OK, I'm sooo frustrated right now...I had to walk away...
I'm positive I know what I am doing and it either..
a)doesn't play.
b)loops over itself eternaly.
AAAAHHHHHHH!!!!

here is my basic implementation...
sound waterfall = <water.wav>;
var volume;
var s_handle;
action some_action
{
set some stuff(passable etc..)
s_handle = snd_loop(waterfall, volume,0);
while(player != null)
{
if(vec_dist(player.x,my.x) < 1000)
{
volume += 1 * time_step/4;
}
snd_tune(s_handle,volume,-10,0);
wait(1);
}
}
I may have missed a bracket, but this is my "basic" setup.
I've even tried setting the handle in a separate loop(same action)before this main loop.