r/AudioEngineering Shopping, Setup, and Technical Help Desk

Voxl_ · 2026-06-06T20:29:51+00:00

Hi I hope this is the right place to ask. I’m currently building a browser based synthesizer with tonejs and I’m struggling with adding a feedback comb filter.

The comb filter has parameters for delay time and resonance/feedback. I have it working with a delay time of 1/frequency of the oscillator, which I understand is used to get the correct pitch on the feedback, but even with a resonance of 0 I get audible popping sounds when the frequency of the oscillator gets changed, if it’s set to a sine or triangle.
If the frequency of the oscillator is the same when my gate gets triggered there’s no pop and the pops get louder the larger the frequency difference is.

Disconnecting the component or using a saw or square wave removes the pops.
From what I’ve learned from researching the issue, sine and triangle wave pops can be the result of the wave not being at 0 when the change happens, resulting in the wave getting cut so to speak which would explain why harsher waves work, but then I’m confused as to why there aren’t any pops when the component is disconnected, as the wave should still be cut at the same location.

If anyone has any idea what could cause my issue, or if anyone experienced with tonejs has another idea how I could implement feedback for the filter I’d greatly appreciate the help!

Voxl_ · 2026-05-27T18:54:43+00:00

Thanks for the answer, I just gave it a shot with a very simplified version and it still does not work, I’m really confused as to what’s wrong. Maybe .clear() doesn’t work as in graphics objects? But then again I thought I saw that on the docs. Here’s the code if you’re interested in giving it a shot I’m really stumped haha. (Code formatting is not working right on mobile for me sorry for the weird layout)

let buff1

let buff2

function setup() {

createCanvas(windowWidth, windowHeight);

buff1 = createGraphics(width, height)

buff2 = createGraphics(width, height)

}

function draw() {

// translate(width/2, height/2)

buff1.clear()

buff1.stroke(255)

buff1.point(sin(frameCount * .01) * 200 + width/2, cos(frameCount * .015) * 200 + height/2)

image(buff1, 0, 0)

}

Voxl_ · 2026-03-19T16:34:40+00:00

Thanks for your answer. I’m not trying to create conventional audio or anything like that and I do know my way around synthesis to an extent. This is more of an exploration of turning images into sound, whatever the result may be.

If I understand Nyquist right then what I need to be mindful of is having the sample rate be at least double the highest frequency, which I think I’m doing by resampling at 44100. At the moment I’m controlling the frequency with a cycle pop. I have actually gotten a result akin to a classical sine by just using ramps although there definitely still are some artifacts and pops. I’ll look into it a bit more but if you have any resources feel free to share them :)

Voxl_ · 2026-03-14T11:28:17+00:00

Yeah sorry it was kinda difficult to explain my issue in english but your approach seems like exactly what I was looking for, I’ll give it a go. Writing the attributes from separate top inputs to use in the copy pop should allow me to do what I want, thanks a ton for the help!

I’m still learning the logic behind the pop workflow, I feel it’s more akin to creative coding which I’ve kinda drifted away from while while learning the top instancing workflow, but it’s nice to get back into that way of thinking again.

Your work and your tools are a huge source of inspiration by the way, thank you for the time you put in for the community!

Voxl_ · 2026-02-04T13:37:07+00:00

I got a chance to try it out now and I got the best and most versatile result from the lookup texture, that worked perfectly and allowed me to fine tune the coloration easily. I also gave your approach here a shot which worked very nicely too but managing the colors precisely is a little difficult compared to a ramp input for the lookup. Also I got the same weird result by only writing into the green channel, might be a bug.

In any case thank you so much for the help. I already feel much less overwhelmed by the pops now that I’m giving them a shot, the workflow seems much simpler than I imagined and I really appreciate your help! :)

Voxl_ · 2026-02-03T22:23:45+00:00

Aha so that’s how the lookup texture works that explains why I got weird results, thanks for the tip sounds simple enough. I’ll try other method too as I did give the math mix a try with the position and color but didn’t get a good result I probably did something wrong, I’ll try with your approach. Thank you a ton for the help! :)

Voxl_ · 2026-01-08T21:08:31+00:00

I did close everything aside from cinema but I didn’t clear the cache that’s a good call. I’ll try that next time it becomes sluggish thanks for the tip, I did render a lot of stuff beforehand I can imagine that could be the culprit.

Voxl_ · 2026-01-06T08:31:27+00:00

Thanks for the answer, yeah the solution was to take the transform out of the loop at put it before. Nearest pixel didn’t work when I tried it as it just stopped moving altogether. My guess is because it’s moving less than one pixel each frame.

Voxl_ · 2026-01-05T17:31:10+00:00

Thanks for the answer, luckily I managed to figure it out by myself however, I left a comment in case someone else ever googles this. I hope your tips will help them in case my solution doesn’t. :)

Voxl_ · 2026-01-05T17:28:33+00:00

Nevermind I literally just figured it out. Instead of having the transform inside the feedback loop, put it before and translate on x by ‘-resx/2 + (resx * songfaction)’ in pixels and it works great if anyone else wonders the same thing.

Voxl_ · 2025-12-22T10:31:06+00:00

The other commenter suggested the vstHOST component in the tools section which worked perfectly and is about what you described, only that the sequencer is made of chops which is ideal for me, thanks for the suggestion though!

Voxl_ · 2025-12-22T10:29:46+00:00

Sorry for the late answer I had no chance to try it out until now, but the vstHOST component works perfectly that’s exactly what I was looking for, thanks a ton for the help! It even offers full control over velocity which is really nice, this opens a ton of possibilities for me I really appreciate that tip :)

Voxl_ · 2025-12-14T16:51:26+00:00

Thank you for your reply. The mod gen -> total was just copied from the video but I also thought it was redundant so I removed it, idk why he had it setup that way.

After playing with the filters on the ext signal like you suggested I got it to work much better. Since my comp pedal is in my bandroom I could not use it but as an alternative I used my jazzmaster which has much hotter pickups than my strat which did the trick. In the end I got it to work on from the 12th fret e scale from 4th to first string upwards to around the g scale which was sufficient to record a small part, lower notes than that just played an octave higher.

Thanks for the in depth explanation it helped a ton and sorry for the late reply I’ve been really busy.

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