AudioFileWriteBytes returns error -50 randomly - iphone

I have the following code snippet:
OSStatus status = AudioFileWriteBytes(self.audioFile, FALSE, self.startingByte, &ioNumBytes, theData);
The status code randomly returns noErr and -50 on the iPhone simulator.
It then works if I re-run it.
Any pointer is appreciated why the above code behaves randomly.
Thanks in advance for your help.

I think I found my issue.
The original code with the problem:
// Start
OSStatus status = AudioOutputUnitStart(self.ioUnit);
// Record the audio samples and save it to a file
[self createFile];
The new code that fixed the problem. Notice the "createFile" is called first before calling AudioOutputUnitStart
// Record the audio samples and save it to a file
[self createFile];
// Start
// Once AudioOutputUnitStart is called, it will start calling callback method quickly. We need to call the above [self createFile] first.
OSStatus status = AudioOutputUnitStart(self.ioUnit);
The AudioOutputUnitStart calls the callback method which will write audio samples to a file. Since the file has been created/opened before AudioOutputUnitStart, now the audio samples are written to the file without any error.

Related

TestFlight TFLog not uploading when there is a crash

When TestFlight crashes I have a log I wish to upload with its crash report.
Following the instructions on their website I came up with this solution, but it doesn't seem to be sending the log I pass to TFLog. However it reports the crash just fine.
-(void)applicationDidFinishLaunching:(UIApplication *)application {
/*Setup crash handlers for TestFlight so we can send logs. */
NSSetUncaughtExceptionHandler(&testFlightHandleExceptions);
// create the signal action structure
struct sigaction newSignalAction;
// initialize the signal action structure
memset(&newSignalAction, 0, sizeof(newSignalAction));
// set SignalHandler as the handler in the signal action structure
newSignalAction.sa_handler = &testFlightSignalHandler;
// set SignalHandler as the handlers for SIGABRT, SIGILL and SIGBUS
sigaction(SIGABRT, &newSignalAction, NULL);
sigaction(SIGILL, &newSignalAction, NULL);
sigaction(SIGBUS, &newSignalAction, NULL);
[TestFlight takeOff:TESTFLIGHT_API_KEY];
}
void testFlightHandleExceptions(NSException *exception) {
[LogManager e: #"Sending crash to TestFlight" Tag:#"AppDelegate"];
TFLog(#"%#",[LogManager getLog]);
}
Where have I gone wrong? Or is there a better way in doing this?
There are two problems I can see with this:
testFlightHandleExceptions is going to be called after the crash and it's logs are recorded. Instead you need to be calling TFLog inside of LogManager every time you log something (before the crash). That's how it's meant to be used.
It is not ok to use objc inside of a signal handler. For that matter, most c isn't even allowed.
Hope that helps :)
Jason

Speakhere does NOT record after receive a phone call

I'm working on a project that need record and analyze sound, every think is ok when i use speak here.
But when some one call my phone, the record stop and when the app return, it never record again.
I try to restart the recorder by press record, but i get this error:
Error: couldn't get input channel count ('!cat')
Error: couldn't enable metering (-50)
ERROR: metering failed
I also try to restart by call StartRecord(....) but nothing different. So anyone can help me
if (inInterruptionState == kAudioSessionEndInterruption)
THIS->recorder->StartRecord(CFSTR("recordedFile.caf"));
An app must stop recording in any audio session interrupt listener begin interruption callback if it ever wants to start recording again. Otherwise, a force quit and restart by the user may be required.
I've been having the same problem with SpeakHere and found this solution by (hours and hours of) trial and error. Try this: get rid of the references to playbackWasInterrupted (commented out below), but leave in the other player-related directives. Somehow this re-enables the recorder! If anyone could explain why this works, I would love to know!
Under void interruptionListener, change
else if ((inInterruptionState == kAudioSessionEndInterruption)&& THIS->playbackWasInterrupted))
to
else if (inInterruptionState == kAudioSessionEndInterruption)
//&& THIS->playbackWasInterrupted)
and then comment out or delete the "playbackWasInterrupted" line below:
{
// we were playing back when we were interrupted, so reset and resume now
THIS->player->StartQueue(true);
[[NSNotificationCenter defaultCenter] postNotificationName:#"playbackQueueResumed" object:THIS];
// THIS->playbackWasInterrupted = NO;
}
just from memory - when returning to foreground (in the corresponding notification handler), you need to call
AudioSessionSetActive (true)
or something similar. As I said, I only read it on a related question - no garanties.
Good Luck, nobi

Why are my audio sounds not playing on time?

