flutter_fft 1.0.2+6

Pitch detection plugin, made for my personal project. Makes use of platform channels (currently Android only) in order to process audio in real-time and give feedback.

Flutter FFT

Plugin at pub-dev

https://pub.dev/packages/flutter_fft

Warning: Currently works only on Android! This plugin makes use of platform channels, and only the Java/Android platform channel has been implemented.

The plugin was developed in a Pixel 2 emulator, API 29. Tested in a real Pixel 2, Android 11 and another Pixel 2 emulator, API 30. Does not work on iOS at the moment, due to the platform channel having yet to be implemented.

Minimum SDK version >= 24: You can update the minimum SDK requirements at "/android/app/build.gradle" in the line minSdkVersion 16 of your main application.

The following needs to be added to your project's "android/app/src/main/AndroidManifest.xml":

<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.RECORD_AUDIO" />

This is my first (and currently only) Flutter plugin and Java project.

I was gathering ideas my personal guitar tuner application on Flutter, when I realized that I couldn't find any examples of audio analysis/processing/manipulation with Flutter.

Flutter doesn't have great support for device specific hardware, such as microphone input. Obviously, it is the fundamental pillar for anything that deals with audio processing in real-time.
Since Flutter has "just" started to become mainstream, there are still not many real-world projects or examples around.

The plan I ended up coming up with was to code a platform channel for android, which is basically a way to call native code from within Flutter - i.e. Calling Java functions through Dart code, using Flutter.

The problem with this is that, as it calls native platform code, the "one codebase" Flutter feature is rendered useless, since I would have to code the same thing for both platforms. (Objective-C/Swift for iOS & Java/Kotlin for Android)

Because of that, at the moment, I only coded the android platform channel.

How to use

As mentioned above, this plugin was purely intended for usage in my personal project, however, since I couldn't find similar implementations, I decided to upload it here, in case anyone else goes through the same process.

Because of this, what you can do with the plugin is very strict: Start recording, get data back from the platform channel, and stop recording.

If you know how to program however, you can easily modify the code for your own needs.

There are many getters and setters for the processed and default data, which are going to be discussed further below.

Simple example:

import 'package:flutter/material.dart';
import 'package:flutter_fft/flutter_fft.dart';

void main() => runApp(Application());

class Application extends StatefulWidget {
  @override
  ApplicationState createState() => ApplicationState();
}

class ApplicationState extends State<Application> {
  double? frequency;
  String? note;
  int? octave;
  bool? isRecording;

  FlutterFft flutterFft = new FlutterFft();

  _initialize() async {
    print("Starting recorder...");
    // print("Before");
    // bool hasPermission = await flutterFft.checkPermission();
    // print("After: " + hasPermission.toString());

    // Keep asking for mic permission until accepted
    while (!(await flutterFft.checkPermission())) {
      flutterFft.requestPermission();
      // IF DENY QUIT PROGRAM
    }

    // await flutterFft.checkPermissions();
    await flutterFft.startRecorder();
    print("Recorder started...");
    setState(() => isRecording = flutterFft.getIsRecording);

    flutterFft.onRecorderStateChanged.listen(
        (data) => {
              print("Changed state, received: $data"),
              setState(
                () => {
                  frequency = data[1] as double,
                  note = data[2] as String,
                  octave = data[5] as int,
                },
              ),
              flutterFft.setNote = note!,
              flutterFft.setFrequency = frequency!,
              flutterFft.setOctave = octave!,
              print("Octave: ${octave!.toString()}")
            },
        onError: (err) {
          print("Error: $err");
        },
        onDone: () => {print("Isdone")});
  }

  @override
  void initState() {
    isRecording = flutterFft.getIsRecording;
    frequency = flutterFft.getFrequency;
    note = flutterFft.getNote;
    octave = flutterFft.getOctave;
    super.initState();
    _initialize();
  }

  @override
  Widget build(BuildContext context) {
    return MaterialApp(
        title: "Simple flutter fft example",
        theme: ThemeData.dark(),
        color: Colors.blue,
        home: Scaffold(
          backgroundColor: Colors.purple,
          body: Center(
            child: Column(
              mainAxisAlignment: MainAxisAlignment.center,
              children: [
                isRecording!
                    ? Text("Current note: ${note!},${octave!.toString()}",
                        style: TextStyle(fontSize: 30))
                    : Text("Not Recording", style: TextStyle(fontSize: 35)),
                isRecording!
                    ? Text(
                        "Current frequency: ${frequency!.toStringAsFixed(2)}",
                        style: TextStyle(fontSize: 30))
                    : Text("Not Recording", style: TextStyle(fontSize: 35))
              ],
            ),
          ),
        ));
  }
}

Methods

When we instantiate the plugin, a method channel variable is created, with the tag "com.slins.flutterfft/record".

