diff --git a/src/core/model/projectFiles.ts b/src/core/model/projectFiles.ts
index a6906e9f..aa49e5a2 100644
--- a/src/core/model/projectFiles.ts
+++ b/src/core/model/projectFiles.ts
@@ -1,13 +1,15 @@
 import { isFontFile } from './font';
 import { celFilesOf } from './pixelart';
 import type { Project } from './Project';
+import { isSoundFile } from './sound';
 import { isTextureFile } from './texture';
 
-/** The stored files a project draws with, per library – what is loaded before anything asks. */
+/** The stored files a project draws and plays, per library – what is loaded before anything asks. */
 export interface ProjectFiles {
   textures: string[];
   fonts: string[];
   cels: string[];
+  sounds: string[];
 }
 
 /**
@@ -16,11 +18,12 @@ export interface ProjectFiles {
  * an upload that failed – is left out, as the libraries would never get it anyway.
  */
 export function projectFiles(project: Project): ProjectFiles {
-  const files: ProjectFiles = { textures: [], fonts: [], cels: [] };
+  const files: ProjectFiles = { textures: [], fonts: [], cels: [], sounds: [] };
   for (const asset of project.assets) {
     if (asset.type === 'texture' && isTextureFile(asset.file)) files.textures.push(asset.file);
     else if (asset.type === 'font' && isFontFile(asset.file)) files.fonts.push(asset.file);
     else if (asset.type === 'pixelart') files.cels.push(...celFilesOf(asset));
+    else if (asset.type === 'sound' && isSoundFile(asset.file)) files.sounds.push(asset.file);
   }
   return files;
 }
diff --git a/src/viewport/SoundLibrary.ts b/src/viewport/SoundLibrary.ts
index 0cbe41b3..b1c3485b 100644
--- a/src/viewport/SoundLibrary.ts
+++ b/src/viewport/SoundLibrary.ts
@@ -14,6 +14,8 @@ const DEFAULT_BASE = '/game-maker/data/sounds';
 const SHIFTED_KEPT = 32;
 /** Seconds a changed parameter takes to get most of the way there: quick, but no click (#315). */
 const GLIDE = 0.03;
+/** The rate a sound loaded ahead of its first play is decoded at; a source resamples it on the way out. */
+const DECODE_RATE = 48000;
 
 /**
  * One number of a voice that can still change while it plays (#315): a level, a share of a Mix, the
@@ -68,11 +70,13 @@ interface Pending {
  *
  * The context is created on the first play, not at start-up: a browser refuses one before the page
  * has been interacted with, and an editor that was only ever looked at should not be holding an
- * audio device open.
+ * audio device open. What `preload` fetches before that is decoded by an offline context, which
+ * holds no device.
  */
 export class SoundLibrary implements AudioSink {
   private base = DEFAULT_BASE;
   private context: AudioContext | null = null;
+  private offline: OfflineAudioContext | null = null;
   private readonly buffers = new Map<string, AudioBuffer>();
   /** Pitched copies of decoded sounds, oldest use first (see `pitched`). */
   private readonly shifted = new Map<string, AudioBuffer>();
@@ -212,6 +216,14 @@ export class SoundLibrary implements AudioSink {
     return this.buffers.get(file)?.duration ?? null;
   }
 
+  /**
+   * Starts loading every file not held yet. Waiting for the first play left that play late: its
+   * start was not heard, and a graph tuning it in the meantime had moved on by the time it started.
+   */
+  preload(files: Iterable<string>): void {
+    for (const file of files) if (file) void this.load(file);
+  }
+
   /** Fetches and decodes once per file; a second play while it is in flight waits on the first. */
   async load(file: string): Promise<AudioBuffer | null> {
     const held = this.buffers.get(file);
@@ -224,7 +236,7 @@ export class SoundLibrary implements AudioSink {
         const response = await fetch(`${this.base}/${file}`);
         if (!response.ok) throw new Error(`HTTP ${response.status}`);
         const bytes = await response.arrayBuffer();
-        const buffer = await this.audio().decodeAudioData(bytes);
+        const buffer = await this.decoder().decodeAudioData(bytes);
         this.buffers.set(file, buffer);
         return buffer;
       } catch (error: unknown) {
@@ -371,6 +383,12 @@ export class SoundLibrary implements AudioSink {
     return (this.context ??= new AudioContext());
   }
 
