It's relatively easy to add sounds to Flash movies. Follow the steps outlined below. If you want to look at the source file for the simple demonstration movie shown above, go to the SoundEx folder within MMShare on Crow.
Step 1: Prepare and import a sound file
Download or digitize a sound recording. Flash accepts sounds in Windows Audio (.WAV), Audio Interchange (.AIF) and MPEG-3 (.MP3) formats. The last is preferable, because MP3 files are typically smaller, making your source file smaller; though Flash will convert sounds in other formats to MP3 as you move from source file to movie, so this economy is not essential.
If you have QuickTime 4 or later installed in your system, you can import sound-only QuickTime movies and Sun .au audio files in addition to the formats above. You can also import Sound Designer II, WAV, and System 7 sounds on a Macintosh, and AIFF sounds on a Windows machine.
Go to File > Import and browse to the location of your sound file in the resulting menu. Once imported, the sound will show up in your Library as shown above.
Step 2: Create a layer and keyframe
Set up a layer in your movie to contain your sound. Select the first keyframe.
Step 3: Attach the sound to the keyframe
Go to the Instance palette and select the Sound tab. From the pull-down menu, select the sound you imported in Step 1. If the menu is inactive (grayed-out), go back and re-select the keyframe in your sound layer.
You may decide at this point whether you want your sound to play in Event or Streaming mode. The former means the sound will begin playing when its keyframe comes up, and will continue even beyond the end of the movie. In Streaming mode, sound can be controlled more flexibly. (Event mode is fine for Assignment 3; just remember that you must add a keyframe with a Stop() action at the end of your movie if you want your sound to stop there.)
Step 4: Add frames
Select the keyframe of your sound layer again. Note that it has a telltale extra line above the keyframe dot, indicating the presence of a sound. Select Insert > Frame to add more frames to the layer timeline. As you do this, you will see a miniature version of your sound's waveform. You can use this waveform to help align actions in other layers. Add enough frames to reach the end of your sound track.
Step 5: Export
When you export your Shockwave movie, Flash will automatically compress all sounds with MPEG-3 compression at 16 bits for Fast streaming. If you want to alter this setting, click either the Event or Streaming button, depending on which mode you have used (or both if you use both). For most general uses, it is not necessary to override the default settings.