This is the variable responsible for estabilishing a connection between Dart and the platform channel.

For the section below, it is assumed that the plugin was instantiated and stored in a variable called "flutterFft".

Three main methods

1. flutterFft.onRecorderStateChanged
   • Stream that listens to the updates from the recorder..
2. flutterFft.startRecording()
   • Starts recording using the data from the plugin's local instance. In other words, if you want to pass custom values as arguments, you have to set them inside the flutterFft instance before starting the recorder. i.e. flutterFft.setSampleRate = 22050
3. flutterFft.stopRecording()
   • Stops recording.

Variables, default values, getters, setters and descriptions

Variable	Default Value	Type	Getter	Setter	Description
_tuning	["E4", "B3", "G3", "D3", "A2", "E2"]	List<String>	flutterFft.getTuning	flutterFft.setTuning	Controller for the tuning target. Format: ["E4", "B3", "G3", "D3", "A2", "E2"] (The detected frequency is compared to these values in order to resolve the detection data.)
_isRecording	false	bool	flutterFft.getIsRecording	flutterFft.setIsRecording	Controller for the recorder state.
_subscriptionDuration	0.25	double	flutterFft.getSubscriptionDuration	flutterFft.setSubscriptionDuration	Controller for the interval between platform channel function calls.
_numChannels	1	int	flutterFft.getNumChannels	flutterFft.setNumChannels	Controller for the number of channels that gets passed to the pitch detector.
_sampleRate	44100	int	flutterFft.getSampleRate	flutterFft.setSampleRate	Controller for the sample rate that gets passed to the pitch detector.
_androidAudioSource	AndroidAudioSource.MIC	AndroidAudioSource	flutterFft.getAndroidAudioSource	flutterFft.setAndroidAudioSource	Controller for the audio source. (Microphone, etc.)
_tolerance	1.00	double	flutterFft.getTolerance	flutterFft.setTolerance	Controller for the tolerance. (How far apart can the current frequency from the target frequency in order to be considered on pitch)
_frequency	0	double	flutterFft.getFrequency	flutterFft.setFrequency	Controller for the frequency.
_note	""	String	flutterFft.getNote	flutterFft.setNote	Controller for the note
_target	0	double	flutterFft.getTarget	flutterFft.setTarget	Controller for the target frequency. (Based on the current selected tuning, calculate the nearest frequency in tune to be considered as the target, i.e: IF currentNote == A && A.frequency.distanceToB IS SmallestTargetDistance -> _target = A.frequency.distanceToB)
_distance	0	double	flutterFft.getDistance	flutterFft.setDistance	Controller for the distance between the current frequency and the target frequency.
_octave	0	int	flutterFft.getOctave	flutterFft.setOctave	Controller for the detected octave.
_nearestNote	""	String	flutterFft.getNearestNote	flutterFft.setNearestNote	Controller for nearest note. (Based on the current note)
_nearestTarget	0	double	flutterFft.getNearestTarget	flutterFft.setNearestTarget	Controller for nearest target. (Second smallest distance, as the smallest distance is already _target)
_nearestDistance	0	double	flutterFft.getNearestDistance	flutterFft.setNearestDistance	Controller for nearest distance. (Second smallest distance)
_nearestOctave	0	int	flutterFft.getNearestOctave	flutterFft.setNearestOctave	Controller for nearest octave. (Based on the "nearest" data)
_isOnPitch	false	bool	flutterFft.getIsOnPitch	flutterFft.setIsOnPitch	Controller for the pitch

Todo

• iOS version;
• Separate call handling logic;
• Improve performance, by rewriting code and/or writing native flutter/dart pitch detection;
• Improve accuracy/outliers, some frequencies are way off;
• Improve asking for permission when first running the app, when there's no permanent permission given by the user, and quit when it's denied. (crashes when user denies prompt)