Continuous recording in PortAudio (from mic or output)

Question

I am trying to create a music visualizer application in PortAudio, I did some basic research and found some examples on how to record from a mic to a (temporary) file. But there was no example where the data is not used runtime during the recording.

So how can I start a continuous audio-stream where I can catch the data from the current "frame"?

This is how I tried to do it:

#include <stdio.h>
#include <unistd.h>
#include <time.h>
#include <stdlib.h>

#include "portaudio.h"

#define SAMPLE_RATE (44100)

typedef struct{
    int frameIndex;
    int maxFrameIndex;
    char* recordedSamples;
}
testData;

PaStream* stream;

static int recordCallback(const void* inputBuffer, void* outputBuffer, unsigned long frameCount, const PaStreamCallbackTimeInfo* timeInfo, PaStreamCallbackFlags statusFlags, void* userData){
    testData* data = (testData*)userData;
    const char* buffer_ptr = (const char*)inputBuffer;
    char* index_ptr = &data->recordedSamples[data->frameIndex];

    long framesToCalc;
    long i;
    int finished;
    unsigned long framesLeft = data->maxFrameIndex - data->frameIndex;

    if(framesLeft < frameCount){
        framesToCalc = framesLeft;
        finished = paComplete;
    }else{
        framesToCalc = frameCount;
        finished = paContinue;
    }

    if(inputBuffer == NULL){
        for(i = 0; i < framesToCalc; i++){
            *index_ptr++ = 0;
        }
    }else{
        for(i = 0; i < framesToCalc; i++){
            *index_ptr++ = *buffer_ptr++;
        }
    }

    data->frameIndex += framesToCalc;
    return finished;
}

int setup(testData streamData){
    PaError err;

    err = Pa_Initialize();
    if(err != paNoError){
        fprintf(stderr, "Pa_Initialize error: %s\n", Pa_GetErrorText(err));
        return 1;
    }

    PaStreamParameters inputParameters;
    inputParameters.device = Pa_GetDefaultInputDevice();
    if (inputParameters.device == paNoDevice) {
        fprintf(stderr, "Error: No default input device.\n");
        return 1;
    }

    inputParameters.channelCount = 1;
    inputParameters.sampleFormat = paInt8;
    inputParameters.suggestedLatency = Pa_GetDeviceInfo(inputParameters.device)->defaultLowInputLatency;
    inputParameters.hostApiSpecificStreamInfo = NULL;

    err = Pa_OpenStream(&stream, &inputParameters, NULL, SAMPLE_RATE, 256, paClipOff, recordCallback, &streamData);
    if(err != paNoError){
        fprintf(stderr, "Pa_OpenDefaultStream error: %s\n", Pa_GetErrorText(err));
        return 1;
    }

    err = Pa_StartStream(stream);
    if(err != paNoError){
        fprintf(stderr, "Pa_StartStream error: %s\n", Pa_GetErrorText(err));
        return 1;
    }

    return 0;
}

void quit(testData streamData){
    PaError err;
    err = Pa_Terminate();
    if(err != paNoError){
        fprintf(stderr, "Pa_Terminate error: %s\n", Pa_GetErrorText(err));
    }

    if(streamData.recordedSamples)
        free(streamData.recordedSamples);
}

int main(){
    int i;
    PaError err;
    testData streamData = {0};

    streamData.frameIndex = 0;
    streamData.maxFrameIndex = SAMPLE_RATE;
    streamData.recordedSamples = (char*)malloc(SAMPLE_RATE * sizeof(char));
    if(streamData.recordedSamples == NULL)
        printf("Could not allocate record array.\n");

    for(i=0; i<SAMPLE_RATE; i++) 
        streamData.recordedSamples[i] = 0;

    //int totalFrames = SAMPLE_RATE;

    if(!setup(streamData)){
        printf("Opened\n");

        int i = 0;

        while(i++ < 500){

            if((err = Pa_GetStreamReadAvailable(stream)) != paNoError)
                break;

            while((err = Pa_IsStreamActive(stream)) == 1){
                Pa_Sleep(1000);
            }

            err = Pa_CloseStream(stream);
            if(err != paNoError)
                break;

            streamData.frameIndex = 0;
            for(i=0; i<SAMPLE_RATE; i++) 
                streamData.recordedSamples[i] = 0;
        }

        if(err != paNoError){
            fprintf(stderr, "Active stream error: %s\n", Pa_GetErrorText(err));
        }

        quit(streamData);
    }else{
        puts("Couldn't open\n");
    }
    return 0;
}

But it gives the following output:

ALSA lib pcm.c:2217:(snd_pcm_open_noupdate) Unknown PCM cards.pcm.rear
ALSA lib pcm.c:2217:(snd_pcm_open_noupdate) Unknown PCM cards.pcm.center_lfe
ALSA lib pcm.c:2217:(snd_pcm_open_noupdate) Unknown PCM cards.pcm.side
ALSA lib pcm_dmix.c:957:(snd_pcm_dmix_open) The dmix plugin supports only playback stream
Active stream error: Can't read from a callback stream

Answer 1

Update:

What is the purpose of this code?

        if((err = Pa_GetStreamReadAvailable(stream)) != paNoError)
            break;

It seems to me like this is causing your (latest) problem. Why do you need to retrieve (and then discard) the number of frames that can be read from the stream without waiting, which would presumably be zero since stream is a callback stream?

---

Previous answer:

This seems highly suspicious:

static void* data;
/* ... */
static int recordCallback(const void* inputBuffer, void* outputBuffer, unsigned long frameCount, const PaStreamCallbackTimeInfo* timeInfo, PaStreamCallbackFlags statusFlags, void* userData){
    testData* data = (testData*)userData;
    /* ... */
}

Firstly, why are there two variables named data? That's just silly... Can you think of more appropriate identifiers?

Secondly, you're passing a &data (a void **) to Pa_OpenStream. Presumably, Pa_OpenStream passes that same value on to your callback function, where you treat that pointer to void * as though it points to a testData *. That's undefined behaviour.

Remove static void* data;. That's not necessary, here. Declare a new testData data = { 0 }; inside main, right at the very top. Now you're passing a testData * (converted to void *) to Pa_OpenStream, Pa_OpenStream will pass that on to your callback where you can safely convert it back to a testData * as you are. You might want to set the members of data before calling Pa_OpenStream...