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A full-duplex audio player in C# using the waveIn/waveOut APIs

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31 Aug 20033 min read 2.1M   22.3K   262   362
An article on low-level audio capture and playback using the waveIn/waveOut APIs through P/Invoke in C#.

Sample Image - cswavrec.gif

Introduction

As I already mentioned in my article A low-level audio player in C#, there are no built-in classes in the .NET framework for dealing with sound. This holds true not only for audio playback, but also for audio capture.

It should be noted, though, that the Managed DirectX 9 SDK does include classes for high-level and low-level audio manipulation. However, sometimes you don’t want your application to depend on the full DX 9 runtime, just to do basic sound playback and capture, and there are also some areas where Managed DirectSound doesn’t help at all (for example, multi-channel sound playback and capture).

Nevertheless, I strongly recommend you to use Managed DirectSound for sound playback and capture unless you have a good reason for not doing so.

This article describes a sample application that uses the waveIn and waveOut APIs in C# through P/Invoke to capture an audio signal from the sound card’s input, and play it back (almost) at the same time.

Using the code

The sample code reuses the WaveOutPlayer class from my article A low-level audio player in C#. The new classes in this sample are WaveInRecorder and FifoStream.

The FifoStream class extends System.IO.Stream to implement a FIFO (first-in first-out) of bytes. The overridden Write method adds data to the FIFO’s tail, and the Read method peeks and removes data from the FIFO’s head. The Length property returns the amount of buffered data at any time. Calling Flush will clear all pending data.

The WaveInRecorder class is analogous to the WaveOutPlayer class. In fact, if you look at the source files, you’ll notice that the implementations of these classes are very similar. As with WaveOutPlayer, the interface of this class has been reduced to the strict minimum.

Creating an instance of WaveInRecorder will cause the system to start recording immediately. Here’s the code that creates the WaveOutPlayer and WaveInRecorder instances.

C#
private void Start()
{
    Stop();
    try
    {
        WaveLib.WaveFormat fmt = new WaveLib.WaveFormat(44100, 16, 2);
        m_Player = new WaveLib.WaveOutPlayer(-1, fmt, 16384, 3, 
                        new WaveLib.BufferFillEventHandler(Filler));
        m_Recorder = new WaveLib.WaveInRecorder(-1, fmt, 16384, 3, 
                        new WaveLib.BufferDoneEventHandler(DataArrived));
    }
    catch
    {
        Stop();
        throw;
    }
}

The WaveInRecorder constructor takes five parameters. Except for the last parameter, their meaning is the same as in WaveOutPlayer.

The first parameter is the ID of the wave input device that you want to use. The value -1 represents the default system device, but if your system has more than one sound card, then you can pass any number from 0 to the number of installed sound cards minus one, to select a particular device.

The second parameter is the format of the audio samples.

The third and forth parameters are the size of the internal wave buffers and the number of buffers to allocate. You should set these to reasonable values. Smaller buffers will give you less latency, but the captured audio may have gaps on it if your computer is not fast enough.

The fifth and last parameter is a delegate that will be called periodically as internal audio buffers are full of captured data. In the sample application we just write the captured data to the FIFO, like this:

C#
private void DataArrived(IntPtr data, int size)
{
    if (m_RecBuffer == null || m_RecBuffer.Length < size)
        m_RecBuffer = new byte[size];
    System.Runtime.InteropServices.Marshal.Copy(data, m_RecBuffer, 0, size);
    m_Fifo.Write(m_RecBuffer, 0, m_RecBuffer.Length);
}

Similarly, the Filler method is called every time the player needs more data. Our implementation just reads the data from the FIFO, as shown below:

C#
private void Filler(IntPtr data, int size)
{
    if (m_PlayBuffer == null || m_PlayBuffer.Length < size)
        m_PlayBuffer = new byte[size];
    if (m_Fifo.Length >= size)
        m_Fifo.Read(m_PlayBuffer, 0, size);
    else
        for (int i = 0; i < m_PlayBuffer.Length; i++)
            m_PlayBuffer[i] = 0;
    System.Runtime.InteropServices.Marshal.Copy(m_PlayBuffer, 
                                                 0, data, size);
}

Note that we declared the temporary buffers m_RecBuffer and m_PlayBuffer as member fields in order to improve performance by saving some garbage collections.

To stop streaming, just call Dispose on the player and capture objects. We also need to flush the FIFO so that the next time Start is called there is no residual data to play.

