Convert decibels to volume using Accelerate Framework - ios

I am building some kind of an audio fader effect.
I am using vDSP_vdbcon to turn a buffer of volumes into decibels, applying some modifications in db-space and would like to convert the decibel buffer into volume using the accelerate framework.
Thanks!

Here is what I use for each element for decibel values between -40 and 0. It gives pretty good results.
float decibelsToMag(float decibels){
return pow (10, (0.05 * decibels));
}
I don't know the Accelerate vector equivalent for the pow function. But here's a half vectorized version.
void decibelsToMags(float *decibels, float *mag, int count){
float mul = 0.05;
vDSP_vsmul(decibels, 1, &mul, mag, 1, count);
for (int i = 0; i < count; i++) {
mag[i] = pow(10,mag[i]);
}
}
Post back if you can figure out the vDSP version of the loop.

Related

Fast vectorized pixel-wise operations on images

I want to measure the similarity degree between two grayscale same sized images using mean square error. I can't use any framework which is not a part of macOS SDK(e.g. OpenCV, Eigen). Simple realization of this algorithm without vectorization looks like this:
vImage_Buffer imgA;
vImage_Buffer imgB;
NSUInteger mse = 0;
unsigned char *pxlsA = (unsigned char *)imgA.data;
unsigned char *pxlsB = (unsigned char *)imgB.data;
for (size_t i = 0; i < imgA.height * imgA.width; ++i) {
NSUInteger d = pxlsA[i] - pxlsB[i]);
mse += d * d;
}
Is there some way to do this without loop, in more vectorized way? Maybe something like:
mse = ((imgA - imgB) ^ 2).sum();
The answer to this question is stored in vDSP library, which is part of macOS SDK.
https://developer.apple.com/documentation/accelerate/vdsp
vDSP - Perform basic arithmetic operations and common digital signal processing routines on large vectors.
In my situation I have not really big vectors, but still.
Firstly, you need to convert unsigned char * to float *, and btw it is a significant moment, I don't know how to do this not in loop. Then you need two vDSP function: vDSP_vsbsbm and vDSP_sve.
vDSP_vsbsm - Multiplies the difference of two single-precision vectors by a second difference of two single-precision vectors.
vDSP_sve - Calculates the sum of values in a single-precision vector.
So the final code looks like that:
float *fpxlsA = (float *)malloc(imgA.height * imgA.width * sizeof(float));
float *fpxlsB = (float *)malloc(imgB.height * imgB.width * sizeof(float));
float *output = (float *)malloc(imgB.height * imgB.width * sizeof(float));
for (size_t i = 0; i < imgA.height * imgA.width; ++i) {
fpxlsA[i] = (float)(pxlsA[i]);
fpxlsB[i] = (float)(pxlsB[i]);
}
vDSP_vsbsbm(fpxlsA, 1, fpxlsB, 1, fpxlsA, 1, fpxlsB, 1, output, 1, imgA.height * imgB.width);
float sum;
vDSP_sve(output, 1, &sum, imgA.height * imgB.width);
free(output);
free(fpxlsA);
free(fpxlsB);
So, this code did exactly what I wanted and in a more vectorized form. But the result isn't good enough. Comparing performances of the loop approach and vDSP approach, vDSP is two times faster if there isn't any additional memory allocation. But in reality, where additional memory allocation takes place, loop approach is slightly faster.
This appears to be part of Mac OS: https://developer.apple.com/documentation/accelerate
Nice and fast using pointer arithmetic way to loop that would be as follows ...
int d;
size_t i = imgA.height * imgA.width;
while ( i -- )
{
d = ( int )(*pxlsA++) - ( int )(*pxlsB++);
mse += d * d;
}
EDIT
Ooops since those are unsigned char's and since we calculate the difference we need to use signed integers to do so.
And another edit - must use pxls... here, don't know what img... is.

Can someone explain how this code converts volume to decibels using the Accelerate Framework?

