do I need to close an audio Clip?

Question

have an application that processes real-time data and is supposed to beep when a certain event occurs. The triggering event can occur multiple times per second, and if the beep

Answer 1

yes, closing is necessary

  myClip.addLineListener(new LineListener() {
    public void update(LineEvent myLineEvent) {
      if (myLineEvent.getType() == LineEvent.Type.STOP)
        myClip.close();
    }
  });

or by

  if (!myClip.isRunning())
    myClip.close();

In my application (written before the advent of util.concurrent), this is the clip closing mechanism.

  public static final Vector vector = new Vector();
  static final int vector_size = 5;

  // typically called before calling play()
  static synchronized void consolidate() {
    while (vector_size < vector.size()) {
      Clip myClip = vector.get(0);
      if (myClip.isRunning())
        break;
      myClip.close();
      vector.remove(0);
    }
    if (vector_size * 2 < vector.size())
      System.out.println("warning: audio consolidation lagging");
  }

  public static void play(final File myFile) {
    try {
      AudioInputStream myAudioInputStream = AudioSystem.getAudioInputStream(myFile);
      final Clip myClip = AudioSystem.getClip();
      vector.add(myClip);
      myClip.open(myAudioInputStream);
      myClip.start();
    } catch (Exception myException) {
      myException.printStackTrace();
    }
  }

As one of the comments suggest, it may delay the playback of new clips, but I cannot remember as a few ms delay were not important in my application.