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AudioListener.setPosition

The setPosition() method of the AudioListener Interface defines the position of the listener.

The three parameters x, y and z are unitless and describe the listener's position in 3D space according to the right-hand Cartesian coordinate system. PannerNode objects use this position relative to individual audio sources for spatialisation.

The default value of the position vector is (0, 0, 0).

Syntax

var audioCtx = new AudioContext();
var myListener = audioCtx.listener;
myListener.setPosition(1,1,1);

Returns

Void.

Example

In the following example, you can see an example of how the createPanner() method, AudioListener and PannerNode would be used to control audio spatialisation. Generally you will define the position in 3D space that your audio listener and panner (source) occupy initially, and then update the position of one or both of these as the application is used. You might be moving a character around inside a game world for example, and wanting delivery of audio to change realistically as your character moves closer to or further away from a music player such as a stereo. In the example you can see this being controlled by the functions moveRight(), moveLeft(), etc., which set new values for the panner position via the PositionPanner() function.

To see a complete implementation, check out our panner-node example (view the source code) — this demo transports you to the 2.5D "Room of metal", where you can play a track on a boom box and then walk around the boom box to see how the sound changes!

Note how we have used some feature detection to either give the browser the newer property values (like AudioListener.forwardX) for setting position, etc. if it supports those, or older methods (like AudioListener.setOrientation()) if it still supports those but not the new properties.

// set up listener and panner position information
var WIDTH = window.innerWidth;
var HEIGHT = window.innerHeight;

var xPos = Math.floor(WIDTH/2);
var yPos = Math.floor(HEIGHT/2);
var zPos = 295;

// define other variables

var AudioContext = window.AudioContext || window.webkitAudioContext;
var audioCtx = new AudioContext();

var panner = audioCtx.createPanner();
panner.panningModel = 'HRTF';
panner.distanceModel = 'inverse';
panner.refDistance = 1;
panner.maxDistance = 10000;
panner.rolloffFactor = 1;
panner.coneInnerAngle = 360;
panner.coneOuterAngle = 0;
panner.coneOuterGain = 0;

if(panner.orientationX) {
  panner.orientationX.value = 1;
  panner.orientationY.value = 0;
  panner.orientationZ.value = 0;
} else {
  panner.setOrientation(1,0,0);
}

var listener = audioCtx.listener;

if(listener.forwardX) {
  listener.forwardX.value = 0;
  listener.forwardY.value = 0;
  listener.forwardZ.value = -1;
  listener.upX.value = 0;
  listener.upY.value = 1;
  listener.upZ.value = 0;
} else {
  listener.setOrientation(0,0,-1,0,1,0);
}

var source;

var play = document.querySelector('.play');
var stop = document.querySelector('.stop');

var boomBox = document.querySelector('.boom-box');

var listenerData = document.querySelector('.listener-data');
var pannerData = document.querySelector('.panner-data');

leftBound = (-xPos) + 50;
rightBound = xPos - 50;

xIterator = WIDTH/150;

// listener will always be in the same place for this demo

if(listener.positionX) {
  listener.positionX.value = xPos;
  listener.positionY.value = yPos;
  listener.positionZ.value = 300;
} else {
  listener.setPosition(xPos,yPos,300);
}

listenerData.innerHTML = 'Listener data: X ' + xPos + ' Y ' + yPos + ' Z ' + 300;

// panner will move as the boombox graphic moves around on the screen
function positionPanner() {
  if(panner.positionX) {
    panner.positionX.value = xPos;
    panner.positionY.value = yPos;
    panner.positionZ.value = zPos;
  } else {
    panner.setPosition(xPos,yPos,zPos);
  }
  pannerData.innerHTML = 'Panner data: X ' + xPos + ' Y ' + yPos + ' Z ' + zPos;
}

Note: In terms of working out what position values to apply to the listener and panner, to make the sound appropriate to what the visuals are doing on screen, there is quite a bit of math involved, but you will soon get used to it with a bit of experimentation.

Parameters

x
The x position of the listener in 3D space.
y
The y position of the listener in 3D space.
z
The z position of the listener in 3D space.

Specifications

Browser compatibility

Feature Chrome Edge Firefox Internet Explorer Opera Safari
Basic support 14 No 25 No 15 No
Feature Android webview Chrome for Android Edge mobile Firefox for Android IE mobile Opera Android iOS Safari
Basic support 14 14 No 26 No 15 ?

See also

© 2005–2018 Mozilla Developer Network and individual contributors.
Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License v2.5 or later.
https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/AudioListener/setPosition