C#
private void Stop()
{
    if (m_Player != null)
        try
        {
            m_Player.Dispose();
        }
        finally
        {
            m_Player = null;
        }
    if (m_Recorder != null)
        try
        {
            m_Recorder.Dispose();
        }
        finally
        {
            m_Recorder = null;
        }
    m_Fifo.Flush(); // clear all pending data
}

Conclusion

This sample demonstrates how to combine the waveIn and waveOut APIs in C#. As an exercise, you may want to combine this code with the audio effect framework in the article Programming Audio Effects in C#, to apply effects to a live audio input in real-time, although latency may be an issue for certain applications.

License

This article has no explicit license attached to it but may contain usage terms in the article text or the download files themselves. If in doubt please contact the author via the discussion board below.

A list of licenses authors might use can be found here


Written By
Web Developer
Luxembourg Luxembourg
Ianier Munoz lives in France and works as a senior consultant and analyst for an international consulting firm. His specialty is in multimedia applications, and he has authored some popular software, such as American DJ's Pro-Mix, Chronotron and Adapt-X.

Comments and Discussions

 
GeneralRe: Hangs on Stop Pin
bimbambumbum27-Mar-13 23:29
bimbambumbum27-Mar-13 23:29 
GeneralRe: Hangs on Stop Pin
Ariadne15-May-14 5:25
Ariadne15-May-14 5:25 
GeneralRe: Hangs on Stop Pin
Member 1059999420-Oct-15 7:20
Member 1059999420-Oct-15 7:20 
GeneralMy vote of 5 Pin
Member 10944438-Jan-12 18:56
professionalMember 10944438-Jan-12 18:56 
Questionhow can I get the sound data? Pin
Member 79558498-Aug-11 2:48
Member 79558498-Aug-11 2:48 
Hi guys. maybe I am an idiot, but I desperately seek how can I get the data that is recorded from the microphone? I want to get the data in array of byte if it possible? Can anybody tell me? I would really appreciate if someone can write some code snippet.
AnswerRe: how can I get the sound data? Pin
Member 40308897-Jan-12 22:24
Member 40308897-Jan-12 22:24 
GeneralListen voice in a particular sound card Pin
sawass24-May-11 5:17
sawass24-May-11 5:17 
Generalhow to save the recorded file? Pin
ahloon18-Apr-11 4:26
ahloon18-Apr-11 4:26 
GeneralRe: how to save the recorded file? Pin
Christian_N21-Jun-12 11:45
Christian_N21-Jun-12 11:45 
GeneralPause recording Pin
otto40008-Feb-11 23:39
otto40008-Feb-11 23:39 
GeneralBytes in file stream have only values 0, 1 and 255 [modified] Pin
Pedjabla30-Jan-11 7:07
Pedjabla30-Jan-11 7:07 
GeneralMy vote of 3 Pin
NileshKRathod8-Dec-10 18:05
NileshKRathod8-Dec-10 18:05 
Answercswavrec_src_AnyCpu Pin
isme_enjoy1-Dec-10 21:08
isme_enjoy1-Dec-10 21:08 
GeneralUrgent Help Skype Call Recording Using C# Pin
syed_developer25-Oct-10 21:45
syed_developer25-Oct-10 21:45 
GeneralMy vote of 5 Pin
Psyris_25-Oct-10 5:36
Psyris_25-Oct-10 5:36 
GeneralCompact Framework Pin
ershad121-Oct-10 0:31
ershad121-Oct-10 0:31 
GeneralDoes not work in x64 Pin
yasaralper29-Aug-10 2:15
yasaralper29-Aug-10 2:15 
GeneralRe: Does not work in x64 Pin
NAMEJ12-Mar-11 0:30
NAMEJ12-Mar-11 0:30 
GeneralRe: Does not work in x64 Pin
yasaralper13-Mar-11 10:36
yasaralper13-Mar-11 10:36 
GeneralRe: Does not work in x64 Pin
Roey C19-Jan-12 7:57
Roey C19-Jan-12 7:57 
GeneralRe: Does not work in x64 - example is in error Pin
jcameron2330-Nov-12 13:45
jcameron2330-Nov-12 13:45 
Generaltwo USB-soundcards cause problems Pin
Member 402255423-Aug-10 20:40
Member 402255423-Aug-10 20:40 
QuestionI need digitized data [modified] Pin
rrsharif16-Aug-10 22:54
rrsharif16-Aug-10 22:54 
GeneralC# saving Wav Pin
Fahed Al Daye1-Jun-10 6:56
Fahed Al Daye1-Jun-10 6:56 
Questionis it possible to duplicate channels ? Pin
srdusad13-May-10 19:43
srdusad13-May-10 19:43 

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