AudioKit: Red Mic Icon Always Appears When App In Background - avaudiosession

I’m having difficulty finding a way to get rid of the red “mic in use” icon at the top of the iPhone when my app goes to background (while not recording). Thus it gives the appearance that the app is always recording even when in the background.
Here’s how I’m initializing the mic in my AudioKitManager class:
// FYI: need to set to playAndRecord here otherwise crashes with “required condition is false: IsFormatSampleRateAndChannelCountValid(format)”
do {
try AVAudioSession.sharedInstance().setCategory(.playAndRecord, mode: .default, options: .allowBluetoothA2DP)
try AVAudioSession.sharedInstance().setActive(true)
} catch {
print(error)
}
mic = AKMicrophone()
let inputBooster = AKBooster(mic)
// boost helps with pitch tracking on some iPads
inputBooster.gain = 5
tracker = AKFrequencyTracker(inputBooster)
tracker.stop() // turned off until it's needed - startPitchTracking() called
micMixer = AKMixer(tracker)
micBooster = AKBooster(micMixer)
micBooster.gain = 0.0
micBooster >>> mixer
print("Setting AudioKit.output = mixer")
AudioKit.output = mixer
AKSettings.playbackWhileMuted = true
AKSettings.defaultToSpeaker = true
AKSettings.sampleRate = 44100
do {
print("Attempting to start AudioKit")
try AudioKit.start()
} catch {
AKLog("AudioKit did not start!")
}
Things I’ve tried:
“Stopping” and “starting” the mic when the recording vc appears/disappears. e.g. mic.stop() - Red icon still shows even when mic stopped.
Setting the AVAudioSessionCatagory to and from playAndRecord and .play as recording vc appears/disappears. Really thought this would work!… but the Red Icon of Terror still stares back at me and into my soul.
Calling: AKSettings.audioInputEnabled = false. - Red icon still indicated mic input is enabled.
Only initializing the mic when needed. (Tried this a while ago: seem to remember it was a total no-go)
Dressing as David Bowie and singing “Starman” loudly into mic before app goes to background. Probably should have been the first thing to try, but still to no avail.
Various combinations of above
Any help much appreciated! Thx!
Kudos to AudioKit - it’s an amazing framework! :^)
AudioKit: 4.5.4
iOS: 12.1
Xcode: 10.1

Aha. The solution is to call audioKit.stop() when the app goes to background. Then audioKit.start() before it's used again!! Goodbye red mic icon. Goodbye.
I'd overlooked this previously because I'd been experiencing a lot of issues whenever stopping and starting audio kit. However (as I mentioned in this post Continuous Sine Wave From AKMIDISampler when AKMicrophone is Present ) the main problem was fixed by reloading the samples into all samplers AFTER Audio Kit is started again.
Wheew.

Related

Other audio being ducked even when device is silenced and category is ambient

I would like the audio in my app to duck music being played in the background, but also not be played when the ringer/silent switch is switched to silent mode. I am able to get this behavior with the following AVAudioSession configuration, with one caveat -- when music is playing and the device is silenced, it is still ducking the music, even though my app (correctly) doesn't actually play any audio.
Is there a configuration to make this work properly? It seems strange that the system would duck others when the app doesn't actually play audio. Is it possible this is a bug in iOS?
try AVAudioSession.sharedInstance().setCategory(.ambient, mode: .default, options: [.duckOthers, .interruptSpokenAudioAndMixWithOthers])
This is what I have implemented and I just muted my iPad and it plays no sound. But I am not sure if the behaviour is same on iPhone as I generally always have my phone on mute and still hear audio...
do {
try AVAudioSession.sharedInstance().setCategory(.playback, options: .duckOthers)
} catch(let error) {
print(error.localizedDescription)
}
let utterance = AVSpeechUtterance(string: stringToSpeak)
// Set voice to male or female based on user settings
if defaults.integer(forKey: "Voice") == 1 {
utterance.voice = AVSpeechSynthesisVoice(identifier: "com.apple.ttsbundle.siri_male_ja-JP_compact")
}
else {
utterance.voice = AVSpeechSynthesisVoice(language: "ja-JP")
}
synthesizer.speak(utterance)