One of my apps has a simple metronome-style feature that plays a click sound a specified number of times per minute (bpm). I'm doing this by starting an NSTimer, with an interval calculated from the specified bpm, that calls a method that plays the sound.
If I put an NSLog line into the play method, I can see that NSTimer is firing accurately to about 1 millisecond. However, if I record the sound output into an audio editor and then measure the interval between clicks, I can see that they are not evenly spaced. For example, with 150 bpm, the timer fires every 400 milliseconds. But most of the sounds play after 395 milliseconds, with every third or fourth sound playing after 418 milliseconds.
So the sounds are not uniformly delayed, but rather, they follow a pattern of shorter and longer intervals. It seems as if the iOS has a lower resolution for timing of sounds, and is rounding each sound event to the nearest available point, rounding up or down as needed to keep on track overall.
I have tried this with system sounds, AVAudioPlayer and OpenAL and have gotten the exact same results with all three methods. With each method, I'm doing all the setup when the view loads, so each time I play the sound all I have to do is play it. With AVAudioPlayer, I tried calling prepareToPlay using a second timer after each time the sound plays, so it is initialized and ready to go next time, but got the same results.
Here's the code for setting up the OpenAL sound in viewDidLoad (adapted from this tutorial):
// set up the context and device
ALCcontext *context;
ALCdevice *device;
OSStatus result;
device = alcOpenDevice(NULL); // select the "preferred device"
if (device) {
context = alcCreateContext(device, NULL); // use the device to make a context
alcMakeContextCurrent(context); // set the context to the currently active one
}
// open the sound file
NSString *soundFilePath = [[NSBundle mainBundle] pathForResource:#"TempoClick" ofType:#"caf"];
NSURL *soundFileURL = [NSURL fileURLWithPath:soundFilePath];
AudioFileID fileID;
result = AudioFileOpenURL((CFURLRef)soundFileURL, kAudioFileReadPermission, 0, &fileID);
if (result != 0) DLog(#"cannot open file %#: %ld", soundFilePath, result);
// get the size of the file data
UInt32 fileSize = 0;
UInt32 propSize = sizeof(UInt64);
result = AudioFileGetProperty(fileID, kAudioFilePropertyAudioDataByteCount, &propSize, &fileSize);
if (result != 0) DLog(#"cannot find file size: %ld", result);
DLog(#"file size: %li", fileSize);
// copy the data into a buffer, then close the file
unsigned char *outData = malloc(fileSize);
AudioFileOpenURL((CFURLRef)soundFileURL, kAudioFileReadPermission, 0, &fileID); // we get a "file is not open" error on the next line if we don't open this again
result = AudioFileReadBytes(fileID, false, 0, &fileSize, outData);
if (result != 0) NSLog(#"cannot load data: %ld", result);
AudioFileClose(fileID);
alGenBuffers(1, &tempoSoundBuffer);
alBufferData(self.tempoSoundBuffer, AL_FORMAT_MONO16, outData, fileSize, 44100);
free(outData);
outData = NULL;
// connect the buffer to the source and set some preferences
alGenSources(1, &tempoSoundSource);
alSourcei(tempoSoundSource, AL_BUFFER, tempoSoundBuffer);
alSourcef(tempoSoundSource, AL_PITCH, 1.0f);
alSourcef(tempoSoundSource, AL_GAIN, 1.0f);
alSourcei(tempoSoundSource, AL_LOOPING, AL_FALSE);
And then in the play method I just call:
alSourcePlay(self.tempoSoundSource);
Can anyone explain what is happening here, and how I can work around it?
UPDATE 1:
I have another project that plays brief sounds with audio units, so as a quick test I added a timer to that project to play my click sound every 400 milliseconds. In that case, the timing is nearly perfect. So, it seems that NSTimer is fine but system sounds, AVAudioPlayer and OpenAL are less accurate in their playback than audio units.
UPDATE 2:
I just reworked my project to use audio units and now the audio is playing back much more accurately. It still occasionally drifts by up to four milliseconds in either direction, but this is better than the other audio methods. I'm still curious why the other methods all show a pattern of short, short, short, long intervals -- it's like the audio playback times are being rounded up or down to map to some kind of frame rate -- so I'll leave this question open for anyone who can explain that and/or offer a workaround for the other audio methods.
NSTimer does not guarantee when your method will actually get fired.
More info here: How to program a real-time accurate audio sequencer on the iphone?
Regarding your edits:
AVAudioPlayer takes some time to initialize itself. If you call prepareToPlay, it will initialize itself such that it can play the currently loaded sound immediately upon calling play. Once playback stops, it uninitializes itself, so you'd need to call prepareToPlay again to reinitialize. It's best to use this class for stream-y playback rather than discrete sound playback.
With OpenAL, once you've loaded the buffer, attaching it to a source and playing it should cause no delay at all.
You can encapsulate your audio units code into a .mm file and then call that from .m modules without having to compile those as C++.
Okay, I've figured it out. The real reason audio units worked better than the other audio methods is that my audio unit class, which I was adapting from another project, was setting a buffer duration property in the audio session, like this:
Float32 preferredBufferSize = .001;
UInt32 size = sizeof(preferredBufferSize);
AudioSessionSetProperty(kAudioSessionProperty_PreferredHardwareIOBufferDuration, size, &preferredBufferSize);
When I added this code to the OpenAL version, or even to the AVAudioPlayer version, I got accuracy to within a few milliseconds, the same as with audio units. (System Sounds, however, were still not very accurate.) I can verify the connection by increasing the buffer size and watching the playback intervals get less accurate.
Of course I only figured this out after spending an entire day adapting my project to use audio units -- tweaking it to compile under C++, testing the interruption handlers, etc. I hope this can save someone else from the same trouble.

