The described systems regulate the transmission and playback of multiple streams of audio data, e.g., for a multiplayer game, and provide sequential playback of audio, buffered while the listener is listening to a different stream, time-compressed if necessary. The systems thus solve a problem of users “talking over each other” by: (1) regulating access to audio channels; and (2) treating the spoken audio as distinct blocks so as to play the messages, e.g., from multiple channels, sequentially to users. The messages may be played back at a later time at time-compressed rates or aborted as directed by the user or by a separate automated process.