Audio won't play after app interrupted by phone call iOS

I have a problem in my SpriteKit game where audio using playSoundFileNamed(_ soundFile:, waitForCompletion:) will not play after the app is interrupted by a phone call. (I also use SKAudioNodes in my app which aren't affected but I really really really want to be able to use the SKAction playSoundFileNamed as well.)
Here's the gameScene.swift file from a stripped down SpriteKit game template which reproduces the problem. You just need to add an audio file to the project and call it "note"
I've attached the code that should reside in appDelegate to a toggle on/off button to simulate the phone call interruption. That code 1) Stops AudioEngine then deactivates AVAudioSession - (normally in applicationWillResignActive) ... and 2) Activates AVAudioSession then Starts AudioEngine - (normally in applicationDidBecomeActive)
The error:
AVAudioSession.mm:1079:-[AVAudioSession setActive:withOptions:error:]: Deactivating an audio session that has running I/O. All I/O should be stopped or paused prior to deactivating the audio session.
This occurs when attempting to deactivate the audio session but only after a sound has been played at least once.
to reproduce:
1) Run the app
2) toggle the engine off and on a few times. No error will occur.
3) Tap the playSoundFileNamed button 1 or more times to play the sound.
4) Wait for sound to stop
5) Wait some more to be sure
6) Tap Toggle Audio Engine button to stop the audioEngine and deactivate session -
the error occurs.
7) Toggle the engine on and of a few times to see session activated, session deactivated, session activated printed in debug area - i.e. no errors reported.
8) Now with session active and engine running, playSoundFileNamed button will not play the sound anymore.
What am I doing wrong?
import SpriteKit
import AVFoundation
class GameScene: SKScene {
var toggleAudioButton: SKLabelNode?
var playSoundFileButton: SKLabelNode?
var engineIsRunning = true
override func didMove(to view: SKView) {
toggleAudioButton = SKLabelNode(text: "toggle Audio Engine")
toggleAudioButton?.position = CGPoint(x:20, y:100)
toggleAudioButton?.name = "toggleAudioEngine"
toggleAudioButton?.fontSize = 80
addChild(toggleAudioButton!)
playSoundFileButton = SKLabelNode(text: "playSoundFileNamed")
playSoundFileButton?.position = CGPoint(x: (toggleAudioButton?.frame.midX)!, y: (toggleAudioButton?.frame.midY)!-240)
playSoundFileButton?.name = "playSoundFileNamed"
playSoundFileButton?.fontSize = 80
addChild(playSoundFileButton!)
}
override func touchesBegan(_ touches: Set<UITouch>, with event: UIEvent?) {
if let touch = touches.first {
let location = touch.location(in: self)
let nodes = self.nodes(at: location)
for spriteNode in nodes {
if spriteNode.name == "toggleAudioEngine" {
if engineIsRunning { // 1 stop engine, 2 deactivate session
scene?.audioEngine.stop() // 1
toggleAudioButton!.text = "engine is paused"
engineIsRunning = !engineIsRunning
do{
// this is the line that fails when hit anytime after the playSoundFileButton has played a sound
try AVAudioSession.sharedInstance().setActive(false) // 2
print("session deactivated")
}
catch{
print("DEACTIVATE SESSION FAILED")
}
}
else { // 1 activate session/ 2 start engine
do{
try AVAudioSession.sharedInstance().setActive(true) // 1
print("session activated")
}
catch{
print("couldn't setActive = true")
}
do {
try scene?.audioEngine.start() // 2
toggleAudioButton!.text = "engine is running"
engineIsRunning = !engineIsRunning
}
catch {
//
}
}
}
if spriteNode.name == "playSoundFileNamed" {
