Core Audio

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Interact with the audio hardware of a device using Core Audio.

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How to get PID from AudioObjectID on macOS pre Sonoma
3 I am working on an application to get when input audio device is being used. Basically I want to know the application using the microphone (built-in or external) This app runs on macOS. For Mac versions starting from Sonoma I can use this code: int getAudioProcessPID(AudioObjectID process) { pid_t pid; if (@available(macOS 14.0, *)) { constexpr AudioObjectPropertyAddress prop { kAudioProcessPropertyPID, kAudioObjectPropertyScopeGlobal, kAudioObjectPropertyElementMain }; UInt32 dataSize = sizeof(pid); OSStatus error = AudioObjectGetPropertyData(process, &prop, 0, nullptr, &dataSize, &pid); if (error != noErr) { return -1; } } else { // Pre sonoma code goes here } return pid; } which works. However, kAudioProcessPropertyPID was added in macOS SDK 14.0. Does anyone know how to achieve the same functionality on previous versions?
1
0
438
Sep ’25
Potential Documentation Error in kAudioAggregateDevicePropertyTapList Sample Code
Hi, I believe I've found a potential error in the sample code on the documentation page for creating and using a process tap with an aggregate device. The issue is in the section explaining how to add a tap to the aggregate device. I have already filed a Feedback Assistant ticket on this (ID: FB17411663) but haven't heard back for months. Capturing system audio with Core Audio taps The sample code for modifying the kAudioAggregateDevicePropertyTapList incorrectly uses the tapID as the target AudioObjectID when calling AudioObjectSetPropertyData. // (Code to get the list and potentially modify listAsArray) if var listAsArray = list as? [CFString] { // ... (modification logic) ... // Set the list back on the aggregate device. <--- The comment is correct list = listAsArray as CFArray _ = withUnsafeMutablePointer(to: &list) { list in // INCORRECT: This call uses tapID as the target object. AudioObjectSetPropertyData(tapID, &propertyAddress, 0, nil, propertySize, list) } } The kAudioAggregateDevicePropertyTapList is a property that belongs to the aggregate device, not the individual tap. Therefore, to set this property, the AudioObjectSetPropertyData function must target the AudioObjectID of the aggregate device itself. Using tapID as the first argument is logically incorrect for this operation and will not update the aggregate device as intended. Furthermore, the preceding AudioObjectGetPropertyData call to fetch the list also appears to use the incorrect tapID as its target in the sample. The AudioObjectID for both getting and setting this property should be the ID of the aggregate device. _ = AudioObjectGetPropertyData(aggregateDeviceID, &propertyAddress, 0, nil, &propertySize, &list) _ = AudioObjectSetPropertyData(aggregateDeviceID, &propertyAddress, 0, nil, propertySize, newList) Thank you!
0
0
620
Sep ’25
Audio Unit v3 host v2 third party plugins
Hi, I have just implemented an Audio Unit v3 host. AgsAudioUnitPlugin *audio_unit_plugin; AVAudioUnitComponentManager *audio_unit_component_manager; NSArray<AVAudioUnitComponent *> *av_component_arr; AudioComponentDescription description; guint i, i_stop; if(!AGS_AUDIO_UNIT_MANAGER(audio_unit_manager)){ return; } audio_unit_component_manager = [AVAudioUnitComponentManager sharedAudioUnitComponentManager]; /* effects */ description = (AudioComponentDescription) {0,}; description.componentType = kAudioUnitType_Effect; av_component_arr = [audio_unit_component_manager componentsMatchingDescription:description]; i_stop = [av_component_arr count]; for(i = 0; i < i_stop; i++){ ags_audio_unit_manager_load_component(audio_unit_manager, (gpointer) av_component_arr[i]); } /* instruments */ description = (AudioComponentDescription) {0,}; description.componentType = kAudioUnitType_MusicDevice; av_component_arr = [audio_unit_component_manager componentsMatchingDescription:description]; i_stop = [av_component_arr count]; for(i = 0; i < i_stop; i++){ ags_audio_unit_manager_load_component(audio_unit_manager, (gpointer) av_component_arr[i]); } But this doesn't show me Audio Unit v2 plugins, why? regards, Joël
3
0
1.1k
Aug ’25
block microphone and speakers due to security reason
Hello, As part of developing a DLP system, the microphone and speakers should be blocked. My solution involves muting devices by changing the property kAudioDevicePropertyMute. However, this solution allows the user to unmute the device, and the app must implement a property listener to mute the device again. The problem is that muting takes some time and the device is temporarily unmuted. Admittedly, it takes less than a second, but nevertheless, it appears insecure. Is there an Apple-recommended approach to implement such blocking more securely? Maybe some solution which is based on IOKit. Thank you in advance, Pavel