How to provide audio buffer to AudioQueue to play audio?

In my application, I am receiving audio data in LinearPCM format, which I need to play.
I am following iOS SpeakHere example. However I cannot get how and where I should provide a buffer to AudioQueue.
Can anyone provide me a working example of playing audio buffer in iOS via AudioQueue?
In the SpeakHere example playback is achieved using AudioQueue.
In the set up of AudioQueue, a function is specified that will be called when the queue wants more data.
You can see that in this method:
void AQPlayer::SetupNewQueue()
Here's the line that specifies the callback function:
XThrowIfError(AudioQueueNewOutput(&mDataFormat, AQPlayer::AQBufferCallback, this,
CFRunLoopGetCurrent(), kCFRunLoopCommonModes, 0, &mQueue), "AudioQueueNew failed");
If you take a look at AQPlayer::AQBufferCallback, you'll see where it gets the data from. In this example, the data has been written out to a file on disk. That's a good solution if you want to save memory, or if there's a possibility the audio file could be quite large.
Anyway, looking at AQPlayer::AQBufferCallback, you'll see a call to a function AudioFileReadPackets. That's what reads in the audio packets from the file on disk. It reads them straight into the buffer that AudioQueue will use:
OSStatus result = AudioFileReadPackets(THIS->GetAudioFileID(), false, &numBytes, inCompleteAQBuffer->mPacketDescriptions, THIS->GetCurrentPacket(), &nPackets,
inCompleteAQBuffer->mAudioData);
That buffer is inCompleteAQBuffer->mAudioData.
Finally, the callback function must enqueue the buffer as follows:
if (nPackets > 0) {
inCompleteAQBuffer->mAudioDataByteSize = numBytes;
inCompleteAQBuffer->mPacketDescriptionCount = nPackets;
AudioQueueEnqueueBuffer(inAQ, inCompleteAQBuffer, 0, NULL);
THIS->mCurrentPacket = (THIS->GetCurrentPacket() + nPackets);
}
Note first that it has to check that we have some packets to play. It also has to specify how many bytes are in the buffer.
Then, this line here:
THIS->mCurrentPacket = (THIS->GetCurrentPacket() + nPackets);
That keeps a track of where we are overall in our audio buffer. In other words, as more data is copied in from the file, we need to position the mCurrentPacket forward to that the next copy puts data in the correct place.