self.run(SKAction.playSoundFileNamed("note", waitForCompletion: false))
}
}
}
}
}
Let me save you some time here: playSoundFileNamed sounds wonderful in theory, so wonderful that you might say use it in an app you spent 4 years developing until one day you realize it’s not just totally broken on interruptions but will even crash your app in the most critical of interruptions, your IAP. Don’t do it. I’m still not entirely sure whether SKAudioNode or AVPlayer is the answer, but it may depend on your use case. Just don’t do it.
If you need scientific evidence, create an app and create a for loop that playSoundFileNamed whatever you want in touchesBegan, and see what happens to your memory usage. The method is a leaky piece of garbage.
EDITED FOR OUR FINAL SOLUTION:
We found having a proper number of preloaded instances of AVAudioPlayer in memory with prepareToPlay() was the best method. The SwiftySound audio class uses an on-the-fly generator, but making AVAudioPlayers on the fly created slowdown in animation. We found having a max number of AVAudioPlayers and checking an array for those where isPlaying == false was simplest and best; if one isn't available you don't get sound, similar to what you likely saw with PSFN if you had it playing lots of sounds on top of each other. Overall, we have not found an ideal solution, but this was close for us.
In response to Mike Pandolfini’s advice not to use playSoundFileNamed I’ve converted my code to only use SKAudioNodes.
(and sent the bug report to apple).
I then found that some of these SKAudioNodes don’t play after app interruption either … and I’ve stumbled across a fix.
You need to tell each SKAudioNode to stop() as the app resigns to, or returns from the background - even if they’re not playing.
(I'm now not using any of the code in my first post which stops the audio engine and deactivates the session)
The problem then became how to play the same sound rapidly where it possibly plays over itself. That was what was so good about playSoundFileNamed.
1) The SKAudioNode fix:
Preload your SKAudioNodes i.e.
let sound = SKAudioNode(fileNamed: "super-20")
In didMoveToView add them
sound.autoplayLooped = false
addChild(sound)
Add a willResignActive notification
notificationCenter.addObserver(self, selector:#selector(willResignActive), name:UIApplication.willResignActiveNotification, object: nil)
Then create the selector’s function which stops all audioNodes playing:
#objc func willResignActive() {
for node in self.children {
if NSStringFromClass(type(of: node)) == “SKAudioNode" {
node.run(SKAction.stop())
}
}
}
All SKAudioNodes now play reliably after app interrupt.
2) To replicate playSoundFileNamed’s ability to play the short rapid repeating sounds or longer sounds that may need to play more than once and therefore could overlap, create/preload more than 1 property for each sound and use them like this:
let sound1 = SKAudioNode(fileNamed: "super-20")
let sound2 = SKAudioNode(fileNamed: "super-20")
let sound3 = SKAudioNode(fileNamed: "super-20")
let sound4 = SKAudioNode(fileNamed: "super-20")
var soundArray: [SKAudioNode] = []
var soundCounter: Int = 0
in didMoveToView
soundArray = [sound1, sound2, sound3, sound4]
for sound in soundArray {
sound.autoplayLooped = false
addChild(sound)
}
Create a play function
func playFastSound(from array:[SKAudioNode], with counter:inout Int) {
counter += 1
if counter > array.count-1 {
counter = 0
}
array[counter].run(SKAction.play())
}
To play a sound pass that particular sound's array and its counter to the play function.
playFastSound(from: soundArray, with: &soundCounter)

