How do you loop a sound in flash AS3 when it ends?

Question

What AS3 code is used to loop a sound using AS3?

Answer 1

This won't give you perfect, gapless playback but it will cause the sound to loop.

var sound:Sound = new Sound();
var soundChannel:SoundChannel;

sound.addEventListener(Event.COMPLETE, onSoundLoadComplete);

sound.load("yourmp3.mp3");


// we wait until the sound finishes loading and then play it, storing the
// soundchannel so that we can hear when it "completes".
function onSoundLoadComplete(e:Event):void{
    sound.removeEventListener(Event.COMPLETE, onSoundLoadComplete);
    soundChannel = sound.play();
    soundChannel.addEventListener(Event.SOUND_COMPLETE, onSoundChannelSoundComplete);
}

//  this is called when the sound channel completes.
function onSoundChannelSoundComplete(e:Event):void{
    e.currentTarget.removeEventListener(Event.SOUND_COMPLETE, onSoundChannelSoundComplete);
    soundChannel = sound.play();
}

If you want the sound to loop many times with a flawless, gapless playback, you can call

sound.play(0, 9999); // 9999 means to loop 9999 times

But you still would need to set up a soundcomplete listener if you want infinite playback after the 9999th play. The problem with this way of doing things is if you have to pause/restart the sound. This will create a soundChannel whose duration is 9999 times longer than the actual sound file's duration, and calling play(duration) when duration is longer than the sound's length causes a horrible crash.

Answer 2

The other answers are great, however if you do not want to use code (for whatever reason), you can put the sound in a movieclip, set the sound property to "Stream", and then add as many frames as you like to the movie clip to ensure it plays fully.

This, of course, is a less preferred way, but for animators I'm sure it may be preferable in some situations (for example when synced with mouth animations that the animator wants looped).