# channel var (sound)

Source: https://ref.dm-lang.org/sound/var/channel

### Default value
> 0 (any channel)

For sound effects, set to 1 through 1024 to choose a specific sound channel. For values of 0 or less, any available channel will be chosen. If you play a null sound (no file) on channel 0, the settings for the datum will affect all channels.

If you want to make any changes to your sound later on via the `SOUND_UPDATE` status flag, you *must* specify a channel for it.

This var may be filled in by the `SoundQuery` proc, but only for sounds that had a specified channel to begin with.

> [!note]
> 
> If you don't specify a channel to play a sound, the client will choose a channel automatically but it will *not* conflict with any specific channels you choose for other sounds later. This means if you play some sounds with channel 0 but then later want to play something on channel 1, you don't have to worry about channel 1 being taken.

### See also
- [sound proc](https://ref.dm-lang.org/proc/sound.md)
- [status var (sound)](https://ref.dm-lang.org/sound/var/status.md)
- [vars (sound)](https://ref.dm-lang.org/sound/var/index.md)
- [SoundQuery proc (client)](https://ref.dm-lang.org/client/proc/SoundQuery.md)