Background Playback Of Audio Stream After Interruption, iOS Swift

I Have an app that uses AVPlayer() to play a music stream from the web. I have everything setup to play in background but when a call comes in (or any other interrupt) the playback will not resume after the interrupt is over. To be specific if the interrupt is dissmised pretty quickly playback will resume but if I have a long phone call for example playback will not resume.
This only happens if my app is in the background as well. If my app is in the foreground when an interrupt comes in everything works.
I have my interrupt notification set up as:
func playInterrupt(notification: NSNotification) {
var info = notification.userInfo!
var intValue: UInt = 0
(info[AVAudioSessionInterruptionTypeKey] as! NSValue).getValue(&intValue)
if let type = AVAudioSessionInterruptionType(rawValue: intValue) {
switch type {
case .began:
print("began")
pause()
case .ended:
print("ended")
play()
}
}
Using
AVAudioSession.sharedInstance().setCategory(AVAudioSessionCategoryPlayback, with: AVAudioSessionCategoryOptions.mixWithOthers )
Fixes the problem but then if I start playing from another audio source, they both overlay each other. Ideally I need my app to stop playback in that situation.
Any suggestions on how to achieve this?
Thanks in advance

Audio playback lock screen controls not displaying on iPhone

I am testing this using iOS 10.2 on my actual iPhone 6s device.
I am playing streamed audio and am able to play/pause audio, skip tracks, etc. I also have enabled background modes and the audio plays in the background and continues through a playlist properly. The only issue I am having is getting the lock screen controls to show up. Nothing displays at all...
In viewDidLoad() of my MainViewController, right when my app launches, I call this...
func setupAudioSession(){
UIApplication.shared.beginReceivingRemoteControlEvents()
do {
try AVAudioSession.sharedInstance().setCategory(AVAudioSessionCategoryPlayback, with: AVAudioSessionCategoryOptions.mixWithOthers)
self.becomeFirstResponder()
do {
try AVAudioSession.sharedInstance().setActive(true)
print("AVAudioSession is Active")
} catch let error as NSError {
print(error.localizedDescription)
}
} catch let error as NSError {
print(error.localizedDescription)
}
}
and then in my AudioPlayer class after I begin playing audio I call ...
func setupLockScreen(){
let commandCenter = MPRemoteCommandCenter.shared()
commandCenter.nextTrackCommand.isEnabled = true
commandCenter.nextTrackCommand.addTarget(self, action:#selector(skipTrack))
MPNowPlayingInfoCenter.default().nowPlayingInfo = [MPMediaItemPropertyTitle: "TESTING"]
}
When I lock my iPhone and then tap the power button again to go to the lock screen, the audio controls are not displayed at all. It is as if no audio is playing, I just see my normal background photo. Also no controls are displayed in the control panel (swiping up on home screen and then swiping left to where the music controls should be).
Is the issue because I am not using AVAudioPlayer or AVPlayer? But then how does, for example, Spotify get the lock screen controls to display using their own custom audio player? Thanks for any advice / help
The issue turned out to be this line...
try AVAudioSession.sharedInstance().setCategory(AVAudioSessionCategoryPlayback, with: AVAudioSessionCategoryOptions.duckOthers)
Once I changed it to
try AVAudioSession.sharedInstance().setCategory(AVAudioSessionCategoryPlayback, with: [])
everything worked fine. So it seems that passing in any argument for AVAudioSessionCategoryPlaybackOptions causes the lock screen controls to not display. I also tried passing in .mixWithOthers an that too caused the lock screen controls to not be displayed
In Swift 4. This example is only to show the player on the lock screen and works with iOS 11. To know how to play auidio on the device you can follow this thread https://stackoverflow.com/a/47710809/1283517
import MediaPlayer
import AVFoundation
Declare player
var player : AVPlayer?
Now create a function
func setupLockScreen(){
let commandCenter = MPRemoteCommandCenter.shared()
commandCenter.nextTrackCommand.isEnabled = true
commandCenter.togglePlayPauseCommand.addTarget(self, action: #selector(controlPause))
MPNowPlayingInfoCenter.default().nowPlayingInfo = [MPMediaItemPropertyTitle: currentStation]
}
now create a function for control play and pause event. I have created a BOOL "isPlaying" to determine the status of the player.
#objc func controlPause() {
if isPlaying == true {
player?.pause()
isPlaying = false
} else {
player?.play()
isPlaying = true
}
}
And ready. Now the player will be displayed on the lock screen
Yes, for the lock screen to work you need to use iOS APIs to play audio. Not sure how Spotify does it but they may be using a second audio session in parallel for this purpose and use the controls to control both. Your background handler (the singleton in my case) could start playing the second audio with 0 volume when it goes into background and stop it when in foreground. I haven't tested it myself but an option to try.

