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Norris's picture

OpenAL generate tones at specific frequencies, and white noises

Posted Sunday, 4 December, 2011 - 20:56 by Norris in

Hi !
Is it possible, using OpenAL, to generate tones (or wave sines ... sorry,I don't know very well how to tell in english) with specific frequencies ?
Also, is it possible to send different sounds in each "sides" (stereo) ?
I really want to generate them, not loading .wav ou mp3 files.
Thanks.

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smiley80's picture

Re: OpenAL generate tones at specific frequencies, and ...

Posted Monday, 5 December, 2011 - 06:52 by smiley80

You can generate a sine wave like this:

public sealed class SineWave : IDisposable
{
	private const int sampleRate = 44100;
 
	private readonly short[] audioData;
	private readonly int buffer;
	private readonly int source;
 
	public SineWave(double frequency, int seconds)
	{
		this.buffer = AL.GenBuffer();
		this.source = AL.GenSource();
 
		int frames = seconds * sampleRate;
		this.audioData = new short[frames];
		for (int i = 0; i < frames; i++)
		{
			this.audioData[i] = (short)(short.MaxValue * Math.Sin((2 * Math.PI * frequency) / sampleRate * i));
		}
	}
 
	public void Dispose()
	{
		AL.DeleteBuffer(this.buffer);
		AL.DeleteSource(this.source);
	}
 
	public void Play()
	{
		AL.BufferData(this.buffer, ALFormat.Mono16, this.audioData, this.audioData.Length * 2, sampleRate);
		AL.Source(this.source, ALSourcei.Buffer, this.buffer);
		AL.SourcePlay(this.source);
	}
}

For stereo, the audio data has to be interleaved, i.e. first a left channel sample then a right channel sample. And you have to use one of 'Stereo*' formats in 'BufferData'. E.g. generating a different tone for each channel would look like this:

public sealed class StereoSineWave : IDisposable
{
	private const int sampleRate = 44100;
 
	private readonly short[] audioData;
	private readonly int buffer;
	private readonly int source;
 
	public StereoSineWave(double leftFrequency, double rightFrequency, int seconds)
	{
		this.buffer = AL.GenBuffer();
		this.source = AL.GenSource();
 
		int frames = seconds * sampleRate * 2;
		this.audioData = new short[frames];
		for (int i = 0, x = 0; i < frames; x++)
		{
			this.audioData[i++] = (short)(short.MaxValue * Math.Sin((2 * Math.PI * leftFrequency) / sampleRate * x));
			this.audioData[i++] = (short)(short.MaxValue * Math.Sin((2 * Math.PI * rightFrequency) / sampleRate * x));
		}
	}
 
	public void Dispose()
	{
		AL.DeleteBuffer(this.buffer);
		AL.DeleteSource(this.source);
	}
 
	public void Play()
	{
		AL.BufferData(this.buffer, ALFormat.Stereo16, audioData, audioData.Length * 2, sampleRate);
		AL.Source(this.source, ALSourcei.Buffer, this.buffer);
		AL.SourcePlay(this.source);
	}
}
Norris's picture

Re: OpenAL generate tones at specific frequencies, and ...

Posted Tuesday, 6 December, 2011 - 18:53 by Norris

Hi Smiley80 and many thanks for your code !

I waited not for a complete code, but that's very cool from you ! No I have all I need to search and understand.

I know nothing about OpenAL and I never read the specifications (I will do for sure, I'm not here to copy/paste without understanding). But I have read some DirectSound equivalents, and the guy use two buffers; one for the left and one for the right channel. I think it's to prevent some shift in the buffer. Do you think it's for that reason ?
It seems that it's a good idea, but I really don't know why.

Many thanks. I will try this :)

heeeuuuu ... sorry for my bad english !