$ grep -r "browser APIs" ~/blog/

The Web Audio API represents one of the most ambitious and controversial additions to the web platform. Designed to bring professional grade audio processing to browsers, it promised to enable everything from game audio engines to digital audio workstations (DAWs) running entirely in the browser. Nearly a decade after its initial release, the API has achieved widespread browser support and enabled impressive demonstrations. Yet beneath the surface lies a more complicated story: one of design compromises, unmet expectations, and fundamental tensions between different visions of what audio on the web should be.

This is not just another technical critique. The Web Audio API’s troubled history reveals important lessons about web standards development, the challenges of designing APIs by committee, and the sometimes painful gap between what audio professionals think developers need and what developers actually need.