I want to build a simple metronome app using AVAudioEngine with these features:
- Solid timing (I know, I know, I should be using Audio Units, but I'm still struggling with Core Audio stuff / Obj-C wrappers etc.)
- Two different sounds on the "1" and on beats "2"/"3"/"4" of the bar.
- Some kind of visual feedback (at least a display of the current beat) which needs to be in sync with audio.
So I have created two short click sounds (26ms / 1150 samples @ 16 bit / 44,1 kHz / stereo wav files) and load them into 2 buffers. Their lengths will be set to represent one period.
My UI setup is simple: A button to toggle start / pause and a label to display the current beat (my "counter" variable).
When using scheduleBuffer's loop property the timing is okay, but as I need to have 2 different sounds and a way to sync/update my UI while looping the clicks I cannot use this. I figured out to use the completionHandler instead which the restarts my playClickLoop() function - see my code attach below.
Unfortunately while implementing this I didn't really measure the accuracy of the timing. As it now turns out when setting bpm to 120, it plays the loop at only about 117,5 bpm - quite steadily but still way too slow. When bpm is set to 180, my app plays at about 172,3 bpm.
What's going on here? Is this delay introduced by using the completionHandler? Is there any way to improve the timing? Or is my whole approach wrong?
Thanks in advance! Alex
import UIKit
import AVFoundation
class ViewController: UIViewController {
private let engine = AVAudioEngine()
private let player = AVAudioPlayerNode()
private let fileName1 = "sound1.wav"
private let fileName2 = "sound2.wav"
private var file1: AVAudioFile! = nil
private var file2: AVAudioFile! = nil
private var buffer1: AVAudioPCMBuffer! = nil
private var buffer2: AVAudioPCMBuffer! = nil
private let sampleRate: Double = 44100
private var bpm: Double = 180.0
private var periodLengthInSamples: Double { 60.0 / bpm * sampleRate }
private var counter: Int = 0
private enum MetronomeState {case run; case stop}
private var state: MetronomeState = .stop
@IBOutlet weak var label: UILabel!
override func viewDidLoad() {
super.viewDidLoad()
//
// MARK: Loading buffer1
//
let path1 = Bundle.main.path(forResource: fileName1, ofType: nil)!
let url1 = URL(fileURLWithPath: path1)
do {file1 = try AVAudioFile(forReading: url1)
buffer1 = AVAudioPCMBuffer(
pcmFormat: file1.processingFormat,
frameCapacity: AVAudioFrameCount(periodLengthInSamples))
try file1.read(into: buffer1!)
buffer1.frameLength = AVAudioFrameCount(periodLengthInSamples)
} catch { print("Error loading buffer1 \(error)") }
//
// MARK: Loading buffer2
//
let path2 = Bundle.main.path(forResource: fileName2, ofType: nil)!
let url2 = URL(fileURLWithPath: path2)
do {file2 = try AVAudioFile(forReading: url2)
buffer2 = AVAudioPCMBuffer(
pcmFormat: file2.processingFormat,
frameCapacity: AVAudioFrameCount(periodLengthInSamples))
try file2.read(into: buffer2!)
buffer2.frameLength = AVAudioFrameCount(periodLengthInSamples)
} catch { print("Error loading buffer2 \(error)") }
//
// MARK: Configure + start engine
//
engine.attach(player)
engine.connect(player, to: engine.mainMixerNode, format: file1.processingFormat)
engine.prepare()
do { try engine.start() } catch { print(error) }
}
//
// MARK: Play / Pause toggle action
//
@IBAction func buttonPresed(_ sender: UIButton) {
sender.isSelected = !sender.isSelected
if player.isPlaying {
state = .stop
} else {
state = .run
try! engine.start()
player.play()
playClickLoop()
}
}
private func playClickLoop() {
//
// MARK: Completion handler
//
let scheduleBufferCompletionHandler = { [unowned self] /*(_: AVAudioPlayerNodeCompletionCallbackType)*/ in
DispatchQueue.main.async {
switch state {
case .run:
self.playClickLoop()
case .stop:
engine.stop()
player.stop()
counter = 0
}
}
}
//
// MARK: Schedule buffer + play
//
if engine.isRunning {
counter += 1; if counter > 4 {counter = 1} // Counting from 1 to 4 only
if counter == 1 {
//
// MARK: Playing sound1 on beat 1
//
player.scheduleBuffer(buffer1,
at: nil,
options: [.interruptsAtLoop],
//completionCallbackType: .dataPlayedBack,
completionHandler: scheduleBufferCompletionHandler)
} else {
//
// MARK: Playing sound2 on beats 2, 3 & 4
//
player.scheduleBuffer(buffer2,
at: nil,
options: [.interruptsAtLoop],
//completionCallbackType: .dataRendered,
completionHandler: scheduleBufferCompletionHandler)
}
//
// MARK: Display current beat on UILabel + to console
//
DispatchQueue.main.async {
self.label.text = String(self.counter)
print(self.counter)
}
}
}
}
