Minim: how does this library measure volume? What's the range, and what are the measuring units?

km13oj

Hi there!

I've searched high and low, but can't figure this out. My friend and I are trying to build a program that reads input from a microphone, and tweets at certain intervals. The problem? Most ambient noises register between a 0 and 1 volume reading--you have to be extremely loud to get it above there. The highest number we've gotten is 21, so we're thinking that the range could be 0 to 25.

This leaves us with some questions:

1. How does minim measure volume--what are the measuring units and range?

2. Further: how would I map these units from their limited 0 to 25 range to a wider range, 0 to 100, so we can capture more detail?

3. If we do successfully map it, how do we then plug that float into our averaging equation for volume?

Here's our code:

volume = abs(int(in.right.get(1)*mult));
 float volumeConverted = map(volume,0,25,0,100); <--this isn't working, because the averaging equation that we have won't read it

// volumeConverted = volumeC <--tried this conversion as a workaround for the float issue, but it didn't seem to work at all

total = total - readings[index];       
readings[index] = volumeConverted; <-- this isn't working, can't plug in float

Thank you so much!

km13oj

Let me know if I should clarify anything in my question!

ddf

If you want to monitor the overall volume level of the mic you probably want to use in.mix.level() to do so. This should return a value that is between 0 and 1. in.right.get(1) will return values between -1 and 1 and I expect you are seeing values larger than that because of the *mult you've got in there. If the assignment of volumeConverted isn't working, I expect it's because readings is an array of ints you need something like

readings[index] = (int)volumeConverted;

Though I don't know why you wouldn't just store your readings in a float array to it's floats all down the line.