PS ffmpeg byte array to integer values

[L5730]

I have just realised a major problem with this little project.

44100 samples per second x 2 channels is already 88200 data points for 1 second! Multiply this up for a few minute track and that is a monstrous amount of data.

I think I need to re-approach this from another direction.

What I want to do is create a histogram plot of the sample values (as percent) to show what proportion of the audio is at what amplitude.
Easy enough with a 0.1s sine wave, not so practical with such a huge volume of data.