Swift 3 Audio class that can play a simple tone on an iOS device

ToneOutputUnit.swift

//
//  ToneOutputUnit.swift
//
//  This is a Swift 3 class (which should be instantiated as a singleton object)
//    that can play a single tone of arbitrary tone and frequency on iOS devices
//    using run-time sinewave synthesis and the Audio Unit v3 API with RemoteIO.
//
//  Created by Ronald Nicholson  [email protected]  on 2/20/2016.
//    revised 2016-Sep-08 for Swift 3
//  http://www.nicholson.com/rhn/
//  Copyright © 2016 Ronald H Nicholson, Jr. All rights reserved.
//  Distribution: BSD 2-clause license
//

import Foundation
import AudioUnit
import AVFoundation

final class ToneOutputUnit: NSObject {
    
    var auAudioUnit: AUAudioUnit! = nil     // placeholder for RemoteIO Audio Unit
    
    var avActive     = false             // AVAudioSession active flag
    var audioRunning = false             // RemoteIO Audio Unit running flag
    
    var sampleRate : Double = 44100.0    // typical audio sample rate
    
    var f0  =    880.0              // default frequency of tone:   'A' above Concert A
    var v0  =  16383.0              // default volume of tone:      half full scale
    
    var toneCount : Int32 = 0       // number of samples of tone to play.  0 for silence
    
    private var phY =     0.0       // save phase of sine wave to prevent clicking
    private var interrupted = false     // for restart from audio interruption notification
    
    func startToneForDuration(time : Double) {
        if audioRunning {                    // make sure to call enableSpeaker() first
            if toneCount == 0 {         // only play a tone if the last tone has stopped
                toneCount = Int32(round( time / sampleRate ))
            }
        }
    }
    
    func setFrequency(freq : Double) {  // audio frequencies below 500 Hz may be
        f0 = freq                       //   hard to hear from a tiny iPhone speaker.
    }
    
    func setToneVolume(vol : Double) {  // 0.0 to 1.0
        v0 = vol * 32766.0
    }
    
    func setToneTime(t : Double) {
        toneCount = Int32(t * sampleRate);
    }
    
    func enableSpeaker() {
        
        if audioRunning { return }           // return if RemoteIO is already running
        
        if (avActive == false) {
            
            do {        // set and activate Audio Session
                
                let audioSession = AVAudioSession.sharedInstance()
                
                try audioSession.setCategory(AVAudioSessionCategorySoloAmbient)
                
                var preferredIOBufferDuration = 4.0 * 0.0058      // 5.8 milliseconds = 256 samples
                let hwSRate = audioSession.sampleRate           // get native hardware rate
                if hwSRate == 48000.0 { sampleRate = 48000.0 }  // set session to hardware rate
                if hwSRate == 48000.0 { preferredIOBufferDuration = 4.0 * 0.0053 }
                let desiredSampleRate = sampleRate
                try audioSession.setPreferredSampleRate(desiredSampleRate)
                try audioSession.setPreferredIOBufferDuration(preferredIOBufferDuration)
                
                NotificationCenter.default.addObserver(
                    forName: NSNotification.Name.AVAudioSessionInterruption,
                    object: nil,
                    queue: nil,
                    using: myAudioSessionInterruptionHandler )
                
                try audioSession.setActive(true)
                avActive = true
            } catch /* let error as NSError */ {
                // handle error (audio system broken?)
            }
        }
        
        
        do {        // not running, so start hardware
            
            let audioComponentDescription = AudioComponentDescription(
                componentType: kAudioUnitType_Output,
                componentSubType: kAudioUnitSubType_RemoteIO,
                componentManufacturer: kAudioUnitManufacturer_Apple,
                componentFlags: 0,
                componentFlagsMask: 0 )
            
            if (auAudioUnit == nil) {
                
                try auAudioUnit = AUAudioUnit(componentDescription: audioComponentDescription)
                
                let bus0 = auAudioUnit.inputBusses[0]
                
                let audioFormat = AVAudioFormat(
                    commonFormat: AVAudioCommonFormat.pcmFormatInt16,   // short int samples
                    sampleRate: Double(sampleRate),
                    channels:AVAudioChannelCount(2),
                    interleaved: true )                                 // interleaved stereo
                
                try bus0.setFormat(audioFormat)  //      for speaker bus
                
                auAudioUnit.outputProvider = { (	//  AURenderPullInputBlock?
                    actionFlags,
                    timestamp,
                    frameCount,
                    inputBusNumber,
                    inputDataList ) -> AUAudioUnitStatus in
                    
                    self.fillSpeakerBuffer(inputDataList: inputDataList, frameCount: frameCount)
                    return(0)
                }
            }
            
            auAudioUnit.isOutputEnabled = true
            toneCount   =   0
            
            try auAudioUnit.allocateRenderResources()  //  v2 AudioUnitInitialize()
            try auAudioUnit.startHardware()            //  v2 AudioOutputUnitStart()
            audioRunning = true
            
