Playing sounds in C# WinPhone 8.1 App - Sometimes causes exception

Question

I've been writing a little App that simulates a drumkit on a WinPhone 8.1 using C#. The App runs but frequently when triggering a sound it causes an exception: "An exception of type 'System.Exception' occurred in KiDrums.exe but was not handled in user code

Additional information: Catastrophic failure (Exception from HRESULT: 0x8000FFFF (E_UNEXPECTED))"

I believe it is caused if I try to trigger a sound either when that same sound or another is still playing. It's hard to tell as I've not been able to determine a pattern. Bellow is some of the code I've used. I have a background image over which several elipses trigger sounds when touched.

XAML:

<Grid>
    <Image x:Name="KiDrums" HorizontalAlignment="Left" Height="620" Margin="10,10,-2,0" VerticalAlignment="Top" Width="392" Source="Assets/KiDrums.jpg" IsDoubleTapEnabled="False" ScrollViewer.VerticalScrollBarVisibility="Disabled" IsHitTestVisible="False" IsTapEnabled="False" ManipulationMode="None"/>
    <Ellipse x:Name="RedDrum" Fill="#FFF4F4F5" HorizontalAlignment="Left" Height="196" Margin="142,10,0,0" Stroke="Black" VerticalAlignment="Top" Width="248" Opacity="0" Tapped="RedDrum_Tapped" Holding="RedDrum_Holding" DoubleTapped="RedDrum_DoubleTapped"/>
    <MediaElement x:Name="Snare" Source="Assets/Snare.wav" AutoPlay="False" Visibility="Collapsed"/>
    <MediaElement x:Name="SnareRollLong" Source="Assets/SnareRollLong.wav" AutoPlay="False" Visibility="Collapsed"/>
    <MediaElement x:Name="SnareXtraRoll" Source="Assets/SnareXtraRoll.wav" AutoPlay="False" Visibility="Collapsed"/>

CS:

 private void RedDrum_Tapped(object sender, TappedRoutedEventArgs e)
    {
        // Single Snare Hit : Snare.wav
        Snare.Play();
    }

    private void RedDrum_DoubleTapped(object sender, DoubleTappedRoutedEventArgs e)
    {
        // Snare Roll : SnareRollLong.wav
        SnareRollLong.Play();
    }

    private void RedDrum_Holding(object sender, HoldingRoutedEventArgs e)
    {
        // Snare Extra Long Roll : SnareXtraRoll.wav
        SnareXtraRoll.Play();
    }

Does anyone know if I should use any extra code to ensure that it plays smoothly? Am I right in assuming that the problem lies in the playing of sounds? Thanks for any helpyou may provide.

Answer 1

If you want to play just an "effect" then you should use XNA Framework SoundEffect class and call Play() method to just play or you can create a SoundEffectInstance to stop and pause it. Like this:

public class SoundEffectHelper : IDisposable
{
    public TimeSpan Duration { get; private set; }
    private SoundEffectInstance soundEffect;

    public SoundEffectHelper(string path)
    {
        using (Stream stream = TitleContainer.OpenStream(path))
        {
            SoundEffect effect = SoundEffect.FromStream(stream);
            this.Duration = effect.Duration;
            this.soundEffect = effect.CreateInstance();
            FrameworkDispatcher.Update();
        }
    }

        public void Play()
    {
        this.soundEffect.Play();
    }

    public void Stop()
    {
        this.soundEffect.Stop(true);
    }

    public void Pause()
    {
        this.soundEffect.Pause();
    }

    public void Resume()
    {
        this.soundEffect.Resume();
    }

    public void Dispose()
    {
        this.soundEffect.Dispose();
    }
}