preloading mp3

[Jeff]

Hi,

I'm wondering if there is a way using Javascript to preload an mp3
like you can preload images. I have a number of short mp3s that I
play programatically using the SoundManager2 Flash->Javascript
bridge. For a number of reasons, that hasn't proven to be so easy to
do the preloading of these sounds with. Is there another way?

I tried creating embed tags and setting their src attribute to my
sound file. This has the desired effect of adding the sound to the
browser's cache, but has very poor performance because the browser (at
least my browser) tries to start up a java sound player each time I
add one of these tags.

Thanks!
Jeff