I'm building an iOS app using EZAudio. It's delegate returns back a float** buffer, which contains float values indicating the volume detected. This delegate is called constantly and it's work is done a different thread.
What I am trying to do is to take the float value from EZAudio and convert it into decibels.
EZAudioDelegate
Here's my simplified EZAudio Delegate for getting Microphone Data:
- (void)microphone:(EZMicrophone *)microphone hasAudioReceived:(float **)buffer withBufferSize:(UInt32)bufferSize withNumberOfChannels:(UInt32)numberOfChannels {
/*
* Returns a float array called buffer that contains the stereo signal data
* buffer[0] is the left audio channel
* buffer[1] is the right audio channel
*/
// Using a separate audio thread to not block the main UI thread
dispatch_async(dispatch_get_main_queue(), ^{
float decibels = [self getDecibelsFromVolume:buffer withBufferSize:bufferSize];
NSLog(#"Decibels: %f", decibels);
});
}
The Problem
The problem is that after implementing solutions from the links below, I do not understand how it works. If someone could explain how it converts volume to decibels I would be very grateful
How to convert audio input to DB? #85
How to change the buffer size to increase FFT window? #50
Changing Buffer Size #84
The Code
The solution uses the following methods from the Accelerate Framework to convert the volume into decibels:
vDSP_vsq
vDSP_meanv
vDSP_vdbcon
Below is the method getDecibelsFromVolume that is called from the EZAudio Delegate. It is passed the float** buffer and bufferSize from the delegate.
- (float)getDecibelsFromVolume:(float**)buffer withBufferSize:(UInt32)bufferSize {
// Decibel Calculation.
float one = 1.0;
float meanVal = 0.0;
float tiny = 0.1;
float lastdbValue = 0.0;
vDSP_vsq(buffer[0], 1, buffer[0], 1, bufferSize);
vDSP_meanv(buffer[0], 1, &meanVal, bufferSize);
vDSP_vdbcon(&meanVal, 1, &one, &meanVal, 1, 1, 0);
// Exponential moving average to dB level to only get continous sounds.
float currentdb = 1.0 - (fabs(meanVal) / 100);
if (lastdbValue == INFINITY || lastdbValue == -INFINITY || isnan(lastdbValue)) {
lastdbValue = 0.0;
}
float dbValue = ((1.0 - tiny) * lastdbValue) + tiny * currentdb;
lastdbValue = dbValue;
return dbValue;
}
I'll explain how one would compute a dB value for a signal using code and then show how that relates to the vDSP example.
First, compute the RMS sum of a chunk of data
double sumSquared = 0;
for (int i = 0 ; i < numSamples ; i++)
{
sumSquared += samples[i]*samples[i];
}
double rms = sumSquared/numSamples;
For more information on RMS
Next convert the RMS value to dB
double dBvalue = 20*log10(rms);
How this relates to the example code
vDSP_vsq(buffer[0], 1, buffer[0], 1, bufferSize);
This line loops over the buffer and computes squares all of the elements in the buffer. If buffer contained the values [1,2,3,4] before the call then after the call it would contain the values [1,4,9,16]
vDSP_meanv(buffer[0], 1, &meanVal, bufferSize);
This line loops over the buffer, summing the values in the buffer and then returning the sum divided by the number of elements. So for the input buffer [1,4,9,16] in computes the sum 30, divides by 4 and returns the result 7.5.
vDSP_vdbcon(&meanVal, 1, &one, &meanVal, 1, 1, 0);
This line converts the meanVal to decibels. There is really no point in calling a vectorized function here since it is only operating on a single element. What it is doing however is plugging the parameters into the following formula:
meanVal = n*log10(meanVal/one)
where n is either 10 or 20 depending on the last parameter. In this case it is 10. 10 is used for power measurements and 20 is used for amplitudes. I think 20 would make more sense for you to use.
The last little bit of code looks to be doing some simple smoothing of the result to make the meter a little less bouncy.