2
0
548
Aug ’25
Logic Pro cannot load v3 audio unit with framework compiled with Swift 6
Sequoia 15.4.1 (24E263) XCode: 16.3 (16E140) Logic Pro: 11.2.1 I’ve been developing a complex audio unit for Mac OS that works perfectly well in its own bespoke host app and is now well into its beta testing stage. It did take some effort to get it to work well in Logic Pro however and all was fine and working well until: The AU part is an empty app extension with a framework containing its code. The framework contains Swift code for the UI and C code for the DSP parts. When the framework is compiled using the Swift 5 compiler the AU will run in Logic with no problems. (I should also mention that AU passes the most strict auval tests). But… when the framework is compiled with Swift 6 Logic Pro cannot load it. Logic displays a message saying the audio unit could not be loaded and to contact the developer. My own host app loads the AU perfectly well with the Swift 6 version, so I know there’s nothing wrong with the audio unit. I cannot find any differences in any of the built output files except, of course, the actual binary code in the framework. I’ve worked for hours on this and cannot find a solution other than to build the framework in Swift 5. (I worked hard to get all the async code updated and working with Swift 6! so I feel a little cheated!) What is happening? Is this a bug in Logic? Is this a bug in Swift 6 compiler/linker? I’m at the Duh! hands in the air, tearing out hair stage! ( once again!)
1
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731
Jul ’25
How to play Vorbis/OGG files with swift?
Does anyone have a working example on how to play OGG files with swift? I've been trying for over a year now. I was able to wrap the C Vorbis library in swift. I then used it to parse an OGG file successfully. Then I was required to use Obj-C&#92;&#43;+ to fill the PCM because this method seems to only be available in C&#92;&#43;+ and that part hangs my app for a good 40 seconds to several minutes depending on the audio file, it then plays for about 2 seconds and then crashes. I can't get the examples on the Vorbis site to work in objective-c and i tried every example on github I could find (most of which are for iOS - I want to play the files on mac) I also tried using Cricket Audio framework below. https://github.com/sjmerel/ck It has a swift example and it can play their proprietary soundbank format but it is also supposed to play OGG and it just doesn't do anything when trying to play OGG as you can see in the posted issue https://github.com/sjmerel/ck/issues/3 Right now I believe every player that can play OGGs on mac is written in Objective-C or C++. Anyway, any help/advice is appreciated. OGG format is very prevalent in the gaming community. I could use unity, which I believe plays oggs through the mono framework but I really really want to stay in swift.
2
0
4.6k
Jul ’25
Graceful shutdown during background audio playback.
Hello. My team and I think we have an issue where our app is asked to gracefully shutdown with a following SIGTERM. As we’ve learned, this is normally not an issue. However, it seems to also be happening while our app (an audio streamer) is actively playing in the background. From our perspective, starting playback is indicating strong user intent. We understand that there can be extreme circumstances where the background audio needs to be killed, but should it be considered part of normal operation? We hope that’s not the case. All we see in the logs is the graceful shutdown request. We can say with high certainty that it’s happening though, as we know that playback is running within 0.5 seconds of the crash, without any other tracked user interaction. Can you verify if this is intended behavior, and if there’s something we can do about it from our end. From our logs it doesn’t look to be related to either memory usage within the app, or the system as a whole. Best, John
0
1
161
Jun ’25
AVAssetResourceLoaderDelegate for radio stream
Hi everyone, I’m trying to use AVAssetResourceLoaderDelegate to handle a live radio stream (e.g. Icecast/HTTP stream). My goal is to have access to the last 30 seconds of audio data during playback, so I can analyze it for specific audio patterns in near-real-time. I’ve implemented a custom resource loader that works fine for podcasts and static files, where the file size and content length are known. However, for infinite live streams, my current implementation stops receiving new loading requests after the first one is served. As a result, the playback either stalls or fails to continue. Has anyone successfully used AVAssetResourceLoaderDelegate with a continuous radio stream? Or maybe you can suggest betterapproach for buffering and analyzing live audio? Any tips, examples, or advice would be appreciated. Thanks!
