You'll likely prefer to use the SoundPool class. It reduces latency when it's time to play the sound, and offers other niceties like being able to prioritise sounds when there are too many to play at once.
From the docs:
A SoundPool is a collection of samples that can be loaded into memory from a resource inside the APK or from a file in the file system. The SoundPool library uses the MediaPlayer service to decode the audio into a raw 16-bit PCM mono or stereo stream. This allows applications to ship with compressed streams without having to suffer the CPU load and latency of decompressing during playback.
For example:
/**
* How many sounds can be played at once.
*/
private static final int MAX_SOUND_POOL_STREAMS = 4;
/**
* Modify this as part of your own priority scheme. Higher numbers mean higher
* priority. If you don't care, it's okay to use the same priority for every
* sound.
*/
private static final int NORMAL_PRIORITY = 10;
private int mySoundId;
@Override
public void setupContent() {
this.soundPool = new SoundPool(MAX_SOUND_POOL_STREAMS,
AudioManager.STREAM_MUSIC, 100);
this.mySoundId = this.soundPool.load(this.getApplicationContext(),
R.raw.mySound, 1);
}
@Override
private void playMySound() {
this.soundPool.play(this.mySoundId, 1, 1, NORMAL_PRIORITY, 0, 1);
}