Now that I've calmed down a bit after my The State of HTML5 Audio article, let's see if can actually write something productive.
Here's the deal: for a typical game you may have a sound effect that you want to play very often. In Biolab Disaster the sound of your plasma gun is such an effect. This particular sound has a length of 0.6 seconds, but you sure can mash the shoot button quicker than 1.66 times per second – so to not interrupt the plasma sound each time you press the button, but instead play a new sound we need to have multiple sound “channels”.
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When I started to work on my JavaScript Game Engine back in October 2009, the biggest problems I encountered were with the new HTML5 Audio Element. The Canvas Element already worked nicely in all browsers that supported it at the time, albeit some were a little slow.
Now, in 2011, the rendering performance for Canvas has been improved dramatically, audio however is still broken in large parts. I think it is time for a change in tone. Be warned, there's some profanity ahead because HTML5 Audio is still that fucked up.
Before we start, you may want to play a quick round of Biolab Disaster or Z-Type and have a look at a simple test case to experience the sound issues first hand.
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