Audio

Software Mansion's production audio patterns for React Native using react-native-audio-api.

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Critical Rules

• Single AudioContext: Create one AudioContext instance per app. Multiple instances lead to conflicting states (one running, another suspended). Encapsulate it in a singleton class.
• Single AudioRecorder: Create one AudioRecorder instance and reuse it. Switching between recorder instances has noticeable impact on performance, memory, and battery.
• Suspend when idle: A running AudioContext plays silence even with no source nodes connected, draining battery. On iOS, it also prevents the lock screen from showing a paused state. Use suspend() when audio is temporarily not needed, close() when done permanently.
• AudioBufferSourceNode is single-use: An AudioBufferSourceNode can be started only once. To replay the same sound, create a new node. Nodes are inexpensive to create; reuse the AudioBuffer.
• Use AudioParam scheduling for smooth changes: Direct, immediate changes to gain, frequency, or other params cause audible clicks. Use linearRampToValueAtTime, exponentialRampToValueAtTime, or setTargetAtTime for smooth transitions.
• Mutate typed arrays in place for visualizations: When passing audio data to Reanimated shared values, use .modify() to mutate the existing Float32Array rather than allocating a new one each frame. Allocating at 60fps+ causes GC jank.

References