Thread: Reading in 16 and 24-bit audio data into (32-bit) integer buffers

  1. #1
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    Reading in 16 and 24-bit audio data into (32-bit) integer buffers

    Hello!

    Here is what I am trying to do. I am writing an audio processing program that can read 16 and 24 bit WAV files into int (32-bit) buffers.

    The 16-bit condition is straight-forward: I would read in the required number of bits into short buffers. However, since C++ does not have a native 24-bit datatype, and I would like to use the same buffer for 16 or 24 bit data, I would have to read the WAV file data into int buffers.

    The further processing that the program does is on the ENTIRE contents of the int buffer and NOT on a byte-by-byte basis.

    I have written the WAV read/write part of the program. Where I am running into a bit of difficulty is unpacking three bytes of data (24-bits) into a 32-bit container.

    Should I copy the contents of the audio file into a temporary buffer as contiguous data and then fill my main buffer with three bytes of this data, and then skip a byte?

    Is there any other way that you would recommend reading 24-bit data into a 32-bit buffer?

    Thank you for your pointers, as it were. I do not expect code to be written for me, but pseudocode would be immensely helpful.

    Thanks!

  2. #2
    and the Hat of Guessing tabstop's Avatar
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    Without knowing your processing: is your program going to expect the result to have the right "value" (for instance if the 24-bit value was 0x27 43 ba, will your int need to be 0x002743ba)? If so, then that's going to dictate how you fill your buffer.

  3. #3
    int x = *((int *) NULL); Cactus_Hugger's Avatar
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    You could just use 32 bit integers, and ignore the top 8 bits. Or shift the audio data by 8 bits, and just convert the 24 bit data into 32 bit, do your processing, and then scale it back down to 24 bit.

    Code:
    uint32_t samples[];
    for each sample in the file:
       samples[ x ] = read_in_24_bit_sample() << 8;
    long time; /* know C? */
    Unprecedented performance: Nothing ever ran this slow before.
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