Whats the simplest way to play a looping sound? - iphone

Question

What is the simplest way to play a looping sound in an iPhone app?

Answer 1

Probably the easiest solution would be to use an AVAudioPlayer with the numberOfLoops: set to a negative integer.
// *** In your interface... ***
#import <AVFoundation/AVFoundation.h>
...
AVAudioPlayer *testAudioPlayer;
// *** Implementation... ***
// Load the audio data
NSString *soundFilePath = [[NSBundle mainBundle] pathForResource:#"sample_name" ofType:#"wav"];
NSData *sampleData = [[NSData alloc] initWithContentsOfFile:soundFilePath];
NSError *audioError = nil;
// Set up the audio player
testAudioPlayer = [[AVAudioPlayer alloc] initWithData:sampleData error:&audioError];
[sampleData release];
if(audioError != nil) {
NSLog(#"An audio error occurred: \"%#\"", audioError);
}
else {
[testAudioPlayer setNumberOfLoops: -1];
[testAudioPlayer play];
}
// *** In your dealloc... ***
[testAudioPlayer release];
You should also remember to set the appropriate audio category. (See the AVAudioSession setCategory:error: method.)
Finally, you'll need to add the AVFoundation library to your project. To do this, alt click on your project's target in the Groups & Files column in Xcode, and select "Get Info". Then select the General tab, click the + in the bottom "Linked Libraries" pane and select "AVFoundation.framework".

Answer 2

The easiest way would be to use an AVAudioPlayer set to an infinite number of loops (or finite if that's what you need).
Something like:
NSString *path = [[NSBundle mainBundle] pathForResource:#"yourAudioFileName" ofType:#"mp3"];
NSURL *file = [[NSURL alloc] initFileURLWithPath:path];
AVAudioPlayer *_player = [[AVAudioPlayer alloc] initWithContentsOfURL:file error:nil];
[file release];
_player.numberOfLoops = -1;
[_player prepareToPlay];
[_player play];
This will simply loop whatever audio file you have specified indefinitely.
Set the number of loops to any positive integer if you have a finite number of times you want the audio file to loop.
Hope this helps.
Cheers.