Best way to handle audio?

[Outcast]

Maybe a strange question, but I can't make up my mind about the best way to handle the audio in an application in MMF for best flexibility and speed. Its mainly the volume I want to adjust in a good way. The different methods I know is to just adjust the audio volume for a SFX och music clip in a music program and then import (very unflexible). Or to set the samples volume after every time I use it (this one is nice, but it makes to many uncessesary events?). Lastly I have tried to use different channels, but I sometime get into problems with keeping order on what channels I have used so that I dont use the same one for two sounds playing at once (resulting in one of them not playing).

What are the best way to handle sound and volume in your opinion? It would be nice if it was possible to set the volume for a soundfile in the beginning of an application and then have it that way until you want to change it (if you want to change it).

I have noticed that sounds often change their volume after being imported into MMF, and different runtimes play samples in different volumes sometimes, so thats why I need to be able to adjust the volume of sounds in a flexible way.

[KLiK-iT]

IMO, using channels is the best method. Just keep a log book or text document of what sounds are for what channels so there is no confusion. In most of my games I bring all my sounds (that I'm using in the game) into Audacity found here: http://audacity.sourceforge.net/ I adjust all the SFX and music in this program so they don't need to be controlled in MMF with setting volumes and pans. Less events to deal with. If you find a sound that is to low or high in volume, you can always go back and adjust it in Audacity. You can also add effects to the sounds too, like delay, reverb, compression to smooth things out and so on. I always save them as ogg. I just like using that type file. Small enough and they sound good. I also save my game/games into it's own folder with all the sounds and music I've tweaked just in case I ever need to go back to them, I can. Hope this help and I'm sure others will chime in.