Mic Level — tdlidar_mic_level

A one-channel mic-volume fader for when you want “loud → big” and nothing fancier.

Category: Audio · Tier: Free · Needs: microphone access on the phone

What it does

Streams a single number: the loudness (RMS) of whatever the phone’s microphone is hearing. It is the lightweight cousin of the full Audio op — no FFT, no beat detection, just one channel that rises when the room gets louder. Reach for it when you only need a volume envelope to scale or pulse something and don’t want the overhead of the whole audio bundle.

OSC in

address type range rate
/tdlidar/audio/rms float ~0–1 (mic RMS volume) audio rate

Outputs

  • out1 (CHOP) — one channel: tdlidar/audio/rms.

Parameters

par default what it does
OSC Port 9000 UDP port to listen on (match the app)

Quick start (beginner)

  1. Enable Mic Level (or Audio) in the app and grant microphone access.
  2. Drop tdlidar_mic_level.
  3. Make noise near the phone — out1 jumps up and settles back down.
  4. Export out1 onto a Geo scale or a Circle TOP radius for an instant level-reactive shape.

Advanced patterns

  • Smooth envelope: raw RMS is jittery. A Lag CHOP with a fast attack and slow release (e.g. lag 0.02 / 0.25) turns it into a musical “follow” envelope that pumps with the room.
  • Auto-gain / normalize: an Analyze CHOP (max over a window) feeding a Math CHOP divide keeps the reactivity consistent whether the room is quiet or loud.
  • Cheap beat: Trigger CHOP on out1 with a sensible threshold gives you a rough transient pulse without the full Audio op’s /beat. For real beat/onset detection, switch to tdlidar_audio.
  • Map a range: Math/Range CHOP 0–1 → your parameter’s range; gate the bottom with a Limit CHOP so room hiss doesn’t keep the effect twitching.

Gotchas

  • This is only the RMS channel. If you find yourself wanting bands, FFT, beat, or pitch, use tdlidar_audio instead of bolting them on here.
  • RMS sits at a small non-zero floor from ambient noise — set a threshold/limit so silence reads as silence.
  • It is unsmoothed and noisy; never drive a slow visible parameter directly without a Lag/Filter CHOP.