Audio processing with AVFoundation – Swift development blog

In order to be able to play audio files inside an iOS app, you first need to add the audio file (e.g. myAudioFile.mp3) to your Xcode project, and then follow the steps below:

create a path to the audio file
create an instance of AVAudioPlayer
play the audio file

Here is how this could translate into code:

 
// declare the audio player as a property

var audioPlayer: AVAudioPlayer!

// inside viewDidLoad initialize it

let filePath = NSBundle.mainBundle().pathForResource("myAudioFile", ofType: "mp3")
let url = NSURL.fileURLWithPath(filePath)
audioPlayer = AVAudioPlayer(contentsOfURL: url, error: nil)

// inside the calling/action method play the audio file

audioPlayer.play()

Now you could apply various effects on the audio file, such as increasing and decreasing the speed or the pitch. For changing the playback speed you need to first enable the audio player’s rate property. Then inside your calling method you can set the rate to a value between 0.5 (slowest) and 2.0 (fastest). A value of 1.0 would be the normal speed, so you can play the file at any speed from half the normal speed to double the normal speed.

 
// right after initializing audioPlayer, enable its rate

audioPlayer.enableRate = true

// before playing the audio file, change its rate

audioPlayer.rate = 0.5

To change the pitch of the audio file, the following steps need to take place in order:

create an AVAudioEngine object
create an AVAudioPlayerNode object
attach AVAudioPlayerNode to AVAudioEngine
create an AVAudioUnitTimePitch object
attach AVAudioUnitTimePitch to AVAudioEngine
connect AVAudioPlayerNode to AVAudioUnitTimePitch
connect AVAudioUnitTimePitch to an output
play the audio file

The pitch is measured in cents, a logarithmic value used for measuring musical intervals. One octave equals 1200 cents. One musical semitone is equal to 100 cents. The default value is 1.0 (normal pitch). The range of values is -2400 (lowest pitch) to 2400 (highest pitch). Here is how this could translate into code:

// declare the audio engine as a property 

var audioEngine: AVAudioEngine!

// inside viewDidLoad initialize it

audioEngine = AVAudioEngine()

// inside the calling/action method increase the pitch

var audioPlayerNode = AVAudioPlayerNode()
audioEngine.attachNode(audioPlayerNode)
var changePitchEffect = AVAudioUnitTimePitch()
changePitchEffect.pitch = 1000
audioEngine.attachNode(changePitchEffect)
audioEngine.connect(audioPlayerNode, to: changePitchEffect, format: nil)
audioEngine.connect(changePitchEffect, to: audioEngine.outputNode, format: nil)
audioPlayerNode.play()

We can also use the iPhone’s microphone to record an audio file that we can play, instead of the sample file we added to our Xcode project. Here is how we could do it:

// declare the audio recorder as a property

var audioRecorder:AVAudioRecorder!

// inside the calling/action method record an audio file

let dirPath = NSSearchPathForDirectoriesInDomains(.DocumentDirectory, .UserDomainMask, true)[0] as! String
let recordingName = "my_audio.wav"
let pathArray = [dirPath, recordingName]
let filePath = NSURL.fileURLWithPathComponents(pathArray)
var session = AVAudioSession.sharedInstance()
session.setCategory(AVAudioSessionCategoryPlayAndRecord, error: nil)
audioRecorder = AVAudioRecorder(URL: filePath, settings: nil, error: nil)
audioRecorder.meteringEnabled = true
audioRecorder.prepareToRecord()
audioRecorder.record()

// inside another method that stops the recording

audioRecorder.stop()
var audioSession = AVAudioSession.sharedInstance()
audioSession.setActive(false, error: nil)

Now we can replace the hardcoded file (myAudioFile.mp3) with our recording stored in the recordingName variable. Every time the recording is started, this file will be overwritten which is useful to saving space. You can see my demo app (based on Udacity’s course) using all these concepts.

Until next time!