How to end a sound right away? - ios

Question

I'm working on an IOS game, and the background music clip is 7 seconds long, so when the scene changes from one scene to the next, I want it to stop instantly, but it continues and finishes the 7 second loop then stops.
This is the code:
[self runAction:[SKAction repeatActionForever:[SKAction playSoundFileNamed:#"sound 1.m4a" waitForCompletion:YES]]];
if (_dead == YES) {
[self removeAllActions];
}
where _dead is when the player dies, and the new scene is triggered.
How can I get the music to stop that instant, as opposed to finishing its loop?

Answer 1

Instead of using SKAction to play your background sound file, I would suggest using AVFoundation which allows you to simply issue a stop command.
Update
I can't think of any food tutorials that focus primarily on the sound side. Most deal with video and sound. Try google with something like 'AVFoundation tutorial'.
To use AVFoundation you can do this for your purposes...
Add the AVFoundation.framework to your project.
In your .h file add the delegate <AVAudioPlayerDelegate>
In your .m file #import <AVFoundation/AVFoundation.h>
Create a property AVAudioPlayer *_backgroundMusicPlayer;
Create this method:
- (void)playBackgroundMusic:(NSString *)filename {
NSError *error;
NSURL *backgroundMusicURL = [[NSBundle mainBundle] URLForResource:filename withExtension:nil];
_backgroundMusicPlayer = [[AVAudioPlayer alloc] initWithContentsOfURL:backgroundMusicURL error:&error];
_backgroundMusicPlayer.numberOfLoops = -1;
_backgroundMusicPlayer.volume = 0.2;
_backgroundMusicPlayer.delegate = self;
[_backgroundMusicPlayer prepareToPlay];
[_backgroundMusicPlayer play];
}
To start playing [self playBackgroundMusic:[NSString stringWithFormat:#"bgMusic.mp3"]];
To stop playing [_backgroundMusicPlayer stop];
That should do the trick. I suggest you read up on the AVAudioPlayer Class Reference so you understand its properties. For example, numberOfLoops set to -1 will loop the sound indefinitely until you call the stop method. Another issue to keep in mind is the audio file sound format. AVFoundation is somewhat picky about what sound files it will play. I always stick to mp3.
Fuzzygoat also makes an excellent point. I have not tried his approach in regards to sound so I do not know if it will solve your issue. It is similar to what you already have but with a slight change.
To start the sound:
SKAction *mySound = [SKAction repeatActionForever:[SKAction playSoundFileNamed:#"astroKitty 1.m4a" waitForCompletion:YES]];
[self runAction:mySound withKey:#"boogieDown"];
To stop the sound:
[self removeActionForKey:#"boogieDown"];