Audio Unit background conflict

Question

I have an audio analysis app using Audio Units that works perfectly when the app is run in isolation. However, if there are other audio apps running in the background AudioUnitRender returns a -50 error.

Does anyone know a way to resolve this, so that AudioUnitRender works even when other audio apps are running?

Thanks in advance.

Audio session initiation

AVAudioSession *session = [AVAudioSession sharedInstance];
[session setPreferredHardwareSampleRate:sampleRate error:&err];
[session setCategory:AVAudioSessionCategoryRecord error:&err];
[session setActive:YES error:&err];
[session setMode:setMode:AVAudioSessionModeMeasurement error:&err];
[session setDelegate:listener];
UInt32 audioRouteOverride = kAudioSessionOverrideAudioRoute_None;
AudioSessionSetProperty (kAudioSessionProperty_OverrideAudioRoute,sizeof (audioRouteOverride),&audioRouteOverride);

I/O unit description:

    OSStatus err;
AudioComponentDescription ioUnitDescription;
ioUnitDescription.componentType = kAudioUnitType_Output;
ioUnitDescription.componentSubType = kAudioUnitSubType_RemoteIO;
ioUnitDescription.componentManufacturer = kAudioUnitManufacturer_Apple;
ioUnitDescrition.componentFlags = 0;
ioUnitDescription.componentFlagsMask = 0;

// Declare and instantiate an audio processing graph
NewAUGraph(&processingGraph);

// Add an audio unit node to the graph, then instantiate the audio unit.
/* 
 An AUNode is an opaque type that represents an audio unit in the context
 of an audio processing graph. You receive a reference to the new audio unit
 instance, in the ioUnit parameter, on output of the AUGraphNodeInfo 
 function call.
 */
AUNode ioNode;
AUGraphAddNode(processingGraph, &ioUnitDescription, &ioNode);

AUGraphOpen(processingGraph); // indirectly performs audio unit instantiation

// Obtain a reference to the newly-instantiated I/O unit. Each Audio Unit
// requires its own configuration.
AUGraphNodeInfo(processingGraph, ioNode, NULL, &ioUnit);

// Initialize below.
AURenderCallbackStruct callbackStruct = {0};
UInt32 enableInput;
UInt32 enableOutput;

// Enable input and disable output.
enableInput = 1; enableOutput = 0;
callbackStruct.inputProc = RenderFFTCallback;
callbackStruct.inputProcRefCon = (__bridge void*)self;

err = AudioUnitSetProperty(ioUnit, kAudioOutputUnitProperty_EnableIO, 
                           kAudioUnitScope_Input, 
                           kInputBus, &enableInput, sizeof(enableInput));

err = AudioUnitSetProperty(ioUnit, kAudioOutputUnitProperty_EnableIO, 
                           kAudioUnitScope_Output, 
                           kOutputBus, &enableOutput, sizeof(enableOutput));

err = AudioUnitSetProperty(ioUnit, kAudioOutputUnitProperty_SetInputCallback, 
                           kAudioUnitScope_Input, 
                           kOutputBus, &callbackStruct, sizeof(callbackStruct));


// Set the stream format.
size_t bytesPerSample = [self ASBDForSoundMode];

err = AudioUnitSetProperty(ioUnit, kAudioUnitProperty_StreamFormat, 
                           kAudioUnitScope_Output, 
                           kInputBus, &streamFormat, sizeof(streamFormat));

err = AudioUnitSetProperty(ioUnit, kAudioUnitProperty_StreamFormat, 
                           kAudioUnitScope_Input, 
                           kOutputBus, &streamFormat, sizeof(streamFormat));



// Disable system buffer allocation. We'll do it ourselves.
UInt32 flag = 1;
err = AudioUnitSetProperty(ioUnit, kAudioUnitProperty_ShouldAllocateBuffer,
                           kAudioUnitScope_Output, 
                           kInputBus, &flag, sizeof(flag));}

Render callback:

RIOInterface* THIS = (__bridge_transfer RIOInterface *)inRefCon;
COMPLEX_SPLIT A = THIS->A;
void *dataBuffer = THIS->dataBuffer;
float *outputBuffer = THIS->outputBuffer;
FFTSetup fftSetup = THIS->fftSetup;
float *hammingWeights = THIS->hammingWeights;

uint32_t log2n = THIS->log2n;
uint32_t n = THIS->n;
uint32_t nOver2 = THIS->nOver2;
uint32_t stride = 1;
int bufferCapacity = THIS->bufferCapacity;
SInt16 index = THIS->index;

AudioUnit rioUnit = THIS->ioUnit;
OSStatus renderErr;
UInt32 bus1 = 1;


renderErr = AudioUnitRender(rioUnit, ioActionFlags, 
                            inTimeStamp, bus1, inNumberFrames, THIS->bufferList); 

if (renderErr < 0) {
    return renderErr;
}

Answer 1

I discovered that this issue was occurring when another AVAudioSession was active in another app, in which case the first initiated AVAudioSession's settings took priority over mine. I was trying to set the sampling frequency to 22050, but if the other audio session had it set at 44100 then it remained at 44100.

I resolved the issue by making my code 'adaptive' to other settings e.g. in respect to the buffer size, so it would still work effectively (if not optimally) with audio settings that differed from my preference.