# Streaming sounds, only one at once and buffer in memory release?

**URL:** <https://qa.fmod.com/t/streaming-sounds-only-one-at-once-and-buffer-in-memory-release/18440>\
**Category:** FMOD Studio\
**Tags:** unity\
**Created:** [February 25, 2022, 1:48pm UTC](https://qa.fmod.com/t/streaming-sounds-only-one-at-once-and-buffer-in-memory-release/18440 "2022-02-25T13:48:20Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Crema](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex036/user_avatar/qa.fmod.com/crema/32/2330_2.png) [@Crema](https://qa.fmod.com/u/Crema)\
**Post date:** [February 25, 2022, 1:48pm UTC](https://qa.fmod.com/t/streaming-sounds-only-one-at-once-and-buffer-in-memory-release/18440/1 "2022-02-25T13:48:20Z")

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Hi,

We have two questions on Streaming. Due to some circumstances we’ll need to call some ‘short sounds’ from Stream, along with the already known ‘delay’ thing:

1 - We’ve read in several places that Streaming audio files could be played just only one at time:

[https://www.fmod.com/resources/documentation-api?version=2.02&page=core-guide.html#streaming-settings](https://www.fmod.com/resources/documentation-api?version=2.02&page=core-guide.html#streaming-settings)

and

[https://www.fmod.com/resources/documentation-api?version=2.02&page=glossary.html#stream](https://www.fmod.com/resources/documentation-api?version=2.02&page=glossary.html#stream)

But after some tests, we couldn’t notice any issues or ‘audio cuts’ triggering several instances of an Streamed audio at once. What is that ‘only one at time’ limitation related to?

2 - Is the buffer in memory used to play the Stream file released / cleaned when the instance finishes playing automatically or should we handle it somehow in code?

Many thanks!

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**Author:** ![jeff\_fmod](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex036/user_avatar/qa.fmod.com/jeff_fmod/32/1766_2.png) [@jeff\_fmod](https://qa.fmod.com/u/jeff_fmod)\
**Post date:** [March 2, 2022, 6:08am UTC](https://qa.fmod.com/t/streaming-sounds-only-one-at-once-and-buffer-in-memory-release/18440/2 "2022-03-02T06:08:12Z")

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1. There is an upper limit to how many streams you can have before you get noticeable performance issues, the upper limit isn’t necessarily “1”, but it is best to keep streaming assets to a minimum because they don’t scale in the same way regular assets do.
2. Streams are cleaned up in the same manner as other sounds. If you created it with [`System.createSound`](https://fmod.com/resources/documentation-api?version=2.02&page=core-api-system.html#system_createsound) or [`System.createStream`](https://fmod.com/resources/documentation-api?version=2.02&page=core-api-system.html#system_createstream) you will need to stop it / release it when you are done with it. If you are playing it via an `FMOD.Studio.EventInstance`, stopping/releasing the event instance is enough to clean up the underlying stream.