        } catch /* let error as NSError */ {
            // handleError(error, functionName: "AUAudioUnit failed")
            // or assert(false)
        }
    }
    
    // helper functions
    
    private func fillSpeakerBuffer(     // process RemoteIO Buffer for output
        inputDataList : UnsafeMutablePointer<AudioBufferList>,
        frameCount : UInt32 )
    {
        let inputDataPtr = UnsafeMutableAudioBufferListPointer(inputDataList)
        let nBuffers = inputDataPtr.count
        if (nBuffers > 0) {
            
            let mBuffers : AudioBuffer = inputDataPtr[0]
            let count = Int(frameCount)
            
            // Speaker Output == play tone at frequency f0
            if (   self.v0 > 0)
                && (self.toneCount > 0 )
            {
                // audioStalled = false
                
                var v  = self.v0 ; if v > 32767 { v = 32767 }
                let sz = Int(mBuffers.mDataByteSize)
                
                var a  = self.phY        // capture from object for use inside block
                let d  = 2.0 * M_PI * self.f0 / self.sampleRate     // phase delta
                
                let bufferPointer = UnsafeMutableRawPointer(mBuffers.mData)
                if var bptr = bufferPointer {
                    for i in 0..<(count) {
                        let u  = sin(a)             // create a sinewave
                        a += d ; if (a > 2.0 * M_PI) { a -= 2.0 * M_PI }
                        let x = Int16(v * u + 0.5)      // scale & round
                        
                        if (i < (sz / 2)) {
                            bptr.assumingMemoryBound(to: Int16.self).pointee = x
                            bptr += 2   // increment by 2 bytes for next Int16 item
                            bptr.assumingMemoryBound(to: Int16.self).pointee = x
                            bptr += 2   // stereo, so fill both Left & Right channels
                        }
                    }
                }
                
                self.phY        =   a                   // save sinewave phase
                self.toneCount  -=  Int32(frameCount)   // decrement time remaining
            } else {
                // audioStalled = true
                memset(mBuffers.mData, 0, Int(mBuffers.mDataByteSize))  // silence
            }
        }
    }
    
    func stop() {
        if (audioRunning) {
            auAudioUnit.stopHardware()
            audioRunning = false
        }
        if (avActive) {
            let audioSession = AVAudioSession.sharedInstance()
            do {
                // try audioSession.setActive(false)
            } catch {
            }
            // avActive = false
        }
    }
    
    private func myAudioSessionInterruptionHandler( notification: Notification ) -> Void {
        let interuptionDict = notification.userInfo
        if let interuptionType = interuptionDict?[AVAudioSessionInterruptionTypeKey] {
            let interuptionVal = AVAudioSessionInterruptionType(
                rawValue: (interuptionType as AnyObject).uintValue )
            if (interuptionVal == AVAudioSessionInterruptionType.began) {
                if (audioRunning) {
                    auAudioUnit.stopHardware()
                    audioRunning = false
                    interrupted = true
                }
            }
        }
    }
}

//  end of the ToneOutputUnit class

Pay attention on "audioStalled"; this variable is not declared and then there is a compilation error.

I've set the frequency to 1000 and the volume to 1, but there is no sound playing. Am I doing something wrong? The ToneOutputUnit instance is class level so it does not get deallocated, and I am calling startToneForDuration(10)

How do i use it? i mean how can i provide input data in byte to AudioUnit ?? is it possible with avobe mentioned code??

I've found that:

toneOutputUnit.enableSpeaker()
toneOutputUnit.setToneTime(t: 10)

played the standard tone for 10 seconds. Calling

toneOutputUnit.startToneForDuration(time: 10)

does not.

Thanks for the demo :)

I found that tone is not played for first time, it is played second time.

Hello Ronald Nicolson.
I have used this tone generator code and its working fine. One more thing I want to know that can we use this code to differentiate the different frequencies for left and right headphones. My concern to create binaural beat with this code like this:
left freq. 120 hz and right 125 hz then output is 5 hz for listener.

I am trying to use this under Swift 5.0, and I hear nothing... did have to make a few syntax changes and comment out the callback that it couldn't find... but I cannot get it to work... on an iPhone 13 or an iPhone 15 Simulator; do get this error message, which looks ominous to me...

IPCAUClient.cpp:139 IPCAUClient: can't connect to server (18'446'744'073'709'484'868)

Similar here, error message is:
AddInstanceForFactory: No factory registered for id <CFUUID 0x....> F8...-...-...