AVAudioPlayer - Metering - Want to build a waveform (graph)

I need to build a visual graph that represents voice levels (dB) in a recorded file. I tried to do it this way:
NSError *error = nil;
AVAudioPlayer *meterPlayer = [[AVAudioPlayer alloc]initWithContentsOfURL:[NSURL fileURLWithPath:self.recording.fileName] error:&error];
if (error) {
_lcl_logger(lcl_cEditRecording, lcl_vError, #"Cannot initialize AVAudioPlayer with file %# due to: %# (%#)", self.recording.fileName, error, error.userInfo);
} else {
[meterPlayer prepareToPlay];
meterPlayer.meteringEnabled = YES;
for (NSTimeInterval i = 0; i <= meterPlayer.duration; ++i) {
meterPlayer.currentTime = i;
[meterPlayer updateMeters];
float averagePower = [meterPlayer averagePowerForChannel:0];
_lcl_logger(lcl_cEditRecording, lcl_vTrace, #"Second: %f, Level: %f dB", i, averagePower);
}
}
[meterPlayer release];
It would be cool if it worked out however it didn't. I always get -160 dB. Any other ideas on how to implement that?
UPD: Here is what I got finally:
alt text http://img22.imageshack.us/img22/5778/waveform.png
I just want to help the others who have come into this same question and used a lot of time to search. To save your time, I put out my answer. I dislike somebody here who treat this as kind of secret...
After search around the articles about extaudioservice, audio queue and avfoundation.
I realised that i should use AVFoundation, reason is simple, it is the latest bundle and it is Objective C but not so cpp style.
So the steps to do it is not complicated:
Create AVAsset from the audio file
Create avassetreader from the avasset
Create avassettrack from avasset
Create avassetreadertrackoutput from avassettrack
Add the avassetreadertrackoutput to the previous avassetreader to start reading out the audio data
From the avassettrackoutput you can copyNextSampleBuffer one by one (it is a loop to read all data out).
Each copyNextSampleBuffer gives you a CMSampleBufferRef which can be used to get AudioBufferList by CMSampleBufferGetAudioBufferListWithRetainedBlockBuffer. AudioBufferList is array of AudioBuffer. AudioBuffer is the a bunch of audio data which is stored in its mData part.
You can implement the above in extAudioService as well. But i think the above avfoundation approach is easier.
So next question, what to do with the mData? Note that when you get the avassetreadertrackoutput, you can specify its output format, so we specify the output is lpcm.
Then the mData you finally get is actually a float format amplitude value.
Easy right? Though i used a lot of time to organise this from piece here and there.
Two useful resource for share:
Read this article to know basic terms and conceptions: https://www.mikeash.com/pyblog/friday-qa-2012-10-12-obtaining-and-interpreting-audio-data.html
Sample code: https://github.com/iluvcapra/JHWaveform
You can copy most of the above mentioned code from this sample directly and used for your own purpose.
I haven't used it myself, but Apple's avTouch iPhone sample has bar graphs powered by AVAudioPlayer, and you can easily check to see how they do it.
I don't think you can use AVAudioPlayer based on your constraints. Even if you could get it to "start" without actually playing the sound file, it would only help you build a graph as fast as the audio file would stream. What you're talking about is doing static analysis of the sound, which will require a much different approach. You'll need to read in the file yourself and parse it manually. I don't think there's a quick solution using anything in the SDK.
Ok guys, seems I'm going to answer my own question again: http://www.supermegaultragroovy.com/blog/2009/10/06/drawing-waveforms/ No a lot of concretics, but at least you will know what Apple docs to read.