Tutorial: Playing Audio with AVAudioPlayer

The past few tutorials dealt with compiling the open source Ogg and Vorbis libraries. In the next few tutorials I will demonstrate how to play Ogg Vorbis files using these libraries.

Before attempting to play an unsupported file format like Ogg Vorbis, it make sense to first understand how a supported file format can be played, so I will start off by showing how to play supported audio formats using AVAudioPlayer.

Since the UI for this tutorial is a little busy and this is not, after all, a tutorial about using Interface Builder I will provide a starting point project with the UI already constructed: IDZAudioPlayerTutorial0.zip

Creating an instance of AVAudioPlayer

To use AVAudioPlayer you need to import AVFoundation.h. Edit IDZViewController.h and add the following line:

#import <AVFoundation/AVFoundation.h>

Next open IDZViewController.m.

Add a property to the class extension to hold your a reference to your player instance:

@interface IDZViewController ()
@property (nonatomic, strong) AVAudioPlayer* player;
@end

Keeping private properties and methods avoids the interface in your header file become cluttered with details a user of the class need not know.

Add a synthesize statement for this property:

@synthesize player = mPlayer;

In Xcode 4.5 you do not need to add a synthesize statement, but I still like to do it to explicitly give the property and instance variable distinct names.

The downloaded project contains a file Rondo_Alla_Turka_Short.aiff. Add the following code to create a player loaded with this file.

- (void)viewDidLoad
{
    [super viewDidLoad]; 
    // Do any additional setup after loading the view, typically from a nib.  
    NSURL* url = [[NSBundle mainBundle] URLForResource:@"Rondo_Alla_Turka_Short" withExtension:@"aiff"];
    NSAssert(url, @"URL is valid."); 
    NSError* error = nil;
    self.player = [[AVAudioPlayer alloc] initWithContentsOfURL:url error:&error];
    if(!self.player)
    {
        NSLog(@"Error creating player: %@", error);
    }
}

Also add the following line somewhere in viewDidUnload:

    self.player = nil;

Finally update the play, pause and stop methods as shown:

- (IBAction)play:(id)sender {
    IDZTrace();
    [self.player play];
}

- (IBAction)pause:(id)sender {
    IDZTrace();
    [self.player pause];
}

- (IBAction)stop:(id)sender {
    IDZTrace();
    [self.player stop];
}

If you compile and run the project you should not be able to tap the Play button and the music will start playing.

Initializing the UI Controls

The duration and numberOfChannels will not change during playback so they can be set just after the player has been created. This is also a good time to set the minimumValue and maximumValue of the currentTimeSlider. To do this add the following code to the end of viewDidLoad:

    self.durationLabel.text = [NSString
        stringWithFormat:@"%.02fs",self.player.duration];
    self.numberOfChannelsLabel.text = [NSString 
        stringWithFormat:@"%d", self.player.numberOfChannels];
    self.currentTimeSlider.minimumValue = 0.0f;
    self.currentTimeSlider.maximumValue = self.player.duration;

Updating the Controls During Playback

A timer can be used to periodically update the display when the audio is playing. The timer should be started when the user taps the Play button.

Add a property to the class extension for the timer:

@interface IDZViewController ()
@property (nonatomic, strong) AVAudioPlayer* player;
@property (nonatomic, strong) NSTimer* timer;
@end 

Also add a synthesize statement near the top of the implementation (you can skip this on Xcode 4.5):

@synthesize timer = mTimer;

Now modify your play method:

- (IBAction)play:(id)sender 
{
    IDZTrace();
    [self.player play];
    self.timer = [NSTimer 
        scheduledTimerWithTimeInterval:0.1 
        target:self selector:@selector(timerFired:) 
        userInfo:nil repeats:YES];               
}

Lines 5-8 create a timer that will call a method timerFired every 0.1 seconds.

Implement timerFired:

- (void)timerFired:(NSTimer*)timer
{
    [self updateDisplay];
}

You’ll implement updateDisplay a little later. Let’s finish with the timer first.

Declare a stopTimer method in the class extension:

- (void)stopTimer;

Add the method to the implementation:

- (void)stopTimer
{
    [self.timer invalidate];
    self.timer = nil;
}

Line 3 stops the timer from firing and line 4 signals to ARC that the timer is no longer needed.

