"What this feature hopes to achieve is a clearer understanding of what challenges the iPhone audio developer faces, how to overcome them, and, in fact, what game audio on the iPhone really means. In this article, I go into the design considerations you should make, how this affects the app, what technical concerns there are, what unique iPhone issues there are to overcome, aspects of user behavior, hardware concerns and the iPhone app as a genre."

http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/62...ryone_.php

Should be titled: iOS Audio Design: What audio artists need to know

It didn't see much interesting in there for me, except that I hadn't heard about there being tools out there to create mp3's without padding, which would mean they could theoretically loop seamlessly.

Great article for those who are in the audio effects/music business and looking for info on how to author audio for the iPhone.

Some OK advice regarding mixing/frequency response but most of the technical info is either out of date or just plain wrong. Be sure to read the last couple comments regarding compressed formats. And don't bother with looping mp3 hacks - AVAudioPlayer loops AAC just fine. Gamasutra needs some peer review!

(Dec 10, 2010 04:03 PM)Frank C. Wrote:  AVAudioPlayer loops AAC just fine.

It didn't used to! I haven't personally tested in a long time, so it's good to hear that has apparently changed.

(Dec 10, 2010 04:07 PM)AnotherJake Wrote:  

(Dec 10, 2010 04:03 PM)Frank C. Wrote:  AVAudioPlayer loops AAC just fine.

It didn't used to! I haven't personally tested in a long time, so it's good to hear that has apparently changed.

Got fixed in iOS 3.something. I remember testing it at the time, and haven't noticed any problems since.

Anyone wanna write a rebuttal article?

(Dec 10, 2010 04:46 PM)SethWillits Wrote:  Anyone wanna write a rebuttal article?

Nah - I just like pointing and scolding

I noticed another problem with that article when I read it. The author suggests that audio designers shouldn't worry about the size of content for DLC as that's downloaded later. Which hints that possibly he's not actually worked on iPhone games with IAP at all because it's fairly unusual to make content for IAP a separate download as apart from being a major pain in the neck, it's also something that will hammer your server's bandwidth (instead of Apple's).
Even if you were using the download separately approach, the same factors apply. If your sound designers suddenly drops 500mb of audio on you for your IAP download, that's going to work out pretty expensive to host and will probably take quite a while for your players to download (not to mention taking up precious storage space on their iPhones).