Well I am in doubt on how to create a good Sound Effect. I am using OpenAl. I have a spaceship with twin machineguns. These fire at a high rate. I have tried the following for effect 1) A long sequence of gunshots (5 secs) 2) a single shot but one is thrown for every shot 1 works ok, but it does not seem right. 2 works like crap floods the soundbuffer and it sounds like a big noise. Prolly because there is an echo effect on the shot. How is it done normally?

In games like Tribes 2 or Unreal Tournament 2004, chaingun sounds are done by playing the chamber spin sample first, then a loop of maybe 2-3 seconds or so over and over until the gun starts firing, when the chamber spin stop sample is played. I don't think it would make any sense to constantly retrigger the same oneshot sample.

Also, how fast are we talking about here in terms of rate of fire per second?

Hell I think its 20ish shots pr sec. Yeah a long sample is prolly the best then.. I just have to find one thats better than the one I am using now

Isn’t is possible to stop the currently playing gunshot sound before you start the next one, this way you don’t over flow the buffer. It seams that that is the way many of the games I play handle a rapid fire weapon.

Have a mix of sounds, say 4 or 5 random ones. Make some more quiet or loud than others (perhaps some with no sound at all). Play one when any bullet appears and you should be okay. Having a looping motor/spin sound playing whenever the button is held down will help too. I did something similar for the minigun sound in Flatspace and it worked quite well.

Mark
Sound Effects For Game Developers
http://www.indiesfx.co.uk