How do I play a sound?

Question

How do I play sound?

Answer 1

It depends on the duration of the sound and how often it will be used. For sound effects less that 5 seconds, the System Sound methods in the AudioToolbox framework are a good choice. I'm just now trying to remember the sample project that has the best sample code for this purpose. It will be easier to just paste in my own class:
// SoundEffect.h
#import <UIKit/UIKit.h>
#import <AudioToolbox/AudioToolbox.h>
@interface SoundEffect : NSObject {
SystemSoundID ssId;
-(id)initWithFileName:(NSString*)name andExt:(NSString*)ext;
-(void)playSound;
@end
// SoundEffect.m
#import "SoundEffect.h"
@implementation SoundEffect
-(void)playSound {
AudioServicesPlaySystemSound(ssId);
-(id)initWithFileName:(NSString*)name andExt:(NSString*)ext {
if (![super init])
return nil;
// NSLog(@"initWithFileName: %@.%@", name, ext);
// Get path inside appl package
NSString *resPath = [[NSBundle mainBundle] pathForResource:name ofType:ext];
if (resPath == nil) {
NSLog(@"resPath = nil");
return nil;
// NSLog(@"resPath = %@", resPath);
NSURL *myURLRef = [NSURL fileURLWithPath:resPath isDirectory:NO];
// NSLog(@"myURLRef = %@", myURLRef);
OSStatus ossCode = AudioServicesCreateSystemSoundID ((CFURLRef)myURLRef, &ssId);
if (ossCode) {
NSLog(@"ossCode = %X", ossCode);
return nil;
return self;
-(void)dealloc {
OSStatus ossCode = AudioServicesDisposeSystemSoundID (ssId);
if (ossCode)
NSLog(@"dealloc: ssId ossCode = %X", ossCode);
[super dealloc];
@end
Both the simulator and the device will decide they don't like certain sounds. That can be confusing because it's not uncommon to be able to play a sound on the simulator that won't play on the device, and vice-versa. When that happens you'll see an error code in the console (uncomment more of the logging to see the whole story). I forgot the code for an unacceptable format, but you'll learn it soon enough. Often the solution is to just convert the file to a different format. When I was trying out the sounds that came with OS X, I found that the device didn't like any of the .caf files. It couldn't play those sounds until I opened the files in Audacity® and resaved them as a different size .caf.
Hope that helps!
- Ray