drawing waveform - converting to DB squashes it

Question

I have a wave file, i have a function that retrieves 2 samples per pixel then i draw lines with them. quick and painless before i deal with zooming. i can display the amplit

Answer 1

Don't convert to dB for overviews. No one does that.

Instead of finding the average over a block, you should find the max of the absolute value. By averaging, you will loose a lot of amplitude in your high frequency peaks.