Bandpass filter audio recording using Accelerate framework (vDSP) and Novocaine

I'm fairly new to signal processing, so please bear with me. I'm trying to implement a bandpass filter to apply to an audio recording obtained from an iPad. The recording has been converted to a Float32 pointer using ExtFile functions and AudioBufferList. The sampling rate is 44100Hz. The recording is about 9 seconds long (that's about 396900 samples) and contains a 2-6kHz chirp and some ambient noise. I need to bandpass filter the recording around the frequency range 2-6kHz in order to find at what point in time the chirp occurs. I have referred to the following resources to create a bandpass filter:
https://github.com/bartolsthoorn/NVDSP/blob/master/NVDSP.mm
https://github.com/bartolsthoorn/NVDSP/blob/master/Filters/NVBandpassFilter.m
My question is, can I simply pass in the array of float values for the recording to the bandpass filter above? I have tried this, but I'm not sure if it's working, since it seems to simply decrease the value of every single value in the array. What should I expect to see after passing the recording th
However, I've seen some resources say that I first need to convert the values from time-domain to frequency-domain using a FFT. I've tried the following code to do this using some vDSP functions:
- (Float32 *)calculateFFT
{
// Acquired from http://batmobile.blogs.ilrt.org/fourier-transforms-on-an-iphone/
int numSamples = _recordingLength; //~9 seconds * 44100Hz ~= 396900 samples
// Setup the length
vDSP_Length log2n = log2f(numSamples);
// Calculate the weights array. This is a one-off operation.
FFTSetup fftSetup = vDSP_create_fftsetup(log2n, FFT_RADIX2);
// For an FFT, numSamples must be a power of 2, i.e. is always even
int nOver2 = numSamples/2;
// Populate *window with the values for a hamming window function
float *window = (float *)malloc(sizeof(float) * numSamples);
vDSP_hamm_window(window, numSamples, 0);
// Window the samples
vDSP_vmul(_recordingSamples, 1, window, 1, _recordingSamples, 1, numSamples);
// Define complex buffer
COMPLEX_SPLIT A;
A.realp = (float *) malloc(nOver2*sizeof(float));
A.imagp = (float *) malloc(nOver2*sizeof(float));
// Pack samples:
// C(re) -> A[n], C(im) -> A[n+1]
vDSP_ctoz((COMPLEX*)_recordingSamples, 2, &A, 1, numSamples/2);
//Perform a forward FFT using fftSetup and A
//Results are returned in A
vDSP_fft_zrip(fftSetup, &A, 1, log2n, FFT_FORWARD);
//Convert COMPLEX_SPLIT A result to magnitudes
Float32 *amp = new Float32[numSamples];
amp[0] = A.realp[0]/(numSamples*2);
for(int i=1; i<numSamples; i++) {
amp[i]=A.realp[i]*A.realp[i]+A.imagp[i]*A.imagp[i];
//printf("%f ",amp[i]);
}
return amp;
}
But I don't understand what is being returned from this function. If I do need to apply a FFT before passing the recording to the filter, what needs to be returned from the calculateFFT function and then passed to the filter?
Thanks in advance.