+  /** The context that is already playing, or else one that decodes without opening a device. */
+  private decoder(): BaseAudioContext {
+    if (this.context || typeof OfflineAudioContext === 'undefined') return this.audio();
+    return (this.offline ??= new OfflineAudioContext(1, 1, DECODE_RATE));
+  }
+
   /** Everything that would have silenced this file for this owner, counted rather than flagged. */
   private cancelsFor(file: string, owner: string): number {
     return (this.stops.get(file) ?? 0) + this.allStops + (this.ownerStops.get(owner) ?? 0);
diff --git a/src/viewport/projectFiles.ts b/src/viewport/projectFiles.ts
index dfb774a0..12ce59a9 100644
--- a/src/viewport/projectFiles.ts
+++ b/src/viewport/projectFiles.ts
@@ -46,4 +46,5 @@ export function preloadProjectFiles(project: Project): void {
   textureLibrary.preload(files.textures);
   fontLibrary.preload(files.fonts);
   pixelCels.preload(files.cels);
+  soundLibrary.preload(files.sounds);
 }
diff --git a/tests/core/project-files.test.ts b/tests/core/project-files.test.ts
index 3fa8b940..aab12dda 100644
--- a/tests/core/project-files.test.ts
+++ b/tests/core/project-files.test.ts
@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
 /**
  * What the editor loads ahead of the first draw: every stored file a project's assets name, so an
- * animation or an animated tile does not blink out the first time it reaches a frame of its own.
+ * animation or an animated tile does not blink out the first time it reaches a frame of its own,
+ * and the first play of a sound is not late.
  */
 import { describe, expect, it } from 'vitest';
 import type { Asset } from '../../src/core/model/Asset';
@@ -12,6 +13,7 @@ const PNG_B = `${'b'.repeat(64)}.webp`;
 const FONT = `${'c'.repeat(64)}.woff2`;
 const CEL_A = `${'d'.repeat(64)}.cel`;
 const CEL_B = `${'e'.repeat(64)}.cel`;
+const SOUND = `${'f'.repeat(64)}.ogg`;
 
 function projectWith(assets: unknown[]) {
   const project = createEmptyProject('p', 'P');
@@ -20,7 +22,7 @@ function projectWith(assets: unknown[]) {
 }
 
 describe('the files a project names', () => {
-  it('lists every texture, font and cel, drawn somewhere or not', () => {
+  it('lists every texture, font, cel and sound, used somewhere or not', () => {
     const project = projectWith([
       {
         id: 't1',
@@ -57,15 +59,22 @@ describe('the files a project names', () => {
           { id: 'f3', cels: { l: CEL_A } },
         ],
       },
+      { id: 's', type: 'sound', name: 'Blip', props: {}, file: SOUND },
     ]);
-    expect(projectFiles(project)).toEqual({ textures: [PNG_A, PNG_B], fonts: [FONT], cels: [CEL_A, CEL_B] });
+    expect(projectFiles(project)).toEqual({
+      textures: [PNG_A, PNG_B],
+      fonts: [FONT],
+      cels: [CEL_A, CEL_B],
+      sounds: [SOUND],
+    });
   });
 
   it('leaves out a name that is no stored file', () => {
     const project = projectWith([
       { id: 't', type: 'texture', name: 'Failed', props: {}, file: '', width: 0, height: 0, frames: [] },
       { id: 'f', type: 'font', name: 'Failed', props: {}, file: 'x.woff2' },
+      { id: 's', type: 'sound', name: 'Failed', props: {}, file: '' },
     ]);
-    expect(projectFiles(project)).toEqual({ textures: [], fonts: [], cels: [] });
+    expect(projectFiles(project)).toEqual({ textures: [], fonts: [], cels: [], sounds: [] });
   });
 });
diff --git a/tests/viewport/sound-library.test.ts b/tests/viewport/sound-library.test.ts
index 68e9ab7c..1a14cede 100644
--- a/tests/viewport/sound-library.test.ts
+++ b/tests/viewport/sound-library.test.ts
@@ -194,6 +194,39 @@ describe('the sound library', () => {
     expect(sources.filter((s) => s.started)).toHaveLength(2);
   });
 
+  it('loads ahead of the first play without opening the device, so that play starts at once', async () => {
+    const opened: string[] = [];
+    vi.stubGlobal(
+      'AudioContext',
+      class {
+        constructor() {
+          opened.push('device');
+          return fakeContext();
+        }
+      },
+    );
+    vi.stubGlobal(
+      'OfflineAudioContext',
+      class {
+        constructor() {
+          opened.push('offline');
+          return fakeContext();
+        }
+      },
+    );
+    const library = new SoundLibrary();
+    library.preload([FILE, OTHER, '']);
+    await settle();
+    await arrive();
+    expect(opened).toEqual(['offline']);
+    expect(library.stats()).toMatchObject({ decoded: 2, started: 0 });
+    // No await: the voice runs in the frame that asked for it, not once the bytes are in.
+    const voice = library.play(FILE, 1, false);
+    expect(library.stats()).toMatchObject({ started: 1, playing: 1 });
+    expect(library.tune(voice, {})).toBe(true);
+    expect(opened).toEqual(['offline', 'device']);
+  });
+
   it('remembers what it last started, so a muted check can see it at all', async () => {
     const library = new SoundLibrary();
     library.play(FILE, 0.25, true);