Android: why MediaPlayer plays the same sound louder than SoundPool?

Question

You can play a sound with MediaPlayer or SoundPool on Android. Two of our Android devices play the same sound much louder when MediaPlayer is used. On the third device, the volume sounds the same.

Do you know why? Can I make SoundPool to play sounds as loud as MediaPlayer?

Devices in question:

• Tablet LG-V400 (Android 4.4 Kit Kat)

• Phone Sony Xperia L (Android 4.2.2)

Code: play mp3 sound with SoundPool

private void playSoundPool() {
    int MAX_STREAMS = 2;
    SoundPool soundPool = new SoundPool(MAX_STREAMS, AudioManager.STREAM_MUSIC, 0);
    soundPool.setOnLoadCompleteListener(new OnLoadCompleteListener() {
        @Override
        public void onLoadComplete(SoundPool soundPool, int soundId, int status) {
            int loop = 0;
            int priority = 0;
            float rate = 1.f;
            soundPool.play(soundId, 1, 1, priority, loop, rate);                    
        }
    });
    soundPool.load(this, R.raw.test, 1);
}

Code: play mp3 sound with MediaPlayer

private void playMediaPlayer() {
    MediaPlayer mediaPlayer = MediaPlayer.create(this, R.raw.test);
    mediaPlayer.setVolume(1, 1);
    mediaPlayer.start();
}

You are welcome to download test project .

Answer 1

Possible Solution:

You need to create AudioManager for getting, changing the global media volume set by user in phone and changing the volume for our own app independently by changing stream volume in soundPool.

AudioManager mgr = (AudioManager) getContext().getSystemService(Context.AUDIO_SERVICE);

int streamVolume = mgr.getStreamVolume(AudioManager.STREAM_MUSIC);

streamVolume = streamVolume / AudioManager.getStreamMaxVolume(AudioManager.STREAM_MUSIC);

mSoundPool.play(mSoundPoolMap.get(index), streamVolume, streamVolume, 1, 0, 1f);

Note:

if I set 0.5 for volume in soundpool , the actual volume will be always half of the global one . Very easy to reproduce:

• set global media volume in phone settings to max
• set volume in activity using soundpool.play to 0.5 - play sound
• set volume in soundpool.play to 1 - play sound , it will be two times louder

So volume passed to SoundPool.play method really a multiplier to the global volume! **So If you want to play a sound at the current volume setting just pass "1" as the volume or change it as per the requirement **

may be media player class using global media volume for playing the audio file. you are using hard-coded soundPool.play(soundId, 1 , 1 , priority, loop, rate); values !

we need try with

MediaPlayer mediaPlayer = MediaPlayer.create(this, R.raw.test);
mediaPlayer.setVolume(streamVolume,streamVolume);
mediaPlayer.start();

Some more Texts :

SoundPool:

SoundPool is designed for short clips which can be kept in memory decompressed for quick access, this is best suited for sound effects in apps or games. Using this method with soundboards is a bad idea as you will be loading lots of “medium” sized sounds into the memory and you may exceed your limit (16Mb) and get an OutOfMemoryException. SoundPool load music files using a separate thread, the operation of the main thread does not block the UI. it can be used to play short sound clips say like gun shots during a game (something like less than 3 seconds long). A nice feature that sound pool comes with is that you can play many sounds simultaneously which happens a lot when you think of a game. So you first build a Sound Pool object to load all media files. MediaPlayer:"

MediaPlayer is designed for longer sound files or streams, this is best suited for music files or larger files. The files will be loaded from disk each time create is called, this will save on memory space but introduce a small delay (not really noticeable).

Ref: SO

Answer 2

Mechanism difference is there, as you can say that due to compression and decompression the sound quality and volume could go below the actual one, and when you compare it with MediaPlayer. So it is better to use MediaPlayer for better sound quality and volume in your case.

SoundPool

SoundPool is designed for short clips which can be kept in memory decompressed for quick access, this is best suited for sound effects in apps or games. Using this method with soundboards is a bad idea as you will be loading lots of “medium” sized sounds into the memory and you may exceed your limit (16Mb) and get an OutOfMemoryException.

MediaPlayer

MediaPlayer is designed for longer sound files or streams, this is best suited for music files or larger files. The files will be loaded from disk each time create is called, this will save on memory space but introduce a small delay (not really noticeable).