Question

I am creating an application that will have multiple images on the screen, these images will be buttons and when tapped will play a short sound. I researched this and could only find the current method I am using to play sounds, which does not seem responsive at all. I want that the sound plays quickly and is responsive to many rapid taps. I was unsure if this was even possible in Android.

The code I am using to play my sound is this:

    Button sound1;
MediaPlayer  firstSound;

@Override
public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
    super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
    setContentView(R.layout.main);
    firstSound = MediaPlayer.create(SoundActivity.this, R.raw.click);


    sound1 = (Button) findViewById(R.id.Sound1);


    beaver.setOnClickListener(new View.OnClickListener() {

        public void onClick(View v) {

            firstSound.start();

            }

    });



    }

My lag issue could also be perhaps down to the way I am using the media player object? I do feel that this should be smoother on my phone, any suggestions on how to play sounds in Android is appreciated.

Thanks.

Since discovering Sound Pool, I have edited my code to use this and it works perfectly, the new code looks like this:

SoundPool soundPool;
HashMap<Integer, Integer> soundPoolMap;
int soundID = 1;


Button sound1;
@Override
public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
    super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
    setContentView(R.layout.main);


    soundPool = new SoundPool(4, AudioManager.STREAM_MUSIC, 100);
    soundPoolMap = new HashMap<Integer, Integer>();
    soundPoolMap.put(soundID, soundPool.load(this, R.raw.click, 1));

    sound1 = (Button) findViewById(R.id.bBeaver);


    sound1.setOnClickListener(new View.OnClickListener() {

                public void onClick(View v) {

                    AudioManager audioManager = (AudioManager)getSystemService(Context.AUDIO_SERVICE);
              float curVolume = audioManager.getStreamVolume(AudioManager.STREAM_MUSIC);
              float maxVolume = audioManager.getStreamMaxVolume(AudioManager.STREAM_MUSIC);
              float leftVolume = curVolume/maxVolume;
              float rightVolume = curVolume/maxVolume;
              int priority = 1;
              int no_loop = 0;
              float normal_playback_rate = 1f;
              soundPool.play(soundID, leftVolume, rightVolume, priority, no_loop, normal_playback_rate);

            }

    });


    }

Thanks

Answer 1

You can use SoundPool. It fits what you want to do perfectly.

You’ll just need a way to store the sound effect IDs corresponding to each image (or button).

Perhaps extend Button to store associated sound effect ID. And use a common SoundPool to play the sound effect associated to the id when the button is touched.

You can read more about SoundPool here.