0
0
191
Jun ’25
AudioUnit may experience silent capture issues on iPadOS 18.4.1 or 18.5.
Among the millions of users of our online product, we have identified through data metrics that the silent audio data capture rate on iPadOS 18.4.1 or 18.5 has increased abnormally. However, we are unable to reproduce the issue. Has anyone encountered a similar issue? The parameters we used are as follows: AudioSession: category:AVAudioSessionCategoryPlayAndRecord mode:AVAudioSessionModeDefault option:77 preferredSampleRate:48000.000000 preferredIOBufferDuration:0.010000 AudioUnit format.mFormatID = kAudioFormatLinearPCM; format.mSampleRate = 48000.0; format.mChannelsPerFrame = 2; format.mBitsPerChannel = 16; format.mFramesPerPacket = 1; format.mBytesPerFrame = format.mChannelsPerFrame * 16 / 8; format.mBytesPerPacket = format.mBytesPerFrame * format.mFramesPerPacket; format.mFormatFlags = kAudioFormatFlagsNativeEndian | kLinearPCMFormatFlagIsPacked | kLinearPCMFormatFlagIsSignedInteger; component.componentType = kAudioUnitType_Output; component.componentSubType = kAudioUnitSubType_RemoteIO; component.componentManufacturer = kAudioUnitManufacturer_Apple; component.componentFlags = 0; component.componentFlagsMask = 0;
0
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166
Jun ’25
How to get PID from AudioObjectID on macOS pre Sonoma
3 I am working on an application to get when input audio device is being used. Basically I want to know the application using the microphone (built-in or external) This app runs on macOS. For Mac versions starting from Sonoma I can use this code: int getAudioProcessPID(AudioObjectID process) { pid_t pid; if (@available(macOS 14.0, *)) { constexpr AudioObjectPropertyAddress prop { kAudioProcessPropertyPID, kAudioObjectPropertyScopeGlobal, kAudioObjectPropertyElementMain }; UInt32 dataSize = sizeof(pid); OSStatus error = AudioObjectGetPropertyData(process, &amp;prop, 0, nullptr, &amp;dataSize, &amp;pid); if (error != noErr) { return -1; } } else { // Pre sonoma code goes here } return pid; } which works. However, kAudioProcessPropertyPID was added in macOS SDK 14.0. Does anyone know how to achieve the same functionality on previous versions?
Replies
1
Boosts
0
Views
438
Activity
Sep ’25
Potential Documentation Error in kAudioAggregateDevicePropertyTapList Sample Code
Hi, I believe I've found a potential error in the sample code on the documentation page for creating and using a process tap with an aggregate device. The issue is in the section explaining how to add a tap to the aggregate device. I have already filed a Feedback Assistant ticket on this (ID: FB17411663) but haven't heard back for months. Capturing system audio with Core Audio taps The sample code for modifying the kAudioAggregateDevicePropertyTapList incorrectly uses the tapID as the target AudioObjectID when calling AudioObjectSetPropertyData. // (Code to get the list and potentially modify listAsArray) if var listAsArray = list as? [CFString] { // ... (modification logic) ... // Set the list back on the aggregate device. <--- The comment is correct list = listAsArray as CFArray _ = withUnsafeMutablePointer(to: &list) { list in // INCORRECT: This call uses tapID as the target object. AudioObjectSetPropertyData(tapID, &propertyAddress, 0, nil, propertySize, list) } } The kAudioAggregateDevicePropertyTapList is a property that belongs to the aggregate device, not the individual tap. Therefore, to set this property, the AudioObjectSetPropertyData function must target the AudioObjectID of the aggregate device itself. Using tapID as the first argument is logically incorrect for this operation and will not update the aggregate device as intended. Furthermore, the preceding AudioObjectGetPropertyData call to fetch the list also appears to use the incorrect tapID as its target in the sample. The AudioObjectID for both getting and setting this property should be the ID of the aggregate device. _ = AudioObjectGetPropertyData(aggregateDeviceID, &propertyAddress, 0, nil, &propertySize, &list) _ = AudioObjectSetPropertyData(aggregateDeviceID, &propertyAddress, 0, nil, propertySize, newList) Thank you!
