Yeah, the sounds can be a bit piercing. I might look into other sfx tools.
With the wrong dash direction being registered, is it something like you're trying to dash up but instead you dash into the direction you're facing? If you aren't pressing down a direction, by default you just dash into the direction you're facing. What might be happening is you're pressing the up button a split second after pressing dash, so it's not registering as the dash direction.
The dash controls can be a bit unforgiving like that. I already added a bit of delay to accept late direction presses, but I guess it may not have been enough. Though like you said, it may also just be your connection.
I'm glad you enjoyed it despite that though! Thanks for the feedback!