Aftertone is a Unity plugin designed for efficient audio management. It uses a pool of reusable audio sources to provide a fast, lightweight, and robust way of playing short-lived, spatial audio like explosions, footsteps, melee impacts, and more.
Aftertone can be customized via a config asset automatically created in the Resources folder.
You can configure:
Initial Pool Size- Number of audio sources to pre-create at startup.Pool Expansion Size- Number of audio sources to add when the pool runs out.Max Pool Size- Upper limit for the number of pooled sources.Use Debug- Displays an in-game debug panel showing pool usage.
The entire system was built to be light weight and as performance optimized as possible.
Sounds are defined using ScriptableObjects called ToneAssets.
Each ToneAsset defines:
- The audio resource (an AudioClip or a random container)
- All relevant properties of a Unity AudioSource (volume, spatial blend, pitch, etc.)
This architecture encourages reuse, configurability, and a clean separation between logic and data.
When you play a sound, you receive a ToneHandle — a safe, lightweight struct that allows you to:
- Set the 3D position (.At(position))
- Track a Transform for dynamic movement (.Track(transform))
- Pause, resume, or stop playback
- Register completion or stop callbacks
Once the audio finishes or is stopped, the handle is automatically marked as invalid to prevent accidental reuse.
Use Unity’s custom inspector to easily configure sound assets. You can:
- Copy properties from existing AudioSource components into a ToneAsset
- Preview or test sounds directly from the editor
// Play a sound at a position
var handle = Aftertone.Play(explosionAsset).At(transform.position);
// Optionally track a moving object
handle.Track(targetTransform);
// Stop manually if needed
handle.Stop();Want to contribute, fix bugs, or suggest improvements? Feel free to submit issues, improvements or even pull requests.