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.