Using Web Audio Modules for Immersive Audio Collaboration in the Musical Metaverse

W3C Web standards now enable online applications that were unthinkable just a few years ago. In 2020, the Web Audio Modules V2 (WAM) initiative, known as “VST for the web”, revolutionized music on the web. WAMs facilitate host applications using reusable web components such as note generators, virtual instruments and audio effects. Today, the WAM ecosystem includes over 100 plugins, tutorials and host applications such as Sequencer Party, a real-time collaborative platform built entirely with WAMs, that allows multiple participants to build music installations by patching plugins together. This article adapts the concepts of Sequencer Party to the musical metaverse, reusing existing WAMs without modification and generating new 3D interfaces for VR/XR use. BabylonJS was used for 3D rendering with WebXR support, and a “Conflict-Free Replicated Data Type» (CRDT) approach was chosen for client synchronization. The software is open-source and hosted online.