Sound and KM

[weden]

I'm making an online presentation with audio tracks. The user will click buttons to proceed through it and each sement will have a button to hear that segment's audio if desired. My problem is the file is just too large once I include all the MP3 tracks. Isn't there a way to use swf sound files instead of MP3's and somehow load them in as the presentation proceeds? This way the sound files aren't part of the presentation. I've tried several things but I'm not having success. Any help is appreciated!

[tmoore935]

I have played around with sound a lot with koolmoves. You can use swf files but why not just stream the mp3's? Then for each presentation have a start and stop button. The main page would be less than 20kb. I can use 44100 and bit rate of 56k kbps. User mono also. I use cdex for this but audacity work as well.

If you want to use swf then just use loadMovieNum("audio1.swf", 10); or whatever level you want.

Hopes this help as this is how I would do it. There may be some issues with other browsers but this works in IE and fire fox and netscape and opera.

[weden]

Thanks tmoore. I would like to stream the MP3's. How do I do it? And aren't they still part of the movie as far as size?

[weden]

Thanks tmoore. I would like to stream the MP3's. How do I do it? And aren't they still part of the movie as far as size?

[tmoore935]

Originally posted by weden
Thanks tmoore. I would like to stream the MP3's. How do I do it? And aren't they still part of the movie as far as size?

Let me send an updated fun file in case there are problemns with the update. But for now


http://www.flashkit.com/board/showthread.php?threadid=299918


http://www.flashkit.com/board/showthread.php?threadid=628262

Just read this. You are not the first person to ask.:D

[tmoore935]

Originally posted by weden
And aren't they still part of the movie as far as size?

No, the files upload as you look at the page. If the mp3 is large,then it will apear choppy to the users ear. This is why I use bytes loaded and bytes total. Just make sure the index page is not 12 megs large. This i see a lot on the site check page of flashkit. If you are using koolmoves, you can make an impressive opening page smaller than say 40K. THEN you load the mp3. I can load beatles songs with a cheap modem and poor connectioon with very few interuptions. I am partying righ now listening to Heart so I can do a demo later. just read the links that I gave.

Of course all others can give their opinions with no fallout from myself.

[weden]

tmoore,
My presentation is all in flash, not html pages. Is there a way to stream the MP3s from within flash?

Also, I've tried to use load movie for the audio swf files and that works except the files don't pay right away...they have to load. I've also tried loading the swf files ahead of when their needed and then use the play target movie attached to a button, but the audio starts playing as soon as it's loaded.

Seems strange. I've used streaming MP3s for other projects in HTML and they work great.

[necromanthus]

See the attached file (a SWF Player).
note: don't include the ".SWF" extension inside of the XML file.
;)

[tmoore935]

Originally posted by weden
tmoore,
My presentation is all in flash, not html pages. Is there a way to stream the MP3s from within flash?

Also, I've tried to use load movie for the audio swf files and that works except the files don't pay right away...they have to load. I've also tried loading the swf files ahead of when their needed and then use the play target movie attached to a button, but the audio starts playing as soon as it's loaded.

Seems strange. I've used streaming MP3s for other projects in HTML and they work great.

I am working full time at the moment so I need time to look at it later. I know that the sound object has to be set to true before it streams. That will start it playing but may sound choppy. Can you post a simple example of what yopu are doing? I was under the assumption that this will be online (so 56k users need to be addressed?). And that the user will hit a button once the part of the presentation is finished. Then he will go the next presentation. If there is no lipsyniching then there should be no problem and you may be making things harder than theyt should as I have no problem with this kinda thing and I am no expert. Of course I may be missing something. I also have no access to 56k anymore so I can not test anything for these modems anymore.

[tmoore935]

http://www.diversioncentral.com/weden/1st.html

This is what I thought you needed? am I correct?

It jumps to the next scene when the music is over.

