The standard <audio> element lets you play audio, as embedded in a web page. It’s like a home stereo system but for homepages rather than real homes. It is far from a musician’s instrument. It is for consumption, not production.
But that doesn’t mean it can’t be misappropriated. In fact, a lot of creativity is about deliberate misappropriation. HYPERBLAM’s <media-blam> element turns <audio> into a sound source like an electric guitar or accordion: the input at the beginning of a signal chain.
Along this chain, we can insert any number of Signal Augmentation Modules (or “effects” to you and me). In this case, I’ve just included a <gain-blam> for adjusting gain.
<chain-blam out="bus">
<gain-blam gain="1"></gain-blam>
</chain-blam>
Why would you add an external gain stage when the standard <audio> element provides its own volume control?
First of all, volume and gain are related but not synonymous. You could use multiple gain stages—and not all for actually adjusting the gain. If that’s perplexing, see the What Is Gain? guide for a general introduction.
The first advantage of inserting a <gain-blam> here is the ability to associate it with an external control, like <dial-blam>. This element wraps a standard and accessible range input.
But, more excitingly, <gain-blam>'s gain prop (which HYPERBLAM maps to a gain audioParam) can have its value automated and modulated in various ways, with all the performance benefits of the Web Audio API. I’ll get to that shortly.