For some reason when i play a sample it's got a short but noticable lag before starting. I thought this might be me, but if i print something before and after the play statement, both prints appear immediately... so , for some reason, the sample is taking time playing. I'm simply calling the ->play() function. The audio file itself is fine :(

I'm on linux.. anyone know what might be going on?

Yes, I've experiences this with SDL_mixer. I think when I tried it, other SDL_mixer applications had the same problem, so I doubt I can change anything about it :(

Since this problem started appearing just recently, I hope that some Ubuntu maintainer will patch it soon.