Android AudioRecord class - process live mic audio quickly, set up callback function

Question

I want to record audio from the mic and access it for possible playback in near real-time. I am unsure of how to use the Android AudioRecord class to record some mic audio a

Answer 1

private int freq =8000;
private AudioRecord audioRecord = null;
private Thread Rthread = null;

private AudioManager audioManager=null;
private AudioTrack audioTrack=null;
byte[] buffer = new byte[freq];

//call this method at start button

protected void Start()

{

loopback();

}

protected void loopback() { 

    android.os.Process.setThreadPriority(android.os.Process.THREAD_PRIORITY_URGENT_AUDIO);
    final int bufferSize = AudioRecord.getMinBufferSize(freq,
            AudioFormat.CHANNEL_CONFIGURATION_MONO,
            AudioFormat.ENCODING_PCM_16BIT);


    audioRecord = new AudioRecord(MediaRecorder.AudioSource.MIC, freq,
            AudioFormat.CHANNEL_CONFIGURATION_MONO,
            MediaRecorder.AudioEncoder.AMR_NB, bufferSize);

    audioTrack = new AudioTrack(AudioManager.ROUTE_HEADSET, freq,
            AudioFormat.CHANNEL_CONFIGURATION_MONO,
            MediaRecorder.AudioEncoder.AMR_NB, bufferSize,
            AudioTrack.MODE_STREAM);



    audioTrack.setPlaybackRate(freq);
     final byte[] buffer = new byte[bufferSize];
    audioRecord.startRecording();
    Log.i(LOG_TAG, "Audio Recording started");
    audioTrack.play();
    Log.i(LOG_TAG, "Audio Playing started");
    Rthread = new Thread(new Runnable() {
        public void run() {
            while (true) {
                try {
                    audioRecord.read(buffer, 0, bufferSize);                                    
                    audioTrack.write(buffer, 0, buffer.length);

                } catch (Throwable t) {
                    Log.e("Error", "Read write failed");
                    t.printStackTrace();
                }
            }
        }
    });
    Rthread.start();

}

It plays the recorded audio less than 100 ms delay.

Answer 2

Here is the code you need to use the OnRecordPositionUpdateListener and Notification Period.

I noticed that in practice it does not send the notification consistently at the same exact time, I want, but it is close enough.

About detectAfterEvery:

The size of detectEvery needs to be large enough to hold just the amount of data you want. So for this example, we have a sample rate of 44100 Hz, that means we want 44100 samples per second. By setting the setPositionNotificationPeriod to be 44100, the code tells Android to callback after it has recorded 44100 samples, which is about every 1 second.

The complete code is here:

        final int sampleRate = 44100;
        int bufferSize =
                AudioRecord.getMinBufferSize(sampleRate,
                        AudioFormat.CHANNEL_CONFIGURATION_MONO,
                        AudioFormat.ENCODING_PCM_16BIT);

//aim for 1 second
        int detectAfterEvery = (int)((float)sampleRate * 1.0f);

        if (detectAfterEvery > bufferSize)
        {
            Log.w(TAG, "Increasing buffer to hold enough samples " + detectAfterEvery + " was: " + bufferSize);
            bufferSize = detectAfterEvery;
        }

        recorder =
                new AudioRecord(AudioSource.MIC, sampleRate,
                        AudioFormat.CHANNEL_CONFIGURATION_MONO,
                        AudioFormat.ENCODING_PCM_16BIT, bufferSize);
        recorder.setPositionNotificationPeriod(detectAfterEvery);

        final short[] audioData = new short[bufferSize];
        final int finalBufferSize = bufferSize;

        OnRecordPositionUpdateListener positionUpdater = new OnRecordPositionUpdateListener()
        {
            @Override
            public void onPeriodicNotification(AudioRecord recorder)
            {
                Date d = new Date();
//it should be every 1 second, but it is actually, "about every 1 second"
//like 1073, 919, 1001, 1185, 1204 milliseconds of time.
                Log.d(TAG, "periodic notification " + d.toLocaleString() + " mili " + d.getTime());
                recorder.read(audioData, 0, finalBufferSize);

                //do something amazing with audio data
            }

            @Override
            public void onMarkerReached(AudioRecord recorder)
            {
                Log.d(TAG, "marker reached");
            }
        };
        recorder.setRecordPositionUpdateListener(positionUpdater);

        Log.d(TAG, "start recording, bufferSize: " + bufferSize);
        recorder.startRecording(); 

//remember to still have a read loop otherwise the listener won't trigger
while (continueRecording)
        {
            recorder.read(audioData, 0, bufferSize);
        }

Answer 3

After experimenting lots with the notifications and a bunch of other techniques I settled on this code:

private class AudioIn extends Thread { 
     private boolean stopped    = false;

     private AudioIn() { 

             start();
          }

     @Override
     public void run() { 
            android.os.Process.setThreadPriority(android.os.Process.THREAD_PRIORITY_URGENT_AUDIO);
            AudioRecord recorder = null;
            short[][]   buffers  = new short[256][160];
            int         ix       = 0;

            try { // ... initialise

                  int N = AudioRecord.getMinBufferSize(8000,AudioFormat.CHANNEL_IN_MONO,AudioFormat.ENCODING_PCM_16BIT);

                   recorder = new AudioRecord(AudioSource.MIC,
                                              8000,
                                              AudioFormat.CHANNEL_IN_MONO,
                                              AudioFormat.ENCODING_PCM_16BIT,
                                              N*10);

                   recorder.startRecording();

                   // ... loop

                   while(!stopped) { 
                      short[] buffer = buffers[ix++ % buffers.length];

                      N = recorder.read(buffer,0,buffer.length);
                      //process is what you will do with the data...not defined here
                      process(buffer);
                  }
             } catch(Throwable x) { 
               Log.w(TAG,"Error reading voice audio",x);
             } finally { 
               close();
             }
         }

      private void close() { 
          stopped = true;
        }

    }

So far it's working pretty robustly on the half a dozen Android phones I've tried it on.

Answer 4

I wonder if you could combine these answers in the following way...

Use setPositionNotificationPeriod(160) before the while loop. This should cause the callback to be called every time 160 frames are read. Instead of calling process(buffer) inside of the thread that's doing the read loop, call process(buffer) from the callback. Use a variable to keep track of the last read buffer so you process the right one. As it is now, you block on the read, then you're not reading while you're processing. I think it might be better to separate those two.