What is native_audio?

Native audio is a thin wrapper around miniaudio for simple audio playback from Ruby, with built-in support for delay and reverb effects.

Installation

Add this line to your application's Gemfile:

gem 'native_audio'

And then execute:

$ bundle

Usage

require 'native_audio'

# Load a clip
clip = NativeAudio::Clip.new('path/to/sound.wav')

# Check duration
clip.duration  # => seconds

# Create an audio source to manage playback
source = NativeAudio::AudioSource.new(clip)

# Play the clip
source.play

# Pause and resume
source.pause
source.resume

# Set pitch (1.0 = normal, 0.5 = octave down, 2.0 = octave up)
source.set_pitch(1.5)

# Set position relative to listener (angle: 0-360, distance: 0-255)
source.set_pos(90, 200)  # right side, mid distance

# Set volume (0-128)
source.set_volume(64)

# Loop playback
source.set_looping(true)

# Stop the clip
source.stop

Effects

Each audio source has a built-in effects chain:

sound 

Delay Taps

Add discrete echo effects with up to 16 taps per source:

source.play

# Add delay taps (returns a DelayTap object)
tap1 = source.add_delay_tap(time_ms: 200, volume: 0.5)
tap2 = source.add_delay_tap(time_ms: 400, volume: 0.3)

# Modify taps at runtime
tap1.volume = 0.4
tap1.time_ms = 250

# Remove a tap
tap2.remove

# Query active taps
source.delay_taps  # => [tap1]

Reverb

Add room ambience with a Schroeder reverb:

source.play

# Enable reverb with custom settings
source.set_reverb(
  room_size: 0.7,  # 0.0 = small room, 1.0 = large hall
  damping: 0.5,    # 0.0 = bright, 1.0 = muffled
  wet: 0.4,        # reverb signal level
  dry: 1.0         # original signal level
)

# Or just enable with defaults
source.enable_reverb
source.enable_reverb(false)  # disable

Combining Effects

Delay and reverb work together - each echo gets reverb applied:

source.play

# Slapback echo with room reverb
source.add_delay_tap(time_ms: 150, volume: 0.4)
source.set_reverb(room_size: 0.5, wet: 0.3, dry: 1.0)

Environment Variables

NATIVE_AUDIO_DRIVER

Set NATIVE_AUDIO_DRIVER=null to use miniaudio's null backend. This initializes the audio engine but outputs no sound - useful for CI/testing on systems without audio hardware.

NATIVE_AUDIO_DRIVER=null ruby your_script.rb

DUMMY_AUDIO_BACKEND

Set DUMMY_AUDIO_BACKEND=true to bypass miniaudio entirely and use a pure Ruby dummy backend. The C extension still loads (validating it compiles correctly), but no audio engine is initialized and all audio calls are no-ops.

DUMMY_AUDIO_BACKEND=true ruby your_script.rb

Note: On Windows Server (e.g., GitHub Actions runners), miniaudio's null backend crashes due to threading issues in headless environments. Use DUMMY_AUDIO_BACKEND=true instead. macOS and Linux work fine with NATIVE_AUDIO_DRIVER=null.

Development

bundle install
bundle exec rake compile

To test:

ruby test_audio.rb

Releasing

1. Update the version in native_audio.gemspec
2. Go to GitHub Actions → "Release to RubyGems"
3. Click "Run workflow" → "Run workflow"