WordPress plugin intelligence profile

WaveSurfer-WP

Customizable HTML5 Audio controller with waveform preview (mixed or split channels), using WordPress native audio and playlist shortcode.

WP PlugIndex snapshot

Current directory snapshot

Tested up to WordPress 5.4
Current version2.8.4
WordPress coverageTested up to WordPress 5.4
Minimum stackWP 4.0 · PHP —
Directory statusactive
Last directory update4 Feb 20269mo ago
Active installations400Adoption metric — not a quality score
WordPress.org rating5.0 / 5 from 11 ratings
Official packageDirect from WordPress.org

Repository metrics are context, not quality scores. Active installations measure adoption and can strongly reflect a plugin’s age and historical popularity. Ratings, recent updates and “Tested up to” metadata also do not guarantee modern code, error-free operation, security, feature completeness or suitability for a particular site. Why active installs don’t tell the whole story →

WP PlugIndex currently records WaveSurfer-WP version 2.8.4 as active, updated 9mo ago and tested up to WordPress 5.4.

Overview

About this plugin

This plugin replaces the default WordPress audio player with a player capable of displaying audio waveforms. It can display a mix of the different audio channels (for podcast, radio replays, e-learning, music), or all channels simultaneously (for sound tutorial, sounds-packs showcases, audio products demo etc…), which is its main purpose.

By working with the default audio/playlist shortcode, you have great advantages:

  • It works with all your previous posts
  • You still have the default player in the Visual Editor (not just shortcode)
  • It supports every audio format supported by WordPress (wav, ogg, mp3, m4a).
  • Safe deactivation: if you deactivate the plugin, your shortcode will fallback to the WordPress default audio player.

Global colors and style settings can be overridden locally by dedicated shortcode attributes.

  • progress_color="purple"
  • wave_color="#FF0000"
  • cursor_color="#FF0000"
  • height="128"
  • bar_width="0"

Also, there is some attributes accessible at shortcode level:

  • mute_button="true"
  • loop_button="true"
  • download_button="true"
  • split_channels="true"
  • player="default"

For more advanced customization, with a custom site-plugin, you can:

  • add shortcode attributes conditionally with the filter wavesurfer_wp_shortcode_attributes.
  • use the wavesurfer_wp_shortcode_data filter if you want to add custom waveform data attributes.
  • use the wavesurfer-wp-init JavaScript event handler to render the player on custom events, like after click on a button. See examples on the WaveSurfer-WP-Init GitHub repository.

Check this Gist for demos of how to use the filters.

Extra features:

  • Pressing play on a player automatically set all the others on the same page to pause.
  • AJAX Page loading compatibility
  • MultiSite Friendly

0. These are included in the plugin as a small custom font. Because this icon-font is already used in a lot of themes and plugins, you can deactivate this custom font if needed.

You can deactivate the default WaveSurder-WP theme, and use your own theme style. I strongly encourage you to do that as custom CSS is the only way to make it fit your theme perfectly. There is a lot of dedicated CSS selectors for that.

You can take one of the included theme as reference.

This will allow you to have more control on icons, responsivity, mouse hover behavior etc…

More Infos & Demos

You can contribute by to WaveSurfer-WP development on GitHub

Themes and Translations are welcome!

Optimization trick: if you only use this plugin on a couple of pages, I invite you to use a plugin like Plugin Organizer or Gonzales to globally deactivate the plugin or its style, and make it load resources only on pages which need it.

No need for that on the back-end, only for front-end.

This player doesn’t have and will not have Like Button, Sharing Button, Play count and Download count.

at, take a look at ZoomSounds.

For other advanced WordPress integration of wavesurfer-js, you can check WavePlayer by luigipulcini or WaveSurfer-Plus by GalleryCreator.

Contrary to the other WordPress plugin based on wavesurfer-js, wavesurfer-js hasn’t been modified in this plugin. This means that you can extend feature of this plugin using the wavesurfer-js methods, and that updates from the wavesurfer-js community will be pushed in WaveSurfer-WP regularly.

WordPress 5 and Guteberg: Inserting [audio] with Gutenberg doesn’t bring the [audio] shortcode as it use to be. As this plugin is designed to hook the audio shortcode, you can use the generic shortcode block in gutenberg to manually write your shortcode, or use the classic editor.

WaveSurfer-WP Premium Add-on

A premium add-on is available to add extra features to WaveSurfer-WP.

-

Cache Peaks File

This add-on creates and loads peaks from small files, containing peaks values. No need to wait for the full audio to be decoded to display its waveform.

-

Markers System

You can add custom clickable element on your pages to seek WaveSurfer-WP player to a desired position. Can be useful for adding marks, chapters, and it can even be used for interactive audio transcripts!

-

Plug and Play

These extra features are packed as an add-on. No need to delete and replace the original plugin. You will still be able to benefit from translations made by the community.

Also, the core is still open source, to allow contribution.

-

TimeLine Plugin

When activated thanks to a shortcode attribute, a customizable time ruler will appear below your waveform.

You can buy it from the official product page.

Thanks for considering this way to support WaveSurfer-WP!

Additional Infos

It is a port for WordPress of WaveSurfer-js by katspaugh.

It also contains Download-js by dandavis.

Donators

Thanks to our generous donators for supporting this plugin development!

  • SignalToNoize.com
  • hawthonn
  • Rob
  • Robert Getzener

Do you want to contribute or sponsor one particular feature? See you on the donation page. Thanks!

WordPress.org metadata

Plugin tags

Topics listed for this plugin in the WordPress.org directory.

  • audio
  • media
  • player
  • visualization
  • waveform
Compatibility & maintenance

Compatibility & maintenance

Tested up to WordPress 5.4

Not yet marked as tested with WordPress 7.1. WordPress.org currently lists Tested up to 5.4.

Current WordPress releaseWordPress 7.1
WordPress.org Tested up to5.4
Minimum requirementsWordPress 4.0 · PHP not listed
Update activity4 Feb 20269mo ago

“Tested up to” is directory metadata supplied by the plugin author. WP PlugIndex does not turn an older declaration into a claim that the plugin is incompatible.

Changes recorded by WP PlugIndex

Recent tracked changes

No tracked version or compatibility changes have been recorded by WP PlugIndex yet.

Tracking & source

WP PlugIndex tracks public WordPress.org directory metadata and records selected version, compatibility and availability changes as they are detected.

Plugin watchlist

Watch this plugin

Sign in to your WP PlugIndex account or create a free account. Free accounts can watch up to 5 plugins and see what changed.

Watch limit

Watchlist limit reached

You have reached your current active watch limit.