SOUND

Sound can be used in a Flash movie in several ways; you can sync sound to an animation to make characters talk, you can have it as background music, you can add it to buttons, and you can use it to illustrate a point.

Flash can import MP3, WAV, and AIF sound formats. While you can do some really basic (and I mean really) formatting on sound files in Flash, you should edit your sounds before importing them (Sound Studio by FeltTip Software is a good program for editing sound files).

Specifically, if you just want several seconds of a song to play, don’t import the entire song! Cut out the parts you don’t want in Sound Studio (or other sound editing software) and just import the several seconds you need. As you know, even MP3’s, which are already compressed, take up a lot of memory.

To add sound to your movie, create a layer and name it “sound” (or “music” or whatever). Create a keyframe where you want the sound to begin, then just drag the sound symbol from your library to the stage. It’s represented in the timeline as a blue sound wave.

When you select the keyframe where the sound was inserted, you’ll see some options in the properties palette.

sount timeline

First, is the sound itself. If you have several sounds in your movie, you can use the popup menu to select another.

Effect refers to the truly minimal modifications you can make within Flash. (The fade from left to right is kind of cool!) Selecting any of these effects opens a dialog box where you can make the modifications.

Sync refers to how the sound will work in your movie.

Choosing the “event” option will play your sound until it’s over—even if the movie ended several minutes earlier! This can get very weird if you’re looping your movie. The sound from the first loop may still be playing when the second loop starts, and the sound plays again, over what’s left of the first occurrence. What a mess! If you’re going to use “event” sounds, make sure they end when or before your movie does.

Event sounds don’t start playing until the entire sound is downloaded to the browser. Therefore, a large sound file might not start playing until the movie is halfway finished.

“Start” means that the sound will start when it hits the keyframe where you put it. It also means, if a movie is looping, any leftover sound from the first loop stops, and starts anew. Better. Again, a sound with a “start” sync downloads entirely before it begins to play.

You’d put a “Stop” in a keyframe where you want the sound to stop playing.

Streaming sounds begin playing before the entire sound has downloaded to someone’s browser. Streaming is most appropriate for adding voices to animated characters since it loads and plays at about the same rate your animation does—although if someone’s connection is slow or erratic, weird things can happen.

When you’re setting up your Publish Movie options, be careful about how you handle your sounds. If you’ve imported an MP3 file, and you choose to export your sound for the animation as MP3, your sounds will be doubly compressed, and therefore degrade in quality.

You can set an export option for each sound in your movie by checking its properties from the library menu to the top right of the library panel. Remember that you can always override these settings in your Publish Movie options.

Suffice to say, if you’re going to have sounds and music in your animation, keep the sound files as small as possible, and choose the best export options to ensure a quality you can live with and a file size that will still work on the web efficiently.

sound properties

Use the Help menu and type a search for "create sound control" to create something like this.

SOUND Sound can be used in a Flash movie in several ways; you can sync sound to an animation to make characters talk, you can have it as background music, you can add it to buttons, and you can use it to illustrate a point. Flash can import MP3, WAV, and AIF sound formats. While you can do some really basic (and I mean really) formatting on sound files in Flash, you should edit your sounds before importing them (Sound Studio by FeltTip Software is a good program for editing sound files). Specifically, if you just want several seconds of a song to play, don’t import the entire song! Cut out the parts you don’t want in Sound Studio (or other sound editing software) and just import the several seconds you need. As you know, even MP3’s, which are already compressed, take up a lot of memory.
To add sound to your movie, create a layer and name it “sound” (or “music” or whatever). Create a keyframe where you want the sound to begin, then just drag the sound symbol from your library to the stage. It’s represented in the timeline as a blue sound wave. When you select the keyframe where the sound was inserted, you’ll see some options in the properties palette.
First, is the sound itself. If you have several sounds in your movie, you can use the popup menu to select another. Effect refers to the truly minimal modifications you can make within Flash. (The fade from left to right is kind of cool!) Selecting any of these effects opens a dialog box where you can make the modifications. Sync refers to how the sound will work in your movie. Choosing the “event” option will play your sound until it’s over—even if the movie ended several minutes earlier! This can get very weird if you’re looping your movie. The sound from the first loop may still be playing when the second loop starts, and the sound plays again, over what’s left of the first occurrence. What a mess! If you’re going to use “event” sounds, make sure they end when or before your movie does. Event sounds don’t start playing until the entire sound is downloaded to the browser. Therefore, a large sound file might not start playing until the movie is halfway finished. “Start” means that the sound will start when it hits the keyframe where you put it. It also means, if a movie is looping, any leftover sound from the first loop stops, and starts anew. Better. Again, a sound with a “start” sync downloads entirely before it begins to play. You’d put a “Stop” in a keyframe where you want the sound to stop playing. Streaming sounds begin playing before the entire sound has downloaded to someone’s browser. Streaming is most appropriate for adding voices to animated characters since it loads and plays at about the same rate your animation does—although if someone’s connection is slow or erratic, weird things can happen. When you’re setting up your Publish Movie options, be careful about how you handle your sounds. If you’ve imported an MP3 file, and you choose to export your sound for the animation as MP3, your sounds will be doubly compressed, and therefore degrade in quality. You can set an export option for each sound in your movie by checking its properties from the library menu to the top right of the library panel. Remember that you can always override these settings in your Publish Movie options. Suffice to say, if you’re going to have sounds and music in your animation, keep the sound files as small as possible, and choose the best export options to ensure a quality you can live with and a file size that will still work on the web efficiently.
Use the Help menu and type a search for "create sound control" to create something like this.