Play Sound effect without using audio source

Unity Engine
1

Hi!

I’m kind of new to Unity, but it seems in Unity 5 it was changed to where you had to have an audiosource component to play a sound effect, at least as far as I can figure.

Is there any way to avoid this? Having to attach every sound by both a script and an audio component is going to be a gigantic pain in the ass for me.

2

You can use AudioSource.PlayClipAtPoint which is a static function that doesn’t need an AudioSource.

3

That works, but you have no control over the audio after it starts playing. You can’t stop it, change the volume, etc.

OP, no Unity 5 didn’t change this. It was always that way. You need an Audio Source component to play sound.

If you don’t want to have to do that, you can invest in a plugin that does it for you (and much much more) such as the one in my signature.

4

I created a simple solution for those who want to access a audio source playing it (like me).

Add this class:

public static class SimpleSoundPlayer
{
    private static AudioSource _source;
 
    public static AudioSource PlaySound(AudioClip sound, float volume = 1f)
    {
        if (_source == null)
        {
            _source = new GameObject("SoundPlayer").AddComponent<AudioSource>();
            _source.playOnAwake = false;
            _source.loop = false;
            UnityEngine.Object.DontDestroyOnLoad(_source.gameObject);
        }

        _source.clip = sound;
        _source.volume = volume;
        _source.Play();
        return _source;
    }
}

To use it simply do:

AudioSource targetSource = SimpleSoundPlayer.PlaySound(sound);