I typically have some sound utility functions I call to play the sounds, but I'm using SFML. The sounds needed for a scene are loaded when that scene is loaded into a map with a sound name associated with it (using std::map). Part of what is loaded is the number of times each sound should be play simultaneously. For example, take a machine gun sound, if 12 machine guns are going off at the same time, you may want to limit the number of machine gun shooting sounds to 8, so the sound utility will only play at most 8 of those sounds at once.

When I want to play a sound I simply call PlaySound(std::string SoundToPlay, Vector2 LocationSoundOriginates); and the sound engine will handle playing it, and where it is played from (for spatial sound usage).

That's just how I do it, and it seems to work fine.

My game uses fmod, and i allocate a virtual channel for each effect.

They are stored in a std::map keyed by effect name.

#define AUDIO_MUSIC_CREDITS 0
#define AUDIO_MUSIC_LEVEL1 1
#define AUDIO_MUSIC_LEVEL2 2
#define AUDIO_MUSIC_LEVEL3 3
#define AUDIO_MUSIC_LEVEL4 4
#define AUDIO_MUSIC_LEVEL5 5
#define AUDIO_MUSIC_TITLE 6

/* Holds details of a sound effect file and its channel,
* if it is currently playing
*/
class SoundEffect
{
public:
FMOD::Sound* sound;
FMOD::Channel* channel;

SoundEffect(FMOD::Sound* s);
};

/* All sound effects are loaded into a std::map keyed by filename */
typedef std::map<std::wstring, SoundEffect*> SFXBank;

class Audio
{
private:
FMOD::System *system;
/* Sound file and sub-sound for background music */
FMOD::Sound *sound, *sound_to_play;
/* Channel for background music */
FMOD::Channel *channel;
/* Result variable for various FMOD:: functions */
FMOD_RESULT result;
/* FMOD version number */
unsigned int version;
/* Opaque FMOD data */
void *extradriverdata;
/* Number of music tracks in the music.fsb file */ 
int numsubsounds;
public:
/* Holds all known sound effects */
static SFXBank effects;
Audio();
/* Play background music in a loop */
bool PlayMusic(int tracknum);
/* Stop current background music */
void StopMusic();
/* Pause background music */
void PauseMusic(bool pause);
/* Indicate if music is currently playing */
bool MusicIsPlaying();
/* Play a sound effect, if neccessary mixing it into the background music.
* Each sound effect has its own channel.
*/
bool PlayEffect(const std::wstring &soundfile);
/* Returns true if the given sound effect is currently playing */
bool EffectIsPlaying(const std::wstring &soundfile);
/* Used internally to indicate completion of a sound effect */
static FMOD_RESULT F_CALLBACK SoundComplete(FMOD_CHANNELCONTROL *channel, FMOD_CHANNELCONTROL_TYPE type, FMOD_CHANNELCONTROL_CALLBACK_TYPE cbtype, void *commanddata1, void *commanddata2);
/* Called in the GameWindow::Update() method to update FMOD internals */
void Update();
/* Returns the last error string */
const std::wstring GetError();
/* Frees FMOD memory and other resources */
~Audio();
};

There is a similar map for music, the difference being that music supports streaming and effects don't.

The lot is pre-loaded from an fsb (fmod sound bank) file, which takes about 100mb ram (these days not much at all) and responds with next to no latency.

Most sound libraries allow many hundreds of virtual channels at no real cost, so this might work for you too.