Adding Video and Sound
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The three major types of sounds for use in Flash movies include music, sound effects, and narration. Learn how to add sound to Flash movies, how to use media components and work with media classes (from
Macromedia Flash MX Professional 2004 by Bill Sanders, 2004, Sams, ISBN 0672326051).
In the standard configuration without QuickTime 4 or later installed, you can import and play WAV (Windows only), AIFF (Macintosh only), or MP3 files for use with Flash Pro. A new Flash MX 2004 feature allows you to import AVI files; an option is available to separate the sound as a component in the Library panel. You can then use it for adding sound to your movie, discarding the video portion of the file. If you have QuickTime 4 or later installed, you can import the following:
• AIFF (Windows or Macintosh)
QuickTime movies with sound only
Sound Designer II (Macintosh)
Sun AU
System 7 Sounds (Macintosh)
WAV (Windows or Macintosh)
The QuickTime player can be freely downloaded from http://www.apple.com ; its main benefit is allowing the popular WAV files to be developed on Macintosh computers and AIFF files on Windows.
The three major types of sounds for use in Flash movies include music, sound effects, and narration. You can set most sound effects and narration files to very-low-quality mono settings without losing effective quality. The lower-quality and mono settings generate much smaller file sizes and reduce loading time. Music, however, is a different matter. Often, the left and right stereo tracks add important dimensions to music, and many of the subtle effects of music require higher KHz rates, resulting in larger file sizes. A stereo setting requires double the space of mono settings; if the sound you're using doesn't absolutely require stereo, don't use the stereo setting. Most of the important pondering decisions involve settings for music files. Narration and sound effects should be set to mono at the lower ranges.
 This chapter is from Macromedia Flash MX Professional 2004, by Bill Sanders (Sams, 2004, ISBN: 0672326051). Check it out at your favorite bookstore today.
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