Ok, I know that it has not been possible to do a computeSpectrum on streaming sound from the Flash Media server, and I would assume that it is also not possible when using an alternate, eg Red 5.
I am putting together a proposal for an art piece that will record sound and transform it into MIDI-type data, and I'd like to use flash for the spectrum analysis as I am fairly familiar with AS3 (still a beginner, but still..)- and I know that flash can control an Arduino board (which will then do the work.)
Anyway, as the Adobe docs athttp://help.adobe.com/en_US/AIR/1.1/jslr/flash/media/SoundMixer.html#computeSpectrum() state, this should be possible with fp 9.0.115.0+ and/or AIR.
Has anyone ever done anything like this?
Alternatively, would it be feasible to grab streaming data, and save it broken into small .mp3 files, and then load those? It would not be live, but would be close enough for my purposes.
Why can't you build a spectrum analyzer on sound from FMS?
I built a couple of small quick ones early in the AS3 conversion days. Is that all your looking for? A spectrum analyzer?
That is exactly what I want. But all docs I can find state that it is not possible, and Adobes docs (link above) are contradictory.
So you have done exactly this: a spectrum analyzer on streaming sound?
not from FMS, but a regular mp3 stream? Yes, from an IceCast server. I have no idea why it would be different because the audio byteArray is calculated from your sound card (or at least that was my initial understanding of Adobe's Sound Class. It should work.
Do you have a Spectrum Analyzer coded and it works on a local file? if so, what happens on the FMS stream? Nothing? That doesn't sound right at all (but I could be wrong on FMS).
I have not started coding it, still looking at the possibilities. I lean towards flash because I am familiar with Flash and the Flash/Arduino interface, and I'll only have 1 week to put the whole project together.
If it works with Icecast, I'll try that - I won't have the budget for buying FMS, I was hoping to get someone with a server to sponsor useage. But Icecast is free, and easy enough.
Thanks very much for your help.
no problem..... 
IceCast is great btw.
Set up Icecast on localhost, got it working speaking into the mic and listening on the headphones - quite odd, has a delay of about 15 seconds.
I'll try to computeSpectrum on the stream over the weekend.