Replies
0
Boosts
0
Views
620
Activity
Sep ’25
Audio Unit v3 host v2 third party plugins
Hi, I have just implemented an Audio Unit v3 host. AgsAudioUnitPlugin *audio_unit_plugin; AVAudioUnitComponentManager *audio_unit_component_manager; NSArray<AVAudioUnitComponent *> *av_component_arr; AudioComponentDescription description; guint i, i_stop; if(!AGS_AUDIO_UNIT_MANAGER(audio_unit_manager)){ return; } audio_unit_component_manager = [AVAudioUnitComponentManager sharedAudioUnitComponentManager]; /* effects */ description = (AudioComponentDescription) {0,}; description.componentType = kAudioUnitType_Effect; av_component_arr = [audio_unit_component_manager componentsMatchingDescription:description]; i_stop = [av_component_arr count]; for(i = 0; i < i_stop; i++){ ags_audio_unit_manager_load_component(audio_unit_manager, (gpointer) av_component_arr[i]); } /* instruments */ description = (AudioComponentDescription) {0,}; description.componentType = kAudioUnitType_MusicDevice; av_component_arr = [audio_unit_component_manager componentsMatchingDescription:description]; i_stop = [av_component_arr count]; for(i = 0; i < i_stop; i++){ ags_audio_unit_manager_load_component(audio_unit_manager, (gpointer) av_component_arr[i]); } But this doesn't show me Audio Unit v2 plugins, why? regards, Joël
Replies
3
Boosts
0
Views
1.1k
Activity
Aug ’25
block microphone and speakers due to security reason
Hello, As part of developing a DLP system, the microphone and speakers should be blocked. My solution involves muting devices by changing the property kAudioDevicePropertyMute. However, this solution allows the user to unmute the device, and the app must implement a property listener to mute the device again. The problem is that muting takes some time and the device is temporarily unmuted. Admittedly, it takes less than a second, but nevertheless, it appears insecure. Is there an Apple-recommended approach to implement such blocking more securely? Maybe some solution which is based on IOKit. Thank you in advance, Pavel
Replies
2
Boosts
0
Views
548
Activity
Aug ’25
Logic Pro cannot load v3 audio unit with framework compiled with Swift 6
Sequoia 15.4.1 (24E263) XCode: 16.3 (16E140) Logic Pro: 11.2.1 I’ve been developing a complex audio unit for Mac OS that works perfectly well in its own bespoke host app and is now well into its beta testing stage. It did take some effort to get it to work well in Logic Pro however and all was fine and working well until: The AU part is an empty app extension with a framework containing its code. The framework contains Swift code for the UI and C code for the DSP parts. When the framework is compiled using the Swift 5 compiler the AU will run in Logic with no problems. (I should also mention that AU passes the most strict auval tests). But… when the framework is compiled with Swift 6 Logic Pro cannot load it. Logic displays a message saying the audio unit could not be loaded and to contact the developer. My own host app loads the AU perfectly well with the Swift 6 version, so I know there’s nothing wrong with the audio unit. I cannot find any differences in any of the built output files except, of course, the actual binary code in the framework. I’ve worked for hours on this and cannot find a solution other than to build the framework in Swift 5. (I worked hard to get all the async code updated and working with Swift 6! so I feel a little cheated!) What is happening? Is this a bug in Logic? Is this a bug in Swift 6 compiler/linker? I’m at the Duh! hands in the air, tearing out hair stage! ( once again!)
Replies
1
Boosts
0
Views
731
Activity
Jul ’25
How to play Vorbis/OGG files with swift?
