The time has come to make audio play by the rules. An example will best make my point. The other day I was running two applications on my workstation. Both systems make use of the audio resources of my workstation. Cruiser announces incoming calls and errors and confirms users' actions with short clips of audio.
VAT allows one to listen to lectures or converse with others over the internet.
Both of these applications work fine independently. The problems arose when I tried to use them together. Cruiser plays a short sound when a call is attempted in order to provide feedback to the user. When I tried the call, Cruiser tried to get access to the audio device but couldn't because VAT had not relinquished it. Cruiser stopped responding to my input while it waited to play its sound.