyframes, applied in preview via interpolateVolumeGain (runtime/media.ts) and baked into PCM at render via applyVolumeEnvelopeToWav (sample-accurate) with an ffmpeg-expression fallback (MAX_VOLUME_SEGMENTS = 32).
  • FX chains: data-fx-chain serialised on the element; transport splices the graph between decoded source and gain (attachElementFxChain); render runs the same graph offline. Worklet params are set via port.postMessage, not AudioParams.
  • Transport scheduling: sources are (re)scheduled on play, seek, and rate change (scheduleWebAudioForActiveClips), started with an elapsed offset into the buffer. Envelope scheduling piggybacks on exactly these moments.
  • Timeline lanes: TimelineLanes.tsx renders track rows; TimelinePropertyLanes.tsx is the keyframe-lane precedent; AudioWaveform.tsx already draws the waveform the envelope will sit over.
  • Edit plumbing: onSetAttributeLive (coalesced, no preview refresh) for drags; onSetAttribute persists on gesture end. Proven by the wa-8 fix.

3. UX spec (Ableton mapping)

Ableton Here
Automation triangle on track header Expand toggle on audio track rows in the timeline gutter
One parameter per lane, selector at lane left Same. Selector lists Volume + every automatable param of every chain node (Compressor · Threshold)
Breakpoint envelope over the clip SVG envelope drawn over the existing waveform, clip-local
Double-click segment → add point Same
Drag point (value tooltip) Same; tooltip shows value + unit from the registry
Drag segment vertically → bend curvature Same (Phase 2; format supports it from v1)
Delete key / right-click → remove point Same
Dimmed line when no automation Flat line at the current static value; first edit creates the lane

Lane height ~48 px expanded. Multiple lanes per track may be open at once (one per parameter), matching Ableton's "+" lanes — Phase 2; V1 shows one lane per track with the selector.

Editing writes: point drags go through onSetAttributeLive; release persists via onSetAttribute. The running graph follows the attribute (wa-8 observer), so edits are audible without a reload. Undo = attribute history, coalesced per gesture — free.

4. Data model

Serialised on the element, versioned, same pattern as data-fx-chain:

<audio
  id="music"
  src="..."
  data-volume="0.55"
  data-fx-chain='{"version":1,"nodes":[{"id":"n1","type":"peaking",...}]}'
  data-automation='{
    "version": 1,
    "lanes": [
      { "target": "volume",
        "points": [ {"t":0,"v":0.55}, {"t":2.5,"v":0.2,"curve":-0.4}, {"t":6,"v":0.55} ] },
      { "target": "fx.n1.frequency",
        "points": [ {"t":0,"v":200}, {"t":4,"v":8000} ] }
    ]
  }'
></audio>
  • t — seconds, clip-local (relative to the element's data-start). The attribute lives on the element, so automation travels with the clip when it moves. (Ableton note: arrangement automation stays put when clips move; clip envelopes travel. We are the clip-envelope model. Stated, not hidden.)
  • v — value in the parameter's own unit as declared in the registry (dB for a compressor threshold, Hz for a cutoff). Volume is linear 0..1, consistent with data-volume and the existing linear-domain envelope machinery — no dB conversion enters the volume path.
  • curve — optional, -1..1, curvature of the segment leaving this point. 0/absent = linear. Power-curve bend, Ableton-style.
  • target"volume" or "fx.<nodeId>.<paramKey>".

Chain node ids. HfAudioFxNode gains an optional id (short random, minted by the panel when a node is added). Automation addresses nodes by id, so reordering the chain never re-targets a lane. Chains without ids stay valid — they just can't be automation targets until the panel touches them.

Normalization (normalizeAutomation, mirrors normalizeAudioFxParams):

  1. Convert clip-local envelope → context-time segments starting at scheduledAt, offset by elapsed, scaled by playback rate.
  2. Linear segments → setValueAtTime + linearRampToValueAtTime (log-domain params ramp via sampled curve, below).
  3. Curved or log-domain segments → setValueCurveAtTime with the segment sampled at 100 pts/s (min 8 per segment).
  4. On stop/dispose → cancelScheduledValues before the nodes disconnect.

Live edit while playing: the wa-8 attribute observer already re-parameterises the running chain. Extend it: on an automation change, cancelScheduledValues from currentTime and re-schedule the remainder. Point drags are audible mid-playback without rescheduling the source.

