Technical Q&A QA1533

How to handle kAudioUnitProperty_MaximumFramesPerSlice

Q: What is the `kAudioUnitProperty_MaximumFramesPerSlice` and how do I use it appropriately?

A: The kAudioUnitProperty_MaximumFramesPerSlice is used by Audio Units to determine what the maximum number of frames the Audio Unit will be asked to render for any given render call. If you ask an Audio Unit to render for more frames than the value specified by this property, the Audio Unit will return an error and not render any data. Therefore, you need to ensure that value specified by the kAudioUnitProperty_MaximumFramesPerSlice property is always as big as the largest number of frames you would ask to render.

Listing 1 Configuring maximum frames

// get the output device's frame count and set any Audio Units to match

UInt32 numFrames;

UInt32 dataSize = sizeof(numFrames);

AudioObjectPropertyAddress theAddress = { kAudioDevicePropertyBufferFrameSize,

                                          kAudioObjectPropertyScopeGlobal,

                                          kAudioObjectPropertyElementMaster };

result = AudioObjectGetPropertyData(myDeviceID, theAddress, 0, NULL, &dataSize, &numFrames);

if (result == noErr)

    result = AudioUnitSetProperty(myOutputAU, kAudioUnitProperty_MaximumFramesPerSlice,

        kAudioUnitScope_Global, 0, &numFrames, sizeof(numFrames));

    result = AudioUnitSetProperty(myMixerAU, kAudioUnitProperty_MaximumFramesPerSlice,

        kAudioUnitScope_Global, 0, &numFrames, sizeof(numFrames));

If you utilize any sample rate conversions in your Audio Unit chain or graph it is important to take this into account. For example, if the output sample rate of your AUConverter is 44.1kHz and the input is 22.0kHz the AUConverter will scale up its maximum frames by 2X to ensure it will be able to pull the data through correctly.

Listing 2 AUConverter scaling

// input sample rate = 22kHz

// output sample rate = 44.1kHz

UInt32 numFrames = 1500;

UInt32 dataSize = sizeof(numFrames);

AudioUnitSetProperty(myAU, kAudioUnitProperty_MaximumFramesPerSlice,

    kAudioUnitScope_Global, 0, &numFrames, sizeof(numFrames));

// the AUConverter will scale up

AudioUnitGetProperty(myAU, kAudioUnitProperty_MaximumFramesPerSlice,

    kAudioUnitScope_Global, 0, &numFrames, &dataSize);

// numFrames is now 3000

Document Revision History

Date	Notes
2015-05-28	Updated Listing 1 to use AudioObjectGetPropertyData
2012-03-06	Editorial
2007-07-16	New document that illustrates how to use the kAudioUnitProperty_MaximumFramesPerSlice property

How to handle kAudioUnitProperty_MaximumFramesPerSlice

Q: What is the kAudioUnitProperty_MaximumFramesPerSlice and how do I use it appropriately?

Document Revision History

Q: What is the `kAudioUnitProperty_MaximumFramesPerSlice` and how do I use it appropriately?