Question

I have a soundboard
it’s just a screen with about 8 buttons.
each individual button will have its own sound which will be played upon button press
There are a couple of ways I could play the sound, such as using SystemSound or AVAudioPlayer
system sound so far seems have the quickest response times, avaudioplayer is quite slow, it cant keep up if the user taps on the buttons really fast, I created an audio player for each sound which was quite messy.
this is how I’m playing the sounds at the moment
the .h file

@interface MainScreenViewController : UIViewController <AVAudioPlayerDelegate, UITabBarControllerDelegate> {
 AVAudioPlayer *player;
 CFURLRef  keNURL;
 SystemSoundID    keNObject;
 //KE LOUD
 CFURLRef  keLURL;
 SystemSoundID    keLObject;
 //GE NORMAL
 CFURLRef  geNURL;
 SystemSoundID    geNObject;
 //GE LOUD
 CFURLRef  geLURL;
 SystemSoundID    geLObject;
 //NA NORMAL
 CFURLRef  naNURL;
 SystemSoundID    naNObject;
 //NA LOUD
 CFURLRef  naLURL;
 SystemSoundID    naLObject;
 //RA
 CFURLRef  raURL;
 SystemSoundID    raObject;
 //DAGGA CLICK
 CFURLRef  daCURL;
 SystemSoundID    daCObject;
 //TILLI CLICK
 CFURLRef  tiCURL;
 SystemSoundID    tiCObject;
}
@property (nonatomic, retain) AVAudioPlayer *player;
@property (readwrite)    CFURLRef        keNURL;
@property (readonly)    SystemSoundID    keNObject;
@property (readwrite)    CFURLRef        keLURL;
@property (readonly)    SystemSoundID    keLObject;
@property (readwrite)    CFURLRef        geNURL;
@property (readonly)    SystemSoundID    geNObject;
@property (readwrite)    CFURLRef        geLURL;
@property (readonly)    SystemSoundID    geLObject;
@property (readwrite)    CFURLRef        naNURL;
@property (readonly)    SystemSoundID    naNObject;
@property (readwrite)    CFURLRef        naLURL;
@property (readonly)    SystemSoundID    naLObject;
@property (readwrite)    CFURLRef        raURL;
@property (readonly)    SystemSoundID    raObject;
@property (readwrite)    CFURLRef        daCURL;
@property (readonly)    SystemSoundID    daCObject;
@property (readwrite)    CFURLRef        tiCURL;
@property (readonly)    SystemSoundID    tiCObject;
}

then the actions that play the individual sounds

then the .m file, after importing the .h file and the right frame works and synthesizing all the variables, write the code for the action
and this is what’s in the individual actions.

-(IBAction)geSound{
 AudioServicesPlaySystemSound (self.geNObject);
}

I just wanted to know if systemsound is the way forward for me to create a soundboard.
thanks especially when the user will tap on the board really fast alternating between beats.
.
if not what is the best way to play the sound which responds really well?

Answer 1

22/03/2014 – Update: Got rid of my overly excited post (which was written a long time ago) and updated to portray a more appropriate answer.

I had to achieve fine control over audio so opted to use OpenAL.
WOW is one way to sum it up. As soon as I took it upon myself to use OpenAL which required a bit of extra leg work, getting all the required methods implemented and setting everything up; I found myself with practically no noticeable latency at all. I was absolutely pleased with the excellent results.

I was able to achieve both fine control and no latency at all. I remember jumping in joy at the time when I had it working.

Here are the resources I used that helped ease the endeavor of implementing OpenAL for the first time:

1. OpenAL on the iPhone
2. It was because of this link this video tutorial that I was able to create an excellent sound manager singleton. This allowed me to play all the sounds that I needed from any class that I wanted with little sound management, the singleton took care of everything for me.

I humbly suggest everyone to use OpenAL if you require fine control over your audio, and more importantly if you require a low-latency on-demand audio, specially for games when you need to make sure sound is played there and then when you require and expect it to, an audio based application for example.