• Open Menu Close Menu
  • Apple
  • Shopping Bag
  • Apple
  • Mac
  • iPad
  • iPhone
  • Watch
  • TV
  • Music
  • Support
  • Search apple.com
  • Shopping Bag

Lists

Open Menu Close Menu
  • Terms and Conditions
  • Lists hosted on this site
  • Email the Postmaster
  • Tips for posting to public mailing lists
Re: FLLR (compression ?) in AIFF file
[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]

Re: FLLR (compression ?) in AIFF file


  • Subject: Re: FLLR (compression ?) in AIFF file
  • From: William Stewart <email@hidden>
  • Date: Wed, 13 Aug 2008 15:38:03 -0700


On Aug 13, 2008, at 12:53 PM, Stephan M. Bernsee wrote:


Hey Bill,

are you saying I don't know how to code up an AIFF file parser? I already did this at a time where the only sound file format my Mac would recognize was some strange thing called a "System 7 sound" ... :-)


Alright then, since you brought it up: as you know, ExtAudioFile doesn't exist on certain handheld Apple platforms (let alone platforms other than Apple!), and quite frankly, (Ext)AudioFile can be a pain in the butt to use (*especially* ExtAudioFile due to its lack of multithreading support). I'm pretty sure I'm not the only here one who had suffered a headache from using it one time or another...

That is a separate issue. Lets compare apples with apples:

(1) ExtAudioFile is built on top of 2 API sets:
	AudioConverter
	AudioFile

By doing this you are able to specify a convenient format for you to deal with the file in, and have the audio converter convert formats from the file format to your client format. I think you totally underestimate the complexities of dealing with frame accurate reading from files with compressed formats such as ALAC or AAC (to take one example). You could not use your AIFF parsing code to do this kind of operation.

Because there is a potentially complex operation going on between the file system and the client code, you really can't do this well though multi-threaded access using a single object. If you want to read the file from different threads then you can simply create one ExtAudioFile object per thread.

But we are still comparing apples to oranges

(2) Audio File API is much closer to the parser you would write - in fact it does exactly what you describe your parser doing - fopen, fread, etc... It does NO translation of data between what is in the file and what you read.

It provides two read calls:
ReadPackets
- this asks the audio file object to do some parsing of the data for you and to at least return the data in a packetised format - which is most convenient for dealing with the rest of the CA API set


ReadBytes
	- just reads the audio bytes - its essentially a call through to fread

All of the state for reading a file is passed to these calls, so AudioFile can be used with impunity from multiple threads.



Take a look at the miniAIFF API ( http://stephan.bernsee.com/MiniAiff.h ) which essentially uses the fopen/fwrite/fread syntax - you can't make this any easier, especially when thinking about cross platform compatibility (which is what this was designed for in 2003).

I am using ExtAudioFile for all audio I/O in our commercial products, but for demoing new technology where all you need is a quick and easy (ie. readable to people who don't know what an ABL or ASBD is) and cross-platform way to access sound without cluttering the code I usually prefer miniAIFF.

Sure - I am glad that you have found our code useful. I would rather understand on this list why somebody can't use our code than have people promoting alternatives just because someone posts a vague comment about not being able to understand our API. I don't see that it is helping us to support developers using CA APIs to have this list used to encourage people to just "give up" and go use some other code. If you want to promote your own products, please do so on your own forums.


Bill




Best wishes,
Stephan





On 13.08.2008, at 21:17, William Stewart wrote:

I've no idea why you guys are doing this when AudioFile already exists and does exactly this. The API is pretty straight forward and we'll be happy to answer questions about its use. Its difficult to know how to respond to a "I don't get this" complaint, which is why you've not seen any responses from us previously.

We've seen in general more problems with these minimal file parsers making all kinds of incorrect assumptions about the file layout, and consequently many bad files as a result.

Bill

On Aug 13, 2008, at 11:24 AM, Stephan M. Bernsee wrote:


Hi François,

I am in the process of updating the miniAIFF lib and releasing its source code on www.dspdimension.com. Email me off the list if you want a preliminary copy that compiles on the iPhone.

Best wishes
Stephan


2008/8/7 Francois Baronnet <email@hidden>:
>>
>
> I think that the libMiniAiff.a cannot be linked from a iPhone project.
> I've added it to my xCode project and when I compile:
>
> "_mAiffReadData", referenced from:
> -[SoundAnalyser readFile:] in SoundAnalyser.o
> ld: symbol(s) not found
> collect2: ld returned 1 exit status
>
> The message is not very explicit I think...
>
> This lib has been build in 2005.
>
>
> --
> François Baronnet
>



_______________________________________________ Do not post admin requests to the list. They will be ignored. Coreaudio-api mailing list (email@hidden) Help/Unsubscribe/Update your Subscription: This email sent to email@hidden

_______________________________________________ Do not post admin requests to the list. They will be ignored. Coreaudio-api mailing list (email@hidden) Help/Unsubscribe/Update your Subscription: This email sent to email@hidden

_______________________________________________ Do not post admin requests to the list. They will be ignored. Coreaudio-api mailing list (email@hidden) Help/Unsubscribe/Update your Subscription: This email sent to email@hidden
  • Follow-Ups:
    • Re: FLLR (compression ?) in AIFF file
      • From: "Stephan M. Bernsee" <email@hidden>
References: 
 >Re: FLLR (compression ?) in AIFF file (From: "Stephan M. Bernsee" <email@hidden>)
 >Re: FLLR (compression ?) in AIFF file (From: William Stewart <email@hidden>)
 >Re: FLLR (compression ?) in AIFF file (From: "Stephan M. Bernsee" <email@hidden>)

  • Prev by Date: Re: FLLR (compression ?) in AIFF file
  • Next by Date: Re: FLLR (compression ?) in AIFF file
  • Previous by thread: Re: FLLR (compression ?) in AIFF file
  • Next by thread: Re: FLLR (compression ?) in AIFF file
  • Index(es):
    • Date
    • Thread