Recyclable Sound Object in Actionscript 3?

Question

Using ONE Sound() object in Actionscript3, how can I play a one MP3 and then, when the user chooses a different one, play a second sound, using the SAME Sound() object?

EDIT: See my answer for how I did it.

Answer 1

You cannot use same Sound object to play multiple files.

Once load() is called on a Sound object, you can't later load a different sound file into that Sound object. To load a different sound file, create a new Sound object.

Answer 2

Ok, I actually did it using the following code. My bug was somewhere else in the FLA file, but this works. I made an uninitialized global variable and created the Sound() object LOCALLY inside of a function. While I'm technically using multiple sound objects, my references are all pointing to ONE object. Additionally, I can call these methods over one another for easier coding. This works for me:

    /* -------------

Sound player
functions

 ------------ */

var snd:Sound;                      //the sound object
var sndC:SoundChannel;              //the soudchannel used as "controller"
var sndT:SoundTransform;            //soundTransform used for volume 
var vol:Number = 1;                 //the volume of the song
var pan:Number = 0;                 //panning of the sound
var pos:Number = 0;                 //position of the song 
var currentSound:String;                //currently playing song?


function playSound(s:String){                                   //this function resets the sound and plays it
    stopSound(sndC);                                            //stop the sound from playing
    snd = new Sound();                                          //reset the sound
    snd.load(new URLRequest(s));                                //load the desired sound    
    sndC = new SoundChannel();                                  //(re-)apply the sound channel
    applyVolume(vol,pan,sndT,sndC);                             //apply the volume
    sndC = snd.play(pos);                                       //play it
    sndC.addEventListener(Event.SOUND_COMPLETE, startSound);    //remind it to restart playing when it's done
}                                                               //end function

function applyVolume(n:Number, p:Number, st:SoundTransform, sc:SoundChannel){   //takes an argument for the volume, pan, soundTYransform and soundChannel
    sndT = new SoundTransform(n,p);                                             //applies the soundTransfrom settings
    sndC.soundTransform = sndT;                                                 //and attaches it to the soundChannel
}                                                                               //end function

function stopSound(sndC:SoundChannel){          //this function stops a sound from playing
    if(sndC != null){                           //if the sound was used before (ie: playing)
        if(currentLabel == "video-frame"){      //if we are in the video frame
          pos = sndC.position;                  //store the position of the song to play from at a later time
        }else{                                  //otherwise
          pos = 0;                              //set the position at 0
        }                                       //end if
        sndC.stop();                            //stop it
    }                                           //end if
}                                               //end function

function startSound(snd:Sound){                 //restarts a  sound when it's playing
    if(snd != null){                            //if the sound exists   
        sndC = snd.play(pos);                   //play it
    }                                           //end if
}                                               //end function