The timer must be stopped when:

• the user presses pause,
• the user presses stop,
• playback stops at the end of file, or
• playback stops due to an error.

The first two cases can easily dealt with by modifying the pause and stop methods:

- (IBAction)pause:(id)sender {
    IDZTrace();
    [self.player pause];
    [self stopTimer];
    [self updateDisplay];
}

- (IBAction)stop:(id)sender {
    IDZTrace();
    [self.player stop];
    [self stopTimer];
    [self updateDisplay];
}

The latter two cases can be dealt with using delegation and the AVAudioPlayerDelegate protocol.

The AVAudioPlayerDelegate Protocol.

To begin signal to the compiler that your view controller will be implementing the AVAudioPlayerDelegate protocol, open IDZViewController.h and add the protocol to the interface definition.

@interface IDZViewController : UIViewController<AVAudioPlayerDelegate>

Back in IDZViewController.m add the following method declarations to the class extension:

- (void)audioPlayerDidFinishPlaying:(AVAudioPlayer *)player 
        successfully:(BOOL)flag;
- (void)audioPlayerDecodeErrorDidOccur:(AVAudioPlayer *)player 
        error:(NSError *)error;

And add implementations:

#pragma mark - AVAudioPlayerDelegate
- (void)audioPlayerDidFinishPlaying:(AVAudioPlayer *)player successfully:(BOOL)flag
{
    NSLog(@"%s successfully=%@", __PRETTY_FUNCTION__, flag ? @"YES"  : @"NO");
    [self stopTimer];
    [self updateDisplay];
}

- (void)audioPlayerDecodeErrorDidOccur:(AVAudioPlayer *)player error:(NSError *)error
{
    NSLog(@"%s error=%@", __PRETTY_FUNCTION__, error);
    [self stopTimer];
    [self updateDisplay];
}

We’re now finished with the timer, time to turn our attention back the updateDisplay method.

Updating the UI Controls

Add a declaration to the class extension:

- (void)updateDisplay
- (void)updateSliderLabels

The implementation is straightforward:

#pragma mark - Display Update
- (void)updateDisplay
{
    NSTimeInterval currentTime = self.player.currentTime;
    NSString* currentTimeString = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%.02f", currentTime];
    
    self.currentTimeSlider.value = currentTime;
    [self updateSliderLabels];
    
    self.currentTimeLabel.text = currentTimeString;
    self.playingLabel.text = self.player.playing ? @"YES" : @"NO";
    self.deviceCurrentTimeLabel.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%.02f", self.player.deviceCurrentTime];
}

- (void)updateSliderLabels
{
    NSTimeInterval currentTime = self.currentTimeSlider.value;
    NSString* currentTimeString = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%.02f", currentTime];
    
    self.elapsedTimeLabel.text =  currentTimeString;
    self.remainingTimeLabel.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%.02f", self.player.duration - currentTime];
}

The reason for using a separate method to update the slider labels is that when you implement seeking you will want to be able to update them separately from other display elements.

You should now be able to compile and run the project, and all the UI controls should update as the audio is playing.

Implementing Seeking

A seek feature can be added by completing the implementation of two methods that were included in the skeleton project.

The currentTimeSliderValueChanged method is connected in the XIB file to the Value Changed action for the horizontal slider. Add the following lines:

- (IBAction)currentTimeSliderValueChanged:(id)sender
{
    if(self.timer)
        [self stopTimer];
    [self updateSliderLabels];
}

This code stops the display update timer so that the user’s dragging is not being contradicted by the current position and also updates the slider labels so the user knows where they are dragging. You could also stop playback if you wanted to, but I prefer letting it continue until the user releases the slider.

When the user releases the slider, a Touch Up Inside action is generated. In the skeleton project this action is connected to the currentTimeSliderTouchUpInside: method. The following shows the completed implementation:

- (IBAction)currentTimeSliderTouchUpInside:(id)sender
{
    [self.player stop];
    self.player.currentTime = self.currentTimeSlider.value;
    [self.player prepareToPlay];
    [self play:self];
}

This stops playback, sets the player’s currentTime property to the value of the slider, and restarts playback from that position.

Download the Source Code

You can download the complete source code for the project here: IDZAudioPlayerTutorial1.zip