How can I make an iOS device play music programatically? - ios

Question

I'm trying to make my iphone play a tune without using prerecorded files. What are my options here? AVAudioEngine, AudioKit? I've looked at them, but the learning curve is relatively steep for something I'm hoping is easy. They also seem like tools for creating sound effect given a PCM buffer window.
I'd like to be able to do something like
pitchCreator.play(["C4", "E4", "G4"], durations: [1, 1, 1])
Preferrably sounding like an instrument or at least not like a pure sine wave.

Answer 1

EDIT: The below code has been replaced by AudioKit
To anyone wondering this; I did make it work (kind of) using code similar to the one below.
class PitchCreator {
var engine: AVAudioEngine
var player: AVAudioPlayerNode
var mixer: AVAudioMixerNode
var buffer: AVAudioPCMBuffer
init() {
engine = AVAudioEngine()
player = AVAudioPlayerNode()
mixer = engine.mainMixerNode;
buffer = AVAudioPCMBuffer(PCMFormat: player.outputFormatForBus(0), frameCapacity: 100)
buffer.frameLength = 4096
engine.attachNode(player)
engine.connect(player, to: mixer, format: player.outputFormatForBus(0))
}
func play(frequency: Float) {
let signal = self.createSignal(frequency, amplitudes: [1.0, 0.5, 0.3, 0.1], bufferSize: Int(buffer.frameLength), sampleRate: Float(mixer.outputFormatForBus(0).sampleRate))
for i in 0 ..< signal.count {
buffer.floatChannelData.memory[i] = 0.5 * signal[i]
}
do {
try engine.start()
player.play()
player.scheduleBuffer(buffer, atTime: nil, options: .Loops, completionHandler: nil)
} catch {}
}
func stop() {
engine.stop()
player.stop()
}
func createSignal(frequency: Float, amplitudes: [Float], bufferSize: Int, sampleRate: Float) -> [Float] {
let π = Float(M_PI)
let T = sampleRate / frequency
var x = [Float](count: bufferSize, repeatedValue: 0.0)
for k in 0 ..< x.count {
for h in 0 ..< amplitudes.count {
x[k] += amplitudes[h] * sin(2.0 * π * Float(h + 1) * Float(k) / T)
}
}
return x
}
}
But it doesn't sound good enough so I've gone with sampling the notes I need and just use AVAudioPlayer instead to play them.