Working exhibit · Woodhouse
This is not a picture of a demo. It is the demo, running here, with the parts separated so you can see what actually owns what.
Play the run, fire its effects, switch on a real LoftwahFM station, then pull the music link out and watch exactly what stops — and what does not.
The sound the game owns
Generated in the browser with oscillators, on a bus of the game’s own. Muting it never touches the soundtrack.
The game’s effects are its own. They are generated on the spot, they answer to the game’s mute, and they would keep working with the music service completely unreachable.
A small game that routes signals
0 pointsstreak 0●●●
The run is a real game with a real score. It owns its scene, its rules and its effects. It never asks the music service for permission to exist.
Streamed from LoftwahFM
No track yet
idle
Preparing the station…
A real public LoftwahFM station, played through the supported client. Pull the link and the soundtrack stops while the run carries on.
Woodhouse working exhibit
A game, the sounds it owns, and a soundtrack streamed from somewhere else. Open the bench, then take it apart.
The run, its effects and the soundtrack are three separate owners. The bench shows what happens when you pull them apart: the game keeps its score, the effects keep their own sound, and the music stops and starts without either of them noticing.
A small arcade game about routing signals. A cyan ring belongs in the effects socket, a lime bar belongs in the music socket, and a coral cross must be let past on the open rail. Catch one in the wrong place and the run loses a life.
It is here to make one point: the game is a first-class owner of its own audio. It scores, it makes its own sounds, and it keeps working when the music service is unreachable.
Every effect you hear in the run is generated by an oscillator in this page, on a bus the game owns. Muting that bus changes nothing else. The soundtrack is not routed through it and the game does not ask it for permission.
This is the difference the separation buys: a failure in one owner cannot take the other owner down with it.
A real public LoftwahFM station, streamed through LoftwahFM’s own versioned browser client. The music bus carries the stream, so the run can duck it on impact by moving one gain — never by touching play or pause.
Disconnect the link and the soundtrack stops on the spot. The music link never pauses or resets the run; the run keeps whatever state its own play left. Reconnect it and the link is restored, but the music waits for a deliberate Play: one transport, no second audio engine, and no autoplay.
Follow the mechanism
Each step is a real state of this bench, not an illustration of one. The run, its effects and the soundtrack are three owners; the point of the walkthrough is where each one stops.
These controls move the explanation only. The bench above is the working exhibit. Reviewed against source 27f2699.
Step 1 of 7
The bench is dark. The run has not started, and nothing is playing.
A run that advances while nobody is playing has already ended before you have read the copy. The bench says it is waiting instead.
The run: Waiting for your first deliberate moveThe music: Off. No audio context has been created.
Source src/scripts/exhibits/patch-bench.ts — the waiting flag
The run starts scoring and its sound effects fire from oscillators on the page.
The game owns the world and the effects. Both come from one audio manager the game already had, so the effects cost nothing extra to hide or lose.
The run: Playing, and keeping its own scoreThe music: Off. The music bus exists but carries nothing.
Source src/scripts/exhibits/patch-bench.ts — the separate music bus
The page asks LoftwahFM's versioned client for a public station. The message changes to “Preparing the station…” and then “Starting the stream…”.
Music arrives over a network from a different origin, so it is prepared by the owner that publishes it. The page never starts a second audio engine to do it.
The run: Playing, unaffectedThe music: Preparing, then streaming from the station's origin
Source src/scripts/exhibits/patch-bench.ts — the preparation message
The soundtrack plays under the run. Clipping a gate lowers the music for a moment.
Ducking moves one gain on the music bus. It does not pause, restart or resume the stream, which is why a bass hit never restarts the song.
The run: PlayingThe music: Playing, temporarily ducked by the run
Source src/scripts/exhibits/patch-bench.ts — the start message
“The link is open. The soundtrack is stopped; the run continues.” The score keeps moving and the effects keep firing.
The link is one connection. Removing it stops the bus the page owns and leaves the game's bus alone, so nothing else has to compensate.
The run: Playing, with its own effectsThe music: Stopped, with the link open
Source src/scripts/exhibits/patch-bench.ts — the disconnect message
“Music link restored. The link did not pause or reset the run; press Play to start the soundtrack.” The music is not playing yet.
The page kept its transport; reconnecting restores the connection, not the playback. Disconnecting never paused or reset the run, so it is in whatever state its own play left it. Play is a separate, deliberate action.
The run: Its own state: waiting, playing or over; the link did not change itThe music: Link restored; ready for a deliberate Play
Source src/scripts/exhibits/patch-bench.ts — the reconnect message
“That station could not be prepared. The run keeps working.” Choosing another station retries; nothing else on the bench stops.
A failed stream is a failure of one optional owner. The exhibit reports it where the music control lives and leaves the game and its effects running.
The run: PlayingThe music: Unavailable, and reported as unavailable
Source src/scripts/exhibits/patch-bench.ts — the failure message
A game that wants a soundtrack has three jobs to do, and they belong to three different owners. The game runs the world and decides when something happens. The effects belong to the game and are generated by it. The music belongs to a music service, arrives over a network, and can fail on its own schedule.
The temptation is to wire them into one audio system and let one thing carry the lot. It works right up until the music service is slow, the manifest is wrong, or the stream fails to open. Then the whole thing goes quiet together and nobody can tell which part broke.
On the bench, the three owners are kept apart on purpose. The effects run on a bus the game owns. The music runs on a bus the page owns, carrying a stream from LoftwahFM's versioned browser client. When the run clips a gate, it ducks the music by moving one gain — it never pauses it, never restarts it, and never resumes music the visitor paused.
If you are building a browser game, this is the shape worth copying:
LoftwahFM publishes the client, the public stations and a short recipe for this. The recipe is the part you will actually want.