# How do I prevent an FMOD::Sound to be reused/virtualized?

**URL:** <https://qa.fmod.com/t/how-do-i-prevent-an-fmod-sound-to-be-reused-virtualized/22864>\
**Category:** FMOD Engine\
**Tags:** cpp\
**Created:** [April 30, 2025, 11:00am UTC](https://qa.fmod.com/t/how-do-i-prevent-an-fmod-sound-to-be-reused-virtualized/22864 "2025-04-30T11:00:54Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![CreativePS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c89c15/32.png) [@CreativePS](https://qa.fmod.com/u/CreativePS)\
**Post date:** [April 30, 2025, 11:00am UTC](https://qa.fmod.com/t/how-do-i-prevent-an-fmod-sound-to-be-reused-virtualized/22864/1 "2025-04-30T11:00:54Z")

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Hello,

I have a specific FMOD sound that I always want to keep playing, essentially forever, but the thing is - once other FMOD sounds play, it may end up getting recycled at some point. How do I prevent this and make sure that that specific sound cannot be recycled whatsoever as it needs to keep playing permanentally?

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![li\_fmod](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex036/user_avatar/qa.fmod.com/li_fmod/32/6577_2.png) [@li\_fmod](https://qa.fmod.com/u/li_fmod)\
**Post date:** [May 1, 2025, 10:35pm UTC](https://qa.fmod.com/t/how-do-i-prevent-an-fmod-sound-to-be-reused-virtualized/22864/2 "2025-05-01T22:35:10Z")

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Hi,

Thank you for sharing the information.

> [@CreativePS](#):
>
> How do I prevent this and make sure that that specific sound cannot be recycled whatsoever as it needs to keep playing permanentally?

You could consider using [Channel::setPriority](https://www.fmod.com/docs/2.02/api/core-api-channel.html#channel_setpriority) to assign higher priority to critical sounds, avoiding sounds being virtualized.

Additionally, you might want to look into using a [SoundGroup](https://www.fmod.com/docs/2.02/api/core-api-soundgroup.html), which gives you more control over voice limits and behavior for a group of sounds.

Hope this helps, let me know if you have questions.