iOS waveform generator connected via AUGraph - c++

Question

I have created a simple waveform generator which is connected to an AUGraph. I have reused some sample code from Apple to set AudioStreamBasicDescription like this
void SetCanonical(UInt32 nChannels, bool interleaved)
// note: leaves sample rate untouched
{
mFormatID = kAudioFormatLinearPCM;
int sampleSize = SizeOf32(AudioSampleType);
mFormatFlags = kAudioFormatFlagsCanonical;
mBitsPerChannel = 8 * sampleSize;
mChannelsPerFrame = nChannels;
mFramesPerPacket = 1;
if (interleaved)
mBytesPerPacket = mBytesPerFrame = nChannels * sampleSize;
else {
mBytesPerPacket = mBytesPerFrame = sampleSize;
mFormatFlags |= kAudioFormatFlagIsNonInterleaved;
}
}
In my class I call this function
mClientFormat.SetCanonical(2, true);
mClientFormat.mSampleRate = kSampleRate;
while sample rate is
#define kSampleRate 44100.0f;
The other setting are taken from sample code as well
// output unit
CAComponentDescription output_desc(kAudioUnitType_Output, kAudioUnitSubType_RemoteIO, kAudioUnitManufacturer_Apple);
// iPodEQ unit
CAComponentDescription eq_desc(kAudioUnitType_Effect, kAudioUnitSubType_AUiPodEQ, kAudioUnitManufacturer_Apple);
// multichannel mixer unit
CAComponentDescription mixer_desc(kAudioUnitType_Mixer, kAudioUnitSubType_MultiChannelMixer, kAudioUnitManufacturer_Apple);
Everything works fine, but the problem is that I am not getting stereo sound and my callback function is failing (bad access) when I try to reach the second buffer
Float32 *bufferLeft = (Float32 *)ioData->mBuffers[0].mData;
Float32 *bufferRight = (Float32 *)ioData->mBuffers[1].mData;
// Generate the samples
for (UInt32 frame = 0; frame < inNumberFrames; frame++)
{
switch (generator.soundType) {
case 0: //Sine
bufferLeft[frame] = sinf(thetaLeft) * amplitude;
bufferRight[frame] = sinf(thetaRight) * amplitude;
break;
So it seems I am getting mono instead of stereo. The pointer bufferRight is empty, but don't know why.
Any help will be appreciated.

Answer 1

I can see two possible errors. First, as #invalidname pointed out, recording in stereo probably isn't going to work on a mono device such as the iPhone. Well, it might work, but if it does, you're just going to get back dual-mono stereo streams anyways, so why bother? You might as well configure your stream to work in mono and spare yourself the CPU overhead.
The second problem is probably the source of your sound distortion. Your stream description format flags should be:
kAudioFormatFlagIsSignedInteger |
kAudioFormatFlagsNativeEndian |
kAudioFormatFlagIsPacked
Also, don't forget to set the mReserved flag to 0. While the value of this flag is probably being ignored, it doesn't hurt to explicitly set it to 0 just to make sure.
Edit: Another more general tip for debugging audio on the iPhone -- if you are getting distortion, clipping, or other weird effects, grab the data payload from your phone and look at the recording in a wave editor. Being able to zoom down and look at the individual samples will give you a lot of clues about what's going wrong.
To do this, you need to open up the "Organizer" window, click on your phone, and then expand the little arrow next to your application (in the same place where you would normally uninstall it). Now you will see a little downward pointing arrow, and if you click it, Xcode will copy the data payload from your app to somewhere on your hard drive. If you are dumping your recordings to disk, you'll find the files extracted here.
reference from link

Answer 2

I'm guessing the problem is that you're specifying an interleaved format, but then accessing the buffers as if they were non-interleaved in your IO callback. ioData->mBuffers[1] is invalid because all the data, both left and right channels, is interleaved in ioData->mBuffers[0].mData. Check ioData->mNumberBuffers. My guess is it is set to 1. Also, verify that ioData->mBuffers[0].mNumberChannels is set to 2, which would indicate interleaved data.
Also check out the Core Audio Public Utility classes to help with things like setting up formats. Makes it so much easier. Your code for setting up format could be reduced to one line, and you'd be more confident it is right (though to me your format looks set up correctly - if what you want is interleaved 16-bit int):
CAStreamBasicDescription myFormat(44100.0, 2, CAStreamBasicDescription::kPCMFormatInt16, true)
Apple used to package these classes up in the SDK that was installed with Xcode, but now you need to download them here: https://developer.apple.com/library/mac/samplecode/CoreAudioUtilityClasses/Introduction/Intro.html
Anyway, it looks like the easiest fix for you is to just change the format to non-interleaved. So in your code: mClientFormat.SetCanonical(2, false);