How to make setInterval behave more in sync or how to use setTimeout instead

Question

I am working on a music program that requires multiple JavaScript elements to be in sync with another  I   ve been using setInterval  which works really well initially  However  over time the elements gradually become out of sync which is bad in a music program  I   ve read online that setTimeout is more accurate  and you can have setTimeout loops somehow  However  I have not found a generic version that illustrates how this is possible  Basically I have some functions like such    drums setInterval function       code for the drums playing goes here    8000      chords setInterval function       code for the chords playing goes here    1000      bass setInterval function       code for the bass playing goes here    500    It works super well  initially  but over the course of about a minute  the sounds become noticeably out of sync as I   ve read happens with setInterval  I   ve read that setTimeout can be more consistently accurate  Could someone just show me a basic example of using setTimeout to loop something indefinitely  Alternatively  if there is a way to achieve more synchronous results with setInterval or even another function  please let me know

User · Answer

Use  setInterval    setInterval function     alert  Hello        3000     The above will execute alert  Hello    every 3 seconds

User · Answer

Given that neither time is going to be very accurate  one way to use setTimeout to be a little more accurate is to calculate how long the delay was since the last iteration  and then adjust the next iteration as appropriate  For example   var myDelay   1000  var thisDelay   1000  var start   Date now     function startTimer             setTimeout function                your code here               calculate the actual number of ms since last time         var actual   Date now   - start             subtract any extra ms from the delay for the next cycle         thisDelay   myDelay -  actual - myDelay           start   Date now               start the timer again         startTimer           thisDelay       So the first time it ll wait  at least  1000 ms  when your code gets executed  it might be a little late  say 1046 ms  so we subtract 46 ms from our delay for the next cycle and the next delay will be only 954 ms  This won t stop the timer from firing late  that s to be expected   but helps you to stop the delays from pilling up   Note  you might want to check for thisDelay  lt  0 which means the delay was more than double your target delay and you missed a cycle - up to you how you want to handle that case    Of course  this probably won t help you keep several timers in sync  in which case you might want to figure out how to control them all with the same timer   So looking at your code  all your delays are a multiple of 500  so you could do something like this   var myDelay   500  var thisDelay   500  var start   Date now    var beatCount   0   function startTimer             setTimeout function             beatCount               your code here              code for the bass playing goes here            if  count 2     0                  code for the chords playing goes here  every 1000 ms                     if  count 16                  code for the drums playing goes here  every 8000 ms                        calculate the actual number of ms since last time         var actual   Date now   - start             subtract any extra ms from the delay for the next cycle         thisDelay   myDelay -  actual - myDelay           start   Date now               start the timer again         startTimer           thisDelay

User · Answer

The best way to deal with audio timing is with the Web Audio Api  it has a separate clock that is accurate regardless of what is happening in the main thread   There is a great explanation  examples  etc from Chris Wilson here   http   www html5rocks com en tutorials audio scheduling   Have a look around this site for more Web Audio API  it was developed to do exactly what you are after

User · Answer

setTimeout loop problem with solution    x000D   x000D     it will print 5 times 5  x000D  for var i 0 i lt 5 i     x000D  setTimeout     gt   x000D  console log i    x000D  2000  x000D                     5 5 5 5 5 x000D   x000D     improved using let x000D  for let i 0 i lt 5 i     x000D  setTimeout     gt   x000D  console log  improved using let    i    x000D  2000  x000D    x000D   x000D     improved using closure x000D  for var i 0 i lt 5 i     x000D    x   gt   x000D  setTimeout     gt   x000D  console log  improved using closure    x    x000D  2000  x000D     i   x000D     x000D   x000D   x000D

User · Answer

According to your requirement     just show me a basic example of using setTimeout to loop something   we have following example which can help you    x000D   x000D  var itr    1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9  10   x000D  var  interval   1000    one second x000D  itr forEach  itr  index    gt    x000D   x000D    setTimeout      gt    x000D      console log itr  x000D       index   interval  x000D     x000D   x000D   x000D

User · Answer

Only to supplement  If you need to pass a variable and iterate it  you can do just like so   function start counter     if counter  lt  10       setTimeout function          counter          console log counter         start counter          1000         start 0     Output   1 2 3     9 10   One line per second

User · Answer

As someone else pointed out  the Web Audio API has a better timer   But in general  if these events happen consistently  how about you put them all on the same timer  I m thinking about how a step sequencer works   Practically  could it looks something like this   var timer   0  var limit   8000     8000 will be the point at which the loop repeats  var drumInterval   8000  var chordInterval   1000  var bassInterval   500   setInterval function       timer    500       if  timer    drumInterval               Do drum stuff            if  timer    chordInterval               Do chord stuff            if  timer    bassInterval               Do bass stuff               Reset timer once it reaches limit     if  timer    limit            timer   0            500      Set the timer to the smallest common denominator

User · Answer

I use this way in work life   Forget common loops  in this case and use this combination of  setInterval  includes  setTimeOut s       function iAsk lvl           var i 0          var intr  setInterval function       start the loop              i       increment it             if i gt lvl      check if the end round reached                  clearInterval intr                   return                            setTimeout function                        imag   prop  src  pPng      do first bla bla bla after 50 millisecond               50               setTimeout function                        do another bla bla bla after 100 millisecond                  seq i-1   Math ceil Math random   4   toString                        hh   after   lt br gt   i       rand     Math ceil Math random   4   toString      gt    seq i-1                        d  seq i-1   prop  src  pGif                   var d  document getElementById  aud                    d play                                     100               setTimeout function                       keep adding bla bla bla till you done                        d  seq i-1   prop  src  pPng                 900             1000      loop waiting time must be  gt   900  biggest timeOut for inside actions          PS  Understand that the real behavior of  setTimeOut   they all will start in same time  the three bla bla bla will start counting down in the same moment  so make a different timeout to arrange the execution   PS 2  the example for timing loop  but for a reaction loops you can use events  promise async await

User · Answer

Use let instead of var in code    for let i 1 i lt  5 i    setTimeout     gt  console log i   1000

User · Answer

function appendTaskOnStack task  ms  loop        window nextTaskAfter    window nextTaskAfter    0    ms       if   loop            setTimeout function                 appendTaskOnStack task  ms  true              window nextTaskAfter              else           if  task               task apply Array arguments  slice 3             window nextTaskAfter   0           for  var n 0  n  lt  10  n          appendTaskOnStack function            console log n         100

User · Answer

I think it s better to timeout at the end of the function   function main        var something       make function walkNr            if walkNr   0                 var something for this step                     do something                     else if walkNr   1                 var something for that step                do something different                                         finally          else if walkNr   10              return something                         show progress if you like          setTimeout funkion   make walkNr   15 walkNr            return make 0          This three functions are necessary because vars in the second function will be overwritten with default value each time  When the program pointer reach the setTimeout one step is already calculated  Then just the screen needs a little time

User · Answer

You can create a setTimeout loop using recursion   function timeout         setTimeout function                 Do Something Here            Then recall the parent function to            create a recursive loop          timeout           1000       The problem with setInterval   and setTimeout   is that there is no guarantee your code will run in the specified time  By using setTimeout   and calling it recursively  you re ensuring that all previous operations inside the timeout are complete before the next iteration of the code begins

[javascript] How to make `setInterval` behave more in sync, or how to use `setTimeout` instead?

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