Learning Core Audio: A Hands-On Guide to Audio Programming for Mac and iOS 1st Edition

This is long overdue as i got this book at the end of 2012. I read and worked through each example codeset once with both fascination and struggle. The struggle was a mix of both, what the authors', Chris Adamson and Kevin Avila, pointed out early in the read, that being this stuff, Core Audio, is not easy, and with programming I'm self-taught which has both blessings and curses in learning behaviors.The book is written with reality 'how-to' and art, and I would add a sense of humor which keeps it from being a dry interpretation of Apple engineering. Though the latter is brilliant Apple's documentation is dense and cumbersome which in 'Learning Core Audio...' authors' Adamson and Avila took that brilliance and laid it out in somewhat baby steps and breadcrumbs which make the subject accessible and practical.As pointed out early on, 'Learning Core...' is not a beginning programming book but an advanced topic that assumes both exposure with the C language, Mac OS, Xcode and Objective C. This said it had been several years since I had thought in the C language or any language for that matter till I began the journey with Objective C about two years ago. What I found however was that as I worked through the example code which I would say don't just download it, physically type it in and absorb it. After you see what the codeset will do manipulate it and see what else it will do. This approach has pushed me and given renewed programming confidence and I personally thank this book for doing that.I will add to that, in my case some of the chapters and projects took me multiple reads to 'get it' partly as it's how I learn. In fact I'm still revisiting a great deal of the book for clarity and referral as I work through my own ideas and projects.The only criticism I would make on this excellent work and this was through my experience which may have been my setup and version of Xcode as initially i was using 4.2 on Snow Leopard. I found on a few projects to get them to work I had to include framworks not mentioned in the example code. This may have been my oversight or misinterpretation but there were a couple of projects which appeared to only need the AudioToolbox framework and I found through trial error that I had to add ApplicationServices a time or two. I will say prior to this book all of my work with Objective C and iOS had been coding for graphical apps. The majority of projects in this book make command line Terminal or Xcode Console executables and not iOS apps. This said, the plus in that is you will learn to code for the OS X operating system as well as being able to move the code with some modifications in to the iOS world.Bottomline Chris and Kevin's 'Learning Core Core Audio...' is excellent, inspiring and confidence building for those interested in delving in to this 'black box' of chip and voodoo mystery.

PROS:- Many code examples and discussions about all (or at least most) elements of the iOS Core Audio Framework.- Topics are easy to find throughout the book.- One of the very few books that teaches how to use Core Audio, which is difficult to learn especially when starting out with Objective-C.CONS (Sort of):- This is a book for advanced programmers. You need to know how to program in Objective-C before going through this book or you'll have a tough time. (But this book never claimed to teach Objective-C. It is for Core Audio only.)

iOS and OS X audio are done differently and the bulk of the examples work on OS X only. HAL methods (the methods with "Hardware" in their names) have been deprecated. I learned a lot from this book. Note to Chris Adamson, time for a new updated edition - this could be the definitive text.

I've been working with AudioQueue microphone input (IOS) for over a year, but found myself avoiding anything deeper (properties, listener callback notifications, metering, audio units, ...). After running through this tutorial, I now understand what is going on under the hood, and have moved down into working directly with audio units.For me the most useful tips were:1) Simple CheckError() logic to decrypt the 4 character mode and error code constants used throughout.2) Clear explanation of file formats, audio formats, converters, and native PCM representations on IOS and OSX.3) Pointers for where to find CoreAudio documentation (much of it can be found only in header file comments)4) Clear pattern for required lifecycle sequence of constructing an audio units graph of nodes, which must be defined before open, opened before starting to set properties, and properties setup before initialize.5) Reusable patterns for the sometimes awkward pointer arithmetic required to assemble AudioBufferLists on the fly.6) Unkinking the awkward syntax of Output units, which are used for both hardware output and hardware input. Both the outbound bus #0 and inbound bus #1 have input and output scopes, which relate to where the unit fits into the graph. Clear description of threading, buffering, and clocking issues which must be handled in OSX context which may include multiple external audio accessories from different vendors, with different clocking and timing. After completing this tutorial I now "get it".7) Clear description of the differences between OSX and IOS implementations.8) The quick intro to OpenAL and Midi were interesting, and enough for me to understand how these work, though they aren't part of what I do.Overall this book was a great help to me. I highly recommend it to anyone already experienced with OSX or IOS development, but wanting to dig deeper into audio. Not much audio background is required (the first chapters cover the basics), though you will need to be comfortable with working almost entirely in C with nary an NS* in sight. Even the file I/O operations use CoreFoundation (not Foundation) methods. If you are looking for a higher level interface, you may want to explore the AVFoundation or MediaPLayer frameworks, which are nicely documented in Xcode docs, but are not covered by this lower level tutorial.

An update to include subjects like gain microphone permissions would be helpful.

Wer Infos über das CoreMIDI-Framework von Apple sucht, der findet nicht viel dazu. Dieses Buch führt auf einem Abschnitt von etwa 20 Seiten anhand von Beispiel-Apps in das CoreMIDI-Framework ein. Sehr hilfreich, wenn auch 13 Jahre alt und für Objective-C und nicht für Swift geschrieben. Ich empfehle es gerne.

Il libro è ottimo, da molte informazioni ed è chiaro. Inoltre non è solo un testo tecnico. Gli esempi e le osservazioni dell'autore ogni tanto sorprendono per la loro acutezza.

After long years of battle with scarcely documented APIs, this book finally sheds light on the gems that for so many years lay hidden in the darkness. A very structural approach, a concise theoretical dissertation, an engaging guide for the audio programmer. I find the book remarkably well paced for both the beginner and the aspiring apprentice. What used to be a dark art this book finally reveals to be white magic! Need I say a must read for anyone into programming with CoreAudio?

Very good book to learn Core Audio

Ich habe mir dieses Buch gekauft um einigermaßen heil über die Klippen der Core Audio - Programmierung zu kommen und es hat seinen Zweck voll erfüllt. Mithilfe des Buches konnte ich meine kleine Metronom-App auf Core Audio Services umstellen. Nur mit der Apple Dokumentation wäre das um Größenordnungen schwieriger gewesen.Sehr gut geschrieben ist es auch, alleine das Vorwort wäre den Preis schon fast wert.