iOS Accelerate low-pass FFT filter mirroring result

I am trying to port an existing FFT based low-pass filter to iOS using the Accelerate vDSP framework.
It seems like the FFT works as expected for about the first 1/4 of the sample. But then after that the results seem wrong, and even more odd are mirrored (with the last half of the signal mirroring most of the first half).
You can see the results from a test application below. First is plotted the original sampled data, then an example of the expected filtered results (filtering out signal higher than 15Hz), then finally the results of my current FFT code (note that the desired results and example FFT result are at a different scale than the original data):
The actual code for my low-pass filter is as follows:
double *lowpassFilterVector(double *accell, uint32_t sampleCount, double lowPassFreq, double sampleRate )
{
double stride = 1;
int ln = log2f(sampleCount);
int n = 1 << ln;
// So that we get an FFT of the whole data set, we pad out the array to the next highest power of 2.
int fullPadN = n * 2;
double *padAccell = malloc(sizeof(double) * fullPadN);
memset(padAccell, 0, sizeof(double) * fullPadN);
memcpy(padAccell, accell, sizeof(double) * sampleCount);
ln = log2f(fullPadN);
n = 1 << ln;
int nOver2 = n/2;
DSPDoubleSplitComplex A;
A.realp = (double *)malloc(sizeof(double) * nOver2);
A.imagp = (double *)malloc(sizeof(double) * nOver2);
// This can be reused, just including it here for simplicity.
FFTSetupD setupReal = vDSP_create_fftsetupD(ln, FFT_RADIX2);
vDSP_ctozD((DSPDoubleComplex*)padAccell,2,&A,1,nOver2);
// Use the FFT to get frequency counts
vDSP_fft_zripD(setupReal, &A, stride, ln, FFT_FORWARD);
const double factor = 0.5f;
vDSP_vsmulD(A.realp, 1, &factor, A.realp, 1, nOver2);
vDSP_vsmulD(A.imagp, 1, &factor, A.imagp, 1, nOver2);
A.realp[nOver2] = A.imagp[0];
A.imagp[0] = 0.0f;
A.imagp[nOver2] = 0.0f;
// Set frequencies above target to 0.
// This tells us which bin the frequencies over the minimum desired correspond to
NSInteger binLocation = (lowPassFreq * n) / sampleRate;
// We add 2 because bin 0 holds special FFT meta data, so bins really start at "1" - and we want to filter out anything OVER the target frequency
for ( NSInteger i = binLocation+2; i < nOver2; i++ )
{
A.realp[i] = 0;
}
// Clear out all imaginary parts
bzero(A.imagp, (nOver2) * sizeof(double));
//A.imagp[0] = A.realp[nOver2];
// Now shift back all of the values
vDSP_fft_zripD(setupReal, &A, stride, ln, FFT_INVERSE);
double *filteredAccell = (double *)malloc(sizeof(double) * fullPadN);
// Converts complex vector back into 2D array
vDSP_ztocD(&A, stride, (DSPDoubleComplex*)filteredAccell, 2, nOver2);
// Have to scale results to account for Apple's FFT library algorithm, see:
// http://developer.apple.com/library/ios/#documentation/Performance/Conceptual/vDSP_Programming_Guide/UsingFourierTransforms/UsingFourierTransforms.html#//apple_ref/doc/uid/TP40005147-CH202-15952
double scale = (float)1.0f / fullPadN;//(2.0f * (float)n);
vDSP_vsmulD(filteredAccell, 1, &scale, filteredAccell, 1, fullPadN);
// Tracks results of conversion
printf("\nInput & output:\n");
for (int k = 0; k < sampleCount; k++)
{
printf("%3d\t%6.2f\t%6.2f\t%6.2f\n", k, accell[k], padAccell[k], filteredAccell[k]);
}
// Acceleration data will be replaced in-place.
return filteredAccell;
}
In the original code the library was handling non power-of-two sizes of input data; in my Accelerate code I am padding out the input to the nearest power of two. In the case of the sample test below the original sample data is 1000 samples so it's padded to 1024. I don't think that would affect results but I include that for the sake of possible differences.
If you want to experiment with a solution, you can download the sample project that generates the graphs here (in the FFTTest folder):
FFT Example Project code
Thanks for any insight, I've not worked with FFT's before so I feel like I am missing something critical.
If you want a strictly real (not complex) result, then the data before the IFFT must be conjugate symmetric. If you don't want the result to be mirror symmetric, then don't zero the imaginary component before the IFFT. Merely zeroing bins before the IFFT creates a filter with a huge amount of ripple in the passband.
The Accelerate framework also supports more FFT lengths than just powers of 2.

