SDL_sound is a library that handles the decoding of several popular sound file formats such as .WAV and .MP3. Designed to make the task of sound playback easier, SDL_sound accepts files or other input through an abstraction layer and returns the decoded waveform. SDL_sound can decode a whole sound file and hand back a single pointer to the waveform, or SDL_sound can process sound data in programmer-specified blocks when resource constraints are a concern. SDL_sound can also handle sample rate, audio format, and channel conversion on-the-fly.