I have a problem with actionscript 3, especially when using the embed tag. I have this code:
[Embed(source = \"sound.mp3\")]
private static var soundClip
I don't think you can load the MP3 just like that, you need to put it into a SWF first, then load the SWF, then instance the sound. Look here and here.
your audio might have trouble being transcoded due to its sampling rate. a good standard is 44100Hz, but I've had 11025Hz work perfectly fine as well. you can easily change the sampling rate in seconds on nearly any audio file through Audacity, which is free and fairly powerful, but hardly intuitive.
The Embed process implies a transcodification (made by the compiler), if the sound doesn't fit into the supported Flash Player Sound format you can get unexpected results, like shrunk length. Check that the sounds you embed is at 44100 Hz Stereo, that is the supported sampling rate that won't cause any issues.
Cheers!