Can ActionScript Workers be used to play / generate Sounds in a separate thread?

Question

I'm very new to ActionScript Workers, but I would like to know if this is possible.

From what I have read, ActionScript Workers (ASW) are like separate threads that can do more CPU intensive calculations without interrupting the Main thread (which is executing your main SWF file).

The only example I really seen kicking around was the one illustrating animation playing at a consistent rate while an ASW took care of loading or calculating some intensive math formulas.

Is the Sound API available for ActionScriptWorkers?

Answer 1

(Reposted under my proper login)

They certainly can! Check out my recent blog post on exactly this:

http://flexmonkey.blogspot.co.uk/2012/09/multi-threaded-sound-synthesis-in-flex.html#!/2012/09/multi-threaded-sound-synthesis-in-flex.html

After a fair bit of tinkering, I actually generate a byte array in a background worker and then write the data back to the SampleDataEvent's data property in the primordial thread (i.e. the user interface).

I write the data from the worker from the previous SampleDataEvent while the worker generates the data for the next one - so FlashPlayer is actually doing three tasks simultaneously: offering a responsive UI, playing a tone and generating the next tone.

simon