iOS Precise timing for audio

[counciler]

I want to make a custom loop that handles the tick of a timer. The loop will control the timing of when to play the ticks. I'm using the AVAudioPlayer so I can use things like "playAtTime." I can even use the "playerDidFinishPlaying" method for some of the sounds. But I want to overlap some of the sounds, so didFinishPlaying won't work. Essentially, I would like to play a certain set of sounds every 1 or 2 seconds, and precision is necessary.

I'm currently using NSTimer and NSDate for keeping track of the time. But I've noticed sometimes a skip, and skips could screw up the timing of my sounds. So I'm wondering if there's any way to run a loop that is based on time and not frames.

 

[dejo]

Too bad Apple's sample app called Metronome is no longer available. You could've looked at that for a possible solution. Hmm, I may have a backup of that app, although it might be somewhat outdated. I'll let you know if I find it.

 

[ArtOfWarfare]

Too bad Apple's sample app called Metronome is no longer available. You could've looked at that for a possible solution. Hmm, I may have a backup of that app, although it might be somewhat outdated. I'll let you know if I find it.

I would also be interested in this...

all my apps thus far have been silent because whenever I've tested sounds, they always end up out of sync with visual elements.

 

[dejo]

Found it!

NOTE: This sample code is old, from May 2009. I make no guarantees as to whether it is even usable nowadays.

 

[firewood]

Apple's metronome sample app does not keep accurate time.

You have to use mach_time or media time, as all the other timers (such as NSDate) are non-monotonic, and NSTimer timing can be way off as it's firing time depends a lot on what else has been happening in the UI run loop,.

The best method is to use pre-started and continuously running audio queues or the RemoteIO audio unit for producing any sounds that have to be accurately timed or spaced. Or maybe OpenAL.

 

[seepel]

Without knowing more details, I'm not sure if this will help. But when I've had trouble with AVAudioPlayer I moved to AudioQueues. It helped, but my use case was a bit different. What I wanted was to be able to control my loop and jump to different sections of one file at different times. Using AudioQueues gets little convoluted, but it may be worth looking into to see if it suits your needs.