Re: FLASH: Could you help me make some noise?

[Marc Hoffman]

hi Fred.


I see you haven't had a reply to this question yet.  Perhaps because it

involves so much.


At 12:41 PM 4/27/99 -0600, you wrote:

>Hello!

>... However as you know just slapping

>the sound file into the level_0 movie is not a very good idea


This is not necessarily so.  The main reason to use loadMovie is when there

is a great deal of content that the user can request in random order.  If

everything will load in linear fashion, LoadMovie is just an authoring

convenience and a movie clip should work as well.


>Can you only compress the sound on export of movie?  (in at 44 khz out at 11

>khz)



Dave Hollinden offered the following advice here awhile ago:


===========================================


With the constraints that I work under (web content with hefty animation,

dialog and sound efects aimed at 28K modems), I export all of my dialog

files from Flash at 11KHz with the ADPCM set to 4 bits, or 3 bits if I can

get away with it.  I initially try  to make every sound effect file work at

5KHz and 2 bits to save on file size, and gradually increase individual

files up to 11Khz and 3 or 4 bits on a case by case basis when necessary,

with the occasional 22KHz file sneaking in if it's real short.  Certain

types of sound files sound totally fine even when compressed all to hell,

like a 22KHz 2 bit  mouse click or a 5Khz 2 bit head bonk or door slam.


The thing to remember is that Flash doesn't do a good job of changing the

sampling rate for you (it doesn't have an anti-aliasing filter for audio).

So it's not a good idea to import 44KHz files and then set them to 11KHz.

You should change the sampling rate to 11KHz in an audio application, and

then import them into Flash.  Then test them at the lowest ADPCM bit level

on export that you can tolerate (To test, double click on the file in the

Library, set the export parameters, and click Test).  It makes a way-big

difference in file size to optimize each sound file this way.  It's the

same process you go through for a bitmaps (I think?) where you trim them to

just the right size before importing, and then can set the export JPEG

quality for each one individually if you need to.


For Flash movies, forget about all file types and compression types except

what Flash uses - WAV files on PC,  AIFF on Mac, and ADPCM compression for

exporting.  And as for bit depth, I always stay at 16 bits because I think

the ADPCM compression in Flash works best with 16 bit files.  But I think

some people import 8 bit files and select "None" for the export compression

in the main Export dialog box for music files.


================================



>

>Is there a way to "cut" up a whole song to get the sample you are looking

>for, then erase the rest that you are not using for sake of memory?  How you

>do dat?


Two ways: first, trim the source file using a sound editor (on PC, CoolEdit

is a good shareware program).

Second: in Flash, when you place the sound in a frame, you will be working

in the sound dialogue window of Frame Properties. There are two tiny

sliders that let you select the in- and out-edit points, which define which

part of the imported sound will be used.  When looking at a sound clip

longer than a few seconds, you will have a tough time finding the right

edit points, but it's certainly one way to go, and the .swf will contain

only the portion actually used in the movie.



>

>I am setting up the site for my band and I want to synch 4 different song

>cuts to different parts of the movie.  These "cuts"  are encapsulated by 3

>different songs.  As far as I understand, the optimal way to do this is to

>have each cut on a separate level to help with loading times and such.


Use LoadMovie if these songs can be called in random order before there's

enough time for all of them to load. You will need some clever diversions

for your audience because any long sound is going to take a long time to

load.  If possible, have them load while a lot of other content is

presented up front. Another option would be to get one song preloaded, and

offer the other songs only after it has played.


I think you will find that to have acceptable quality for music, a sound

clip will take significantly longer to load than it takes to play.  You may

want to consider an alternative, for example use RealAudio called by

GetUrl, if your server supports streaming RealAudio.  Or look into QuickTime.


> Once thats

>done, should I load each song cut onto their own .swf file and then...  um,

>where do i put the clips?

>On their own layer or level in the original movie?

>What command makes em' go?  Load movie? Go to and Play?

>A tell target?


Would you be offended if I suggested you look at the manual first?  This is

a big chunk of information to be asking for, and once you do more research

your questions will be a lot more managable.



>

>Whats the best way to synch the parts to the main movie?


If you're talking about tightly synching animation to sound, use Stream as

the sound's sync type.  Be forewarned that even with lots of audio

compression (read: poor quality), the animation will have to be extremely

spare not to overload the bandwidth. When using sound set to Stream, Flash

drops animation frames if it needs to do so in order to keep up with the sound.



Marc Hoffman

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

marcdartfrogmedia [dot] com (mailto:marcdartfrogmedia [dot] com)

Play a virtual marimba at: <www.dartfrogmedia.com/dartfrog> (featured 

in the book Flash 3 Web Animation by Ken Milburn).

Flash3 samples: <http://www.jps.net/dartfrog/sampler>.


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