Get iPhone mp3 frequency from AvassetReader and vDSP_FFT

I'm trying to get frequency from iPhone / iPod music library for a spectrum app on iPod library, helping myself with reading-audio-samples-via-avassetreader to get audio samples and then with using-the-apple-fft-and-accelerate-framework and Apple vDSP Samples, but somehow I'm wrong somewhere and unable to calculate the frequency.
So step by step:
read audio sample
Hanning window
calculate fft
Is this the correct way to get frequencies from an iPod mp3 library?
Here is my code:
static COMPLEX_SPLIT A;
static FFTSetup setupReal;
static uint32_t log2n, n, nOver2;
static int32_t stride;
static float *obtainedReal;
static float scale;
+ (void)initialize
{
log2n = 10;
n = 1 << log2n;
stride = 1;
nOver2 = n / 2;
A.realp = (float *) malloc(nOver2 * sizeof(float));
A.imagp = (float *) malloc(nOver2 * sizeof(float));
obtainedReal = (float *) malloc(n * sizeof(float));
setupReal = vDSP_create_fftsetup(log2n, FFT_RADIX2);
}
- (float) performAcceleratedFastFourierTransForAudioBuffer:(AudioBufferList)ioData
{
NSUInteger * sampleIn = (NSUInteger *)ioData.mBuffers[0].mData;
for (int i = 0; i < nOver2; i++) {
double multiplier = 0.5 * (1 - cos(2*M_PI*i/nOver2-1));
A.realp[i] = multiplier * sampleIn[i];
A.imagp[i] = 0;
}
memset(ioData.mBuffers[0].mData, 0, ioData.mBuffers[0].mDataByteSize);
vDSP_fft_zrip(setupReal, &A, stride, log2n, FFT_FORWARD);
vDSP_zvmags(&A, 1, A.realp, 1, nOver2);
scale = (float) 1.0 / (2 * n);
vDSP_vsmul(A.realp, 1, &scale, A.realp, 1, nOver2);
vDSP_vsmul(A.imagp, 1, &scale, A.imagp, 1, nOver2);
vDSP_ztoc(&A, 1, (COMPLEX *)obtainedReal, 2, nOver2);
int peakIndex = 0;
for (size_t i=1; i < nOver2-1; ++i) {
if ((obtainedReal[i] > obtainedReal[i-1]) && (obtainedReal[i] > obtainedReal[i+1]))
{
peakIndex = i;
break;
}
}
//here I don't know how to calculate frequency with my data
float frequency = obtainedReal[peakIndex-1] / 44100 / n;
vDSP_destroy_fftsetup(setupReal);
free(obtainedReal);
free(A.realp);
free(A.imagp);
return frequency;
}
I got 1.485757 and 1.332233 as my first frequencies
It looks to me like there is a problem in the conversion to complex input for the FFT. vDSP_ctoz() splits a buffer where real and imaginary components are interleaved into two buffers, one real and one imaginary. Your input to that function appears to be just real data that has been casted to COMPLEX. This means that your input buffer to vDSP_ctoz() is only half as long as it needs to be and some garbage data beyond the buffer size is getting converted.
You either need to create sampleOut to be 2*n in length and set every other value (the real parts) or better yet, you can bypass the vDSP_ctoz() and directly copy your input data into A.realp and set A.imagp to zeros. vDSP_ctoz() should only be needed when interfacing to a source that produces interleaved complex data.
Edit
Ok, I think I was wrong on my first suggestion since the vDSP documentation says that the real input of the real-to-complex in-place fft should be formatted into the split complex format such that imagp contains even samples and realp contains the odd samples. I have not actually used the vDSP library, but I am familiar with a lot of other FFT libraries and I missed that detail.
You should be able to find the peaks using A.realp after the call to vDSP_zvmags(&A, 1, A.realp, 1, nOver2); At that point, A.realp should contain the magnitude squared of the FFT output, which is scalar. If you are going to do the scaling, it should be done before the mag2 operation, but it may not be needed if you are just looking for the peaks.
To get the real frequencies represented by the FFT output, use this formula:
F = (i * Fs) / N, i=0,1,...,N/2
where
i is the index of the FFT output buffer
Fs is the audio sampling rate
N is the FFT length
so your calculation might look like this:
float frequency = (peakIndex * 44100) / n;
Keep in mind that vDSP only returns the first half of the input spectrum for real input since the second half is redundant. So the FFT output represents frequencies from 0 to Fs/2.
One other note is that I don't know if your peak finding algorithm will work very well since FFT output will not be smooth and there will often be a lot of oscillation. You are simply taking the first sample where the two adjacent samples are lower. If you just want to find a single peak, it would be better just to find the max magnitude across the entire output. If you want to find multiple peaks, you will have to do something more sophisticated.

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