Does anyone have a working example on how to play OGG files with swift? I've been trying for over a year now. I was able to wrap the C Vorbis library in swift. I then used it to parse an OGG file successfully. Then I was required to use Obj-C&#92;&#43;+ to fill the PCM because this method seems to only be available in C&#92;&#43;+ and that part hangs my app for a good 40 seconds to several minutes depending on the audio file, it then plays for about 2 seconds and then crashes. I can't get the examples on the Vorbis site to work in objective-c and i tried every example on github I could find (most of which are for iOS - I want to play the files on mac) I also tried using Cricket Audio framework below. https://github.com/sjmerel/ck It has a swift example and it can play their proprietary soundbank format but it is also supposed to play OGG and it just doesn't do anything when trying to play OGG as you can see in the posted issue https://github.com/sjmerel/ck/issues/3 Right now I believe every player that can play OGGs on mac is written in Objective-C or C++. Anyway, any help/advice is appreciated. OGG format is very prevalent in the gaming community. I could use unity, which I believe plays oggs through the mono framework but I really really want to stay in swift.
Replies
2
Boosts
0
Views
4.6k
Activity
Jul ’25
Graceful shutdown during background audio playback.
Hello. My team and I think we have an issue where our app is asked to gracefully shutdown with a following SIGTERM. As we’ve learned, this is normally not an issue. However, it seems to also be happening while our app (an audio streamer) is actively playing in the background. From our perspective, starting playback is indicating strong user intent. We understand that there can be extreme circumstances where the background audio needs to be killed, but should it be considered part of normal operation? We hope that’s not the case. All we see in the logs is the graceful shutdown request. We can say with high certainty that it’s happening though, as we know that playback is running within 0.5 seconds of the crash, without any other tracked user interaction. Can you verify if this is intended behavior, and if there’s something we can do about it from our end. From our logs it doesn’t look to be related to either memory usage within the app, or the system as a whole. Best, John
Replies
0
Boosts
1
Views
161
Activity
Jun ’25
Is there any way to disable PHASE/CoreAudio logging?
Is there a way to permanently disable PHASE SDK logging? It seems to be a lot chattier than Apple's other SDKs. While developing a RealityKit app that uses AudioPlaybackController, I must manually hide the PHASE SDK log output several times each day so I can see my app's log messages. Thank you.
Replies
0
Boosts
0
Views
449
Activity
Jun ’25
AVAssetResourceLoaderDelegate for radio stream
Hi everyone, I’m trying to use AVAssetResourceLoaderDelegate to handle a live radio stream (e.g. Icecast/HTTP stream). My goal is to have access to the last 30 seconds of audio data during playback, so I can analyze it for specific audio patterns in near-real-time. I’ve implemented a custom resource loader that works fine for podcasts and static files, where the file size and content length are known. However, for infinite live streams, my current implementation stops receiving new loading requests after the first one is served. As a result, the playback either stalls or fails to continue. Has anyone successfully used AVAssetResourceLoaderDelegate with a continuous radio stream? Or maybe you can suggest betterapproach for buffering and analyzing live audio? Any tips, examples, or advice would be appreciated. Thanks!
Replies
0
Boosts
0
Views
191
Activity
Jun ’25
AudioUnit may experience silent capture issues on iPadOS 18.4.1 or 18.5.
Among the millions of users of our online product, we have identified through data metrics that the silent audio data capture rate on iPadOS 18.4.1 or 18.5 has increased abnormally. However, we are unable to reproduce the issue. Has anyone encountered a similar issue? The parameters we used are as follows: AudioSession: category:AVAudioSessionCategoryPlayAndRecord mode:AVAudioSessionModeDefault option:77 preferredSampleRate:48000.000000 preferredIOBufferDuration:0.010000 AudioUnit format.mFormatID = kAudioFormatLinearPCM; format.mSampleRate = 48000.0; format.mChannelsPerFrame = 2; format.mBitsPerChannel = 16; format.mFramesPerPacket = 1; format.mBytesPerFrame = format.mChannelsPerFrame * 16 / 8; format.mBytesPerPacket = format.mBytesPerFrame * format.mFramesPerPacket; format.mFormatFlags = kAudioFormatFlagsNativeEndian | kLinearPCMFormatFlagIsPacked | kLinearPCMFormatFlagIsSignedInteger; component.componentType = kAudioUnitType_Output; component.componentSubType = kAudioUnitSubType_RemoteIO; component.componentManufacturer = kAudioUnitManufacturer_Apple; component.componentFlags = 0; component.componentFlagsMask = 0;
Replies
0
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0
Views
166
Activity
Jun ’25