Question

I am trying to extract level data from a PCM audio file using core audio. I have gotten as far as (I believe) getting the raw data into a byte array (UInt8) but it is 16 bit PCM data and I am having trouble reading the data out. The input is from the iPhone microphone, which I have set as:

[recordSetting setValue:[NSNumber numberWithInt:kAudioFormatLinearPCM] forKey:AVFormatIDKey];
[recordSetting setValue:[NSNumber numberWithFloat:44100.0] forKey:AVSampleRateKey]; 
[recordSetting setValue:[NSNumber numberWithInt:1] forKey:AVNumberOfChannelsKey];

[recordSetting setValue:[NSNumber numberWithInt:16] forKey:AVLinearPCMBitDepthKey];
[recordSetting setValue:[NSNumber numberWithBool:NO] forKey:AVLinearPCMIsBigEndianKey];
[recordSetting setValue:[NSNumber numberWithBool:NO] forKey:AVLinearPCMIsFloatKey];

which is obviously 16 bits. I am then trying to just print out a few values to see if they look reasonable for debug purposes below, and they do not look reasonable (many 0’s).

ExtAudioFileRef inputFile = NULL;
ExtAudioFileOpenURL(track.location, &inputFile);

AudioStreamBasicDescription inputFileFormat;
UInt32 dataSize = (UInt32)sizeof(inputFileFormat);
ExtAudioFileGetProperty(inputFile, kExtAudioFileProperty_FileDataFormat, &dataSize, &inputFileFormat);

UInt8 *buffer = malloc(BUFFER_SIZE);
AudioBufferList bufferList;
bufferList.mNumberBuffers = 1;
bufferList.mBuffers[0].mNumberChannels = 1;
bufferList.mBuffers[0].mData = buffer; //pointer to buffer of audio data
bufferList.mBuffers[0].mDataByteSize = BUFFER_SIZE; //number of bytes in the buffer

while(true) {

    UInt32 frameCount = (bufferList.mBuffers[0].mDataByteSize / inputFileFormat.mBytesPerFrame);

    // Read a chunk of input
    OSStatus status = ExtAudioFileRead(inputFile, &frameCount, &bufferList);

    // If no frames were returned, conversion is finished
    if(0 == frameCount)
        break;

    NSLog(@"---");

    int16_t *bufferl = &buffer;
    for(int i=0;i<100;i++){
        //const int16_t *bufferl = bufferl[i];
        NSLog(@"%d",bufferl[i]);
    }

}

Not sure what I am doing wrong, I think it has to do with reading the byte array. Sorry for the long code post…

Answer 1

youre allocating a buffer of unsigned 8 bit ints and then casting the address of that to an unsigned 16 bit int. ka-boom.

what you want to do in your for loop is cast bufferList.mBuffers[0].mData to a SInt16 *, and then iterate thru that to print out your values.

you dont need your buffer var at all. (for this)