Using Spotify/background music with camera open

I have an app that needs to have:
Background music playing while using the app (eg. spotify)
Background music playing while watching movie from AVPlayer
Stop the music when recording a video
Like Snapchat, the camera-viewcontroller is part of a "swipeview" and therefore always on.
However, when opening and closing the app, the music makes a short "crack" noise/sound that ruins the music.
I recorded it here:
https://soundcloud.com/morten-stulen/hacky-sound-ios
(3 occurrences)
I use these settings for changing the AVAudiosession in the appdelegate didFinishLaunchingWithOptions:
do {
try AVAudioSession.sharedInstance().setCategory(AVAudioSessionCategoryPlayAndRecord,withOptions:
[AVAudioSessionCategoryOptions.MixWithOthers,
AVAudioSessionCategoryOptions.DefaultToSpeaker])
try AVAudioSession.sharedInstance().setActive(true)
} catch {
print("error")
}
I use the LLSimpleCamera control for video recording and I've set the session there to:
_session.automaticallyConfiguresApplicationAudioSession = NO;
It seems others have the same problem with other camera libraries as well:
https://github.com/rFlex/SCRecorder/issues/127
https://github.com/rFlex/SCRecorder/issues/224
This guy removed the audioDeviceInput, but I kinda need that for recording video.
https://github.com/omergul123/LLSimpleCamera/issues/48
I also tried with Apple's code "AvCam", and I still have the same issue. How does Snapchat do this?!
Any help would be greatly appreciated, and I'll gladly provide more info or code!
I do something similar to what you're wanting, but without the camera aspect, but I think this will do what you want. My app allows background audio that will mix with non-fullscreen video/audio. When the user plays an audio file or a full screen video file, I stop the background audio completely.
The reason I do SoloAmbient then Playback is because I allow my audio to be played in the background when the device is locked. Going SoloAmbient will stop all background music playing and then switching to Playback lets my audio play in the app as well as in the background.
This is why you see a call to a method that sets the lock screen information in the Unload method. In this case, it is nulling it out so that there is no lock screen info.
In AppDelegate.swift
//MARK: Audio Session Mixing
func allowBackgroundAudio()
{
do {
try AVAudioSession.sharedInstance().setCategory(AVAudioSessionCategoryPlayback, withOptions: .MixWithOthers)
} catch {
NSLog("AVAudioSession SetCategory - Playback:MixWithOthers failed")
}
}
func preventBackgroundAudio()
{
do {
//Ask for Solo Ambient to prevent any background audio playing, then change to normal Playback so we can play while locked
try AVAudioSession.sharedInstance().setCategory(AVAudioSessionCategorySoloAmbient)
try AVAudioSession.sharedInstance().setCategory(AVAudioSessionCategoryPlayback)
} catch {
NSLog("AVAudioSession SetCategory - SoloAmbient failed")
}
}
When I want to stop background audio, for example when playing an audio track that should be alone, I do the following:
In MyAudioPlayer.swift
func playUrl(url: NSURL?, backgroundImageUrl: NSURL?, title: String, subtitle: String)
{
ForgeHelper.appDelegate().preventBackgroundAudio()
if _mediaPlayer == nil {
self._mediaPlayer = MediaPlayer()
_mediaPlayer!.delegate = self
}
//... Code removed for brevity
}
And when I'm done with my media playing, I do this:
private func unloadMediaPlayer()
{
if _mediaPlayer != nil {
_mediaPlayer!.unload()
self._mediaPlayer = nil
}
_controlView.updateForProgress(0, duration: 0, animate: false)
ForgeHelper.appDelegate().allowBackgroundAudio()
setLockScreenInfo()
}
Hope this helps you out!

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