Adjusting Volume via ambient noise on players with a mic

[billy1ear]

Though it would be nice to have the volume auto adjust based on ambient noise.
Say your in your car with the windows down and the volume goes up when your going 70, then goes down when you stop at an intersection.

[ZincAlloy]

excellent. automatic destruction of your hearing ability.   it would make much more sense to automatically turn down the volume when the ambience noise gets louder.

[Llorean]

Another interesting question: How will the player hear the ambient noise over the loud music after the volume goes up? Even if you know what's playing it doesn't necessarily mean there will be enough recoverable other audio for it to really be able to determine anything.

[pabouk]

I already presented this ideal long time ago (it was probably on the tracker) and I think that it is usable with headphones. What I do most frequently while listening to a DAP on a street / bus / tram / underground is changing the volume according to the ambient noise. To avoid hearing damage there could be simple volume limit.

The main problem I see is how to filter out the contact noise of the microphone and close objects (clothes etc.)

[nomis3613]

Excellent idea for headphone listening! I'd love to see this on Rockbox to allow further laziness on my behalf. Whether the hardware has enough brains to process this while doing decoding music etc, I dunno, but it's a great idea.

It may be possible to reduce contact noise etc by looking at a certain frequency range and using averages of over say 10 seconds. Might work, might not.

I reckon with control over 1) the maximum decrease in volume 2) the max increase in volume and 3) the ratio of volume change to background noise change (ie so you could set it to add 0.7 dB for every dB of background noise) it'd be awesome.

[(V)3@7Y]

this sounds like a pretty cool idea
it'll take alot of refining i imagine.
but i have found 1 flaw. being impressed by the extreme capabilities of your DAP, you show your friends this amazing feature. soon enough your back to listening to your music when suddenly, someone comes up and screams into the microphone of your DAP... instant deafness.
whether this will be an issue, i am unsure, obviously it will be optional, but there will probably be alot of practical issues involved with it.

[Chronon]

I don't think it's a great idea.  If ambient noise is a problem it's generally better to take steps to reduce ambient noise than to boost the amplitude of the sound pressure.  If the ambient noise floor drops and you suddenly realize that you have the volume way too loud then you are still damaging your hearing when the ambient noise floor rises again.  This just sounds like a way to mask dangerous volume levels from yourself.

[pabouk]

I see only two possibilities how to reduce the ambient noise in the described situations:
- avoid the place (it is difficult if I want to travel by train for example )
- use headphones which more attenuate the ambient noise (I do not like this much because I want to hear the ambient sound in some situations without taking the headphones off.)

Anyway I do not need the sound volume much higher than the ambient noise and I prefer to lower the volume in quiet places just because I do not want to be deaf to quieter ambient sounds. Mostly I listen to spoken word thus I do not need high volume like when I am listening to music.

[soap]

- avoid the place (it is difficult if I want to travel by train for example )
- use headphones which more attenuate the ambient noise (I do not like this much because I want to hear the ambient sound in some situations without taking the headphones off.)

Active noise canceling headphones have an off switch if you want ambient noise, and they sell passive noise attenuating IEMs with an inline microphone to allow you to hear ambient noise at your discretion.

Turning up the volume in response to increased ambient noise is unarguably a bad idea.

[eylonk]

What about a simple reduced feature"
Pause when ambient noise cross a threshold, replay when cross back again.
This make sense, when you walk and a very noisy bus come, you can't hear anything anyway so the right thing to do is pause for few seconds.

[zaphee]

Wouldn't this feature be too battery-hungry in addition to being difficult to implement and harmful to the user's ears ?

[gevaerts]

What about a simple reduced feature"
Pause when ambient noise cross a threshold, replay when cross back again.
This make sense, when you walk and a very noisy bus come, you can't hear anything anyway so the right thing to do is pause for few seconds.

I like that idea!

[Chronon]

I agree.  That idea seems useful and doesn't pose a danger to people's hearing.

[GodEater]

I'd be interested to see if anyone can actually manage to make accidental triggering of this by contact noise work first. I'm not optimistic it's going to be that easy or reliable.

[Chronon]

That's a pretty solid objection, actually.