How to change the volume of a PCM data stream (failed experiment)
Solved
My code was never before used for processing signed values and as such bytes -> short conversion was incorrectly handling the sign bit. Doing that properly solved the issue.
The question was...
I'm trying to change the volume of a PCM data stream. I can extract single channel data from a stereo file, do various silly experimental effects with the samples by skipping/duplicating them/inserting zeros/etc but I can't seem to find a way to modify actual sample values in any way and get a sensible output.
My attempts are really simple: 
http://i.imgur.com/FZ1BP.png
- source audio data
- values - 10000
- values + 10000
- values * 0.9
- values * 1.1
(value = -value works fine -- reverses the wave and it sounds the same)
The code to do this is equally simple (I/O uses unsigned values in range 0-65535) <-- that was the problem, reading properly signed values solved the issue:
// NOTE: INVALID CODE
int sample = ...read unsigned 16 bit value from a stream...
sample -= 32768;
sample = (int)(sample * 0.9f);
sample += 32768;
...write unsigned 16 bit value to a stream...
// NOTE: VALID CODE
int sample = ...read *signed* 16 bit value from a stream...
sample = (int)(sample * 0.9f);
...write 16 bit value to a stream...
I'm trying to make the sample quieter. I'd imagine making the amplitude smaller (sample * 0.9) would result in a quieter file but both 4. and 5. above are clearly invalid. There is a similar question on SO where MusiGenesis saying he got correct results with 'sample *= 0.75' type of code (yes, I did experiment with other values besides 0.9 and 1.1).
The question is: am I doing something stupid or is the whole idea of multiplying by a constant wrong? I'd like the end result to be something like this: 
http://i.imgur.com/qUL10.png
Answer
Your 4th attempt is definitely the the correct approach. Assuming your sample range is centered around 0, multiplying each sample by another value is how you can change the volume or gain of a signal.
In this case though, I'd guess something funny happening behind the scenes when you're multiplying an int by a float and casting back to int. Hard to say without knowing what language you're using, but that might be what's causing the problem.