7. Render architecture

  • Volume lane: sampled into the volumeKeyframes shape (dense linear points for curved segments, ~20/segment) and fed to the existing applyVolumeEnvelopeToWav PCM bake. Zero new render machinery; existing order (FX → volume bake) already matches fader-post-FX semantics.
  • FX param lanes: the injectable audio-fx runtime entry (audio-fx-runtime-entry.ts) grows an automation argument; it schedules lanes on the offline graph exactly as §6 does on the live one. The engine passes the element's data-automation through applyAudioFxChain.
  • Parity is structural (same interpolator, same scheduler code path), but one fixture test renders a swept filter offline and asserts the sweep landed (spectral check at two timestamps) so a regression is loud.

8. Registry & graph-builder changes

  • HfAudioFxNumberParam gains automatable?: boolean.
  • FxNodeHandle gains params?: Record<string, AudioParam> — each builder exposes the AudioParams backing its automatable params.
  • Invariant test: for every registry param with automatable: true, the built node exposes a matching AudioParam. The flag can never lie.

Automatable in V1 (param maps to a real AudioParam):

Effect Params
Peaking / shelves frequency, gain, Q
High/low-pass (2-pole) frequency, Q
Delay time (delayTime), feedback, mix
Chorus rate, depth, mix
Phaser rate, wet/dry gains
Reverb wet, dry
Volume (transport gainNode)

Not automatable in V1, greyed out in the selector, with reasons:

  • Worklet effects (compressor, limiter, gate, bitcrush): params travel by postMessage, not AudioParams. V2 path: declare parameterDescriptors in the processors and read parameters in process() — mechanical but touches every processor; separate PR.
  • Saturation type/threshold: a WaveShaper curve is not an AudioParam.
  • Reverb size/damping: changing them regenerates the IR; not continuously automatable by construction. Output gain via post-node possible later.
  • 1-pole filter frequency: IIRFilterNode coefficients are immutable.

9. Studio UI components

  • TimelineAutomationLane.tsx — SVG envelope over AudioWaveform, driven by registry metadata (range/scale/unit). Hit-testing, point drag with tooltip, double-click add, right-click/Delete remove.
  • Track header expand toggle + param selector (grouped: Volume, then per chain node by label).
  • TimelineElement (playerStore) gains a parsed automation? summary the same way it carries volumeKeyframes, populated at manifest translation.
  • Orphan handling: deleting a chain node in the panel deletes its lanes in the same attribute write (atomic — both live in element attributes).

10. Edge cases

  • Clip trimmed shorter than envelope: points beyond data-duration are kept in data, drawn dimmed, inert at playback (hold-last stops at clip end).
  • Clip start moved: clip-local times mean the envelope moves with it. This is the chosen semantic, not an accident.
  • data-playback-rate ≠ 1: envelope times are clip-timeline seconds; the scheduler divides by rate when mapping to context time (same as the buffer).
  • Unreadable data-automation: preview plays without it (dry-not-silent philosophy); render fails loudly (same split as chains — plausible-but- wrong renders are the worst outcome).
  • Element with automation but no chain: volume lane still valid.

11. PR breakdown (all < 1000 LOC)

PR Scope Est. LOC
A wa-10-automation-model core: types, parse/normalize/serialize, sampleAutomationLane, curvature math, chain node ids, lint rule ~450
B wa-11-param-exposure core: automatable flags, FxNodeHandle.params, invariant test ~350
C wa-12-preview-scheduling core: transport + attach-path scheduling, cancel/re-schedule on live edit ~400
D wa-13-render-scheduling core/engine: offline scheduling in runtime entry, volume→bake bridge, sweep fixture test ~350
E wa-14-lane-ui studio: lane component, expand toggle, selector, point editing, orphan cleanup ~800
F wa-15-curvature (Phase 2) studio: segment-bend drag; worklet parameterDescriptors migration ~300+

A→B→C→D are dependency-ordered; E needs A+B (draws and writes) and benefits from C (audible while editing). F is optional polish.

12. Open questions (need a call before building)

  1. Volume lane display unit — data stays linear either way; show the axis as % (matches data-volume) or dB (matches DAW muscle memory)? Default if unanswered: %.
  2. Curvature in V1? Format supports it from day one regardless. Building the bend-drag in V1 adds ~2 days to E. Default: defer to F, straight lines first.
  3. Worklet-param automation deferral acceptable? Compressor threshold automation is the notable absence. Default: defer; it's a self-contained follow-up.
  4. Clip-envelope semantics confirmed? Automation travels with the clip. If you expected Ableton arrangement behaviour (stays put), say so now — it changes the data model (composition-global times, stored off-element).