A system and method to generate a trigger signal based on a real-time adaptive threshold. The system may include a microphone to receive an audio signal, a device to generate a trigger signal based on a real-time adaptive threshold coupled to the microphone to form an adaptive threshold and generate a trigger signal if a magnitude of the audio signal is greater than a magnitude of the adaptive threshold. The system may also include a waveform capture module coupled to the microphone to receive the audio signal and convert the audio signal into a series of waveform packets and a waveform analysis processor to extract characteristics from the waveform packets.