Many thanks to Jay, who was kind enough to post a comment on my previous post, saying that there is an API we can use for programmatic delivery of audio streams in Android, which you can find documented at http://developer.android.com/reference/android/media/AudioTrack.html.
Now that I know where to look :), I have found that there is also a similar API you can use to capture incoming audio on Android to memory, which is documented at http://developer.android.com/reference/android/media/AudioRecord.html.
So, that means that Intermorphic could at some point create a Noatikl/Partikl player library for Android if we wanted to, using the Android NDK (I wouldn't be surprised if this link breaks at some point...).
However, that would first require the NDK to fill-in some critical (!) gaps:
- no support for C++ exceptions (this is a show stopper for a lot of code...)
- no support for STL (this is also a show stopper...)
If any reader happens to know who to prod at Android, please get them on the case wrt the holes in their C++ support!
I suspect that the full Mixtikl user interface would be a bridge too far :) though it'd be interesting to experiment around what is possible (not that I ever have any spare time!).
Showing posts with label android audio sdk. Show all posts
Showing posts with label android audio sdk. Show all posts
Thursday, 9 July 2009
Monday, 6 July 2009
Android Audio?
I've been investigating Android recenly, and have downloaded the SDK and had a play with it.
And in summary, I'm quite staggered at how poor the support is for audio in the Android SDK.
You can find-out more here.
The fundamental problem is that there is no way for a program to generate its own stream of audio. All audio resources must be from a URI of some sort, or from data bundled-in to the application, or from a file in the file system.
Of course, some bright spark out there might tell me that you can easily create your own "in-app" audio server with Java that you can access through a URI from that self-same application, and that can generate an audio stream on demand; I'd love to hear if this is the case!
On another note, the audio data capture system only allows you to send data to a file; there is no way for your application to get access to the audio as it arrives. So whichever way you look at it, there is no way to create audio FX boxes for Android.
This all reminds me very much of the JSR-135 multimedia APIs for Java, which were completely useless from the perspective of a low-level audio programmer.
I'm pleased to report however that if you want to create interesting audio apps for Mobile, then your needs are well served both by the iPhone/iPod SDK, and the Windows Mobile SDK. Shame about Android though!
And in summary, I'm quite staggered at how poor the support is for audio in the Android SDK.
You can find-out more here.
The fundamental problem is that there is no way for a program to generate its own stream of audio. All audio resources must be from a URI of some sort, or from data bundled-in to the application, or from a file in the file system.
Of course, some bright spark out there might tell me that you can easily create your own "in-app" audio server with Java that you can access through a URI from that self-same application, and that can generate an audio stream on demand; I'd love to hear if this is the case!
On another note, the audio data capture system only allows you to send data to a file; there is no way for your application to get access to the audio as it arrives. So whichever way you look at it, there is no way to create audio FX boxes for Android.
This all reminds me very much of the JSR-135 multimedia APIs for Java, which were completely useless from the perspective of a low-level audio programmer.
I'm pleased to report however that if you want to create interesting audio apps for Mobile, then your needs are well served both by the iPhone/iPod SDK, and the Windows Mobile SDK. Shame about Android though!
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