Depending on the scope of the project, audio files can range anywhere from the largest disk space consumer, to the smallest. Unity, as a framework, can be used to build small applications that require only a handful of sound effects and a single background track, or to build large expansive role playing games that need millions of lines of spoken dialog, music tracks, and ambient sounds. It will be useful to make sense of how audio files are managed in Unity to better understand what we should do for the sake of optimization in both cases.
Many developers are surprised to find that runtime audio processing can turn into a significant source of CPU and memory consumption. Audio is often neglected on both sides of the gaming industry; developers tend not to commit many resources to it until the last minute, while users will rarely draw attention to it. Nobody notices when the audio is good or passable, but we all know what bad audio sounds like; it's instantly recognizable, jarring, and...