SFBAudioEngine

SFBAudioEngine is a toolbox of powerful audio functionality for both macOS and iOS. SFBAudioEngine supports:

SFBAudioEngine is usable from both Swift and Objective-C.

Format Support

SFBAudioEngine supports most audio formats. In addition to all formats supported by Core Audio SFBAudioEngine supports:

FLAC, Ogg Opus, and MP3 are natively supported by Core Audio, however SFBAudioEngine provides its own encoders and decoders for these formats.

Quick Start

Playback

Playing an audio file is as simple as:

import SFBAudioEngine
let player = AudioPlayer()
let url = URL(fileURLWithPath: "example.flac")
try? player.play(url)

Metadata

Reading audio properties and metadata is similarly trivial:

if let audioFile = try? AudioFile(readingPropertiesAndMetadataFrom: url) {
    let sampleRate = audioFile.properties.sampleRate
    let title = audioFile.metadata.title
}

Conversion

Want to convert a WAVE file to FLAC?

let inputURL = URL(fileURLWithPath: "music.wav")
let outputURL = URL(fileURLWithPath: "music.flac")
try AudioConverter.convert(inputURL, to: outputURL)

The output file’s format is inferred from the file extension.

More complex conversions are supported including writing to Data instead of files:

let output = OutputSource.makeForData()
let encoder = try AudioEncoder(outputSource: output, encoderName: .coreAudio)
encoder.settings = [
    .coreAudioFileTypeID: kAudioFileM4AType,
    .coreAudioFormatID: kAudioFormatMPEG4AAC,
    .coreAudioAudioConverterPropertySettings: [kAudioConverterCodecQuality: kAudioConverterQuality_High]
]
try AudioConverter.convert(inputURL, using: encoder)
// Encoder output is in `output.data`

Requirements

macOS 10.15+ or iOS 14.0+

Building SFBAudioEngine

  1. git clone https://github.com/sbooth/SFBAudioEngine.git --recurse-submodules
  2. cd SFBAudioEngine
  3. make -C XCFrameworks

The project file contains targets for macOS and iOS frameworks. The frameworks are signed to run locally by default. If you are using the hardened runtime you will need to select a team for signing.

The included Makefile may also be used to create the build products:

Target make Command
macOS Framework make build/macOS.xcarchive
macOS Catalyst Framework make build/macOS-Catalyst.xcarchive
iOS Framework make build/iOS.xcarchive
iOS Simulator Framework make build/iOS-Simulator.xcarchive
XCFramework make

macOS Framework Notes

When compiling macOS targets against SFBAudioEngine it is only necessary to link and embed SFBAudioEngine.framework. macOS supports umbrella frameworks so the libraries used by SFBAudioEngine are contained within SFBAudioEngine.framework.

iOS Framework Notes

When compiling iOS targets against SFBAudioEngine it is necessary not only to link to and embed SFBAudioEngine.framework, but the XCFrameworks used by SFBAudioEngine as well since iOS does not support umbrella frameworks.

Decoding

Audio decoders in SFBAudioEngine are broadly divided into two categories, those producing PCM output and those producing DSD output. Audio decoders read data from an SFBInputSource which may refer to a file, buffer, or network source.

All audio decoders in SFBAudioEngine implement the SFBAudioDecoding protocol. PCM-producing decoders additionally implement SFBPCMDecoding while DSD decoders implement SFBDSDDecoding.

Three special decoder subclasses that wrap an underlying audio decoder instance are also provided: SFBLoopableRegionDecoder, SFBDoPDecoder, and SFBDSDPCMDecoder. For seekable inputs, SFBLoopableRegionDecoder allows arbitrary looping and repeating of a specified PCM decoder segment. SFBDoPDecoder and SFBDSDPCMDecoder wrap a DSD decoder providing DSD over PCM (DoP) and PCM output respectively.

Playback

SFBAudioPlayerNode

SFBAudioPlayerNode is a subclass of AVAudioSourceNode that provides rich playback functionality within an AVAudioEngine processing graph. SFBAudioPlayerNode supports gapless playback and comprehensive status notifications through delegate callbacks.

SFBAudioPlayer

SFBAudioPlayer wraps an AVAudioEngine processing graph driven by SFBAudioPlayerNode. SFBAudioPlayer provides complete player functionality with no required configuration but also allows customization of the underlying processing graph as well as rich status notifications through delegate callbacks.

Encoding

Audio encoders in SFBAudioEngine process input data and convert it to their output format. Audio encoders write data to an SFBOutputSource which may refer to a file, buffer, or memory source.

All audio encoders in SFBAudioEngine implement the SFBAudioEncoding protocol. PCM-consuming encoders additionally implement SFBPCMEncoding. Currently there are no encoders consuming DSD in SFBAudioEngine.

Encoders don’t support arbitrary input formats. The processing format used by an encoder is derived from a desired format combined with the encoder’s settings.

Conversion

SFBAudioConverter supports high level conversion operations. An audio converter pulls input data from a decoder, converts the data to the encoder’s processing format, and pushes the data to the encoder. At the completion of conversion metadata is written, if supported.

Properties and Metadata

Audio properties and metadata are accessed via instances of SFBAudioFile. Audio properties are read-only while metadata is writable for most formats. Audio metadata may be obtained from an instance of SFBAudioFile or instantiated directly.

Sample Audio Players

Two versions of SimplePlayer, one for macOS and one for iOS, are provided to illustrate the usage of SFBAudioEngine.

macOS

Image of an audio player window

SimplePlayer for macOS is written in Swift using AppKit and supports gapless sequential playback of items from a playlist. The essential functionality is contained in one file, PlayerWindowController.swift.

iOS

Image of audio file playback progress

SimplePlayer for iOS is written in Swift using SwiftUI and supports playback of a single item selected from a list.

License

SFBAudioEngine is released under the MIT License.

The open-source projects providing support for the various audio formats are subject to their own licenses that are compatible with the MIT license when used with SFBAudioEngine’s default build configuration. For information on the specific licenses for each project see the README in the project’s folder in XCFrameworks.

LGPL Notes

In order to maintain compatibility with the LGPL used by libsndfile, mpg123, libtta-cpp, lame, and the Musepack encoder dynamic linking is required.