[gusmus]

Probably the easiest way is to make a few frames as your main flash movie with your sound tracks made as independant "swf files".
Go to "Actions and Sounds Overview" and select "Load Movie" on the frame where you want the sound to play.
Then go back to the button and program it to "Play movie on release".
It should play without any jerks. You can then program the last frame of the "music.swf" to load the next movie.

[vini-v]

Very ignorant here, how do i go about opening an MP3 and changing it to a SWF file? Take me thru the steps please, thanks.

[tmoore935]

Go to view>>actions and sound overview
hit the + sign at the top left corner of the window and click on start sound.
Then save as a swf file.

[vini-v]

Thankyou Tmoore, it now says file is bigger then 3MB and may cause some trouble ?????? BUT it does work:D

I made a slide show movie and stretched it out to 10 ( to big a file to load on free website and trying to load it up at putlife host site to view) and then stopped the sound at the end of it so that keeps the sound from blending over, wish i new more what to do just not enough time to spend learning how.

I cut the size of the movie to 50% and kept it at 1 loop will this effect the size of the file?

[tmoore935]

I am not sure of the question. You streached it out to 10? How did you cut the file size by 50%? As far as looping, that should not effect the file size I believe.

[vini-v]

I set Slide duration each picture of the slide show to 10, 3 is default i believe, this is set when you set up the slide show.

Then went to Transform/scale translate movie and put it on 50%.


It's at 6.88 MB

Seeing if this link works

http://s32.yousendit.com/complete.aspx

Yes took a second but it works.

ACK thats a mess SHEESH.....

[tmoore935]

making the pics smaller should decrease the file size. As for duration, that should not matter in any way. As far as the link, it is www.yousendit.com. did you send me this file? I have not received anything.

As for the pics, try using something to make the files smaller. And for the music, try cdex. export at a bitrate of 56K. I use cdex 1.5 beta 6. Or use audacity.

http://cdexos.sourceforge.net/
http://audacity.sourceforge.net/

As far as 6 megs for a website Is a bit much unless someone has cable. If it is a cd then not problem

[vini-v]

Thanks tmoore i'll fool around with it a bit more, that WAS a link to the movie i posted but it's not working now.

Appreciate the help

[weden]

Under "Views/Actions and Sounds Overviews" there is the option to add sound and stream it. Is there a way to attach my sounds to buttons and stream them? BTW, I'm not using separate html pages for this presentation. It's all within the one flash movie.

Is there some reason why the stream option is not available in the button options menu when I add sounds?

Thanks for all of your help and ideas.

[vini-v]

I was wondering the same thing, their was a tutorial i was reading on this but it was to complicated for me and i'm pretty sure it was with a different program anyhow.

[vini-v]

I was wondering the same thing, their was a tutorial i was reading on this but it was to complicated for me and i'm pretty sure it was with a different program anyhow.

[tmoore935]

Why do You want to stream sounds on a button? This is not what flash was created for. But if you want to, inside of the button use loadMovieNum to load another swf that is streaming.
In fact I have never, ever, heard of someone asking if buttons could be streamed with sounds.

If you say exactly what you want, i can try to explain it. Maybe. i will try.

[weden]

I've built an online Flash presentation. It works much like a PowerPoint presentation. Each frame (slide) has different content with separate voice audio. I want each frame (slide) to have a button to turn on the audio for that frame. I don't want the audio to automatically run when the "next slide" button is clicked. Some users will not want to haer the audio. I want to stream the voice audio files because that way they are not part of the flash file (too large). I've tried the idea of converting the audio to swf files and loading them, but when the sound buttons are pushed to hear them they have to completely load before starting. Make sense? This doesn't seem that strange to me, but maybe I'm going about this in weird way.

Thanks

[tmoore935]

I can solve this for you, but what sucks is that you live where I do??? I looked at your postings and you post the same questions over and over. You can solve this problem yourself with little effort.

[weden]

I asked politely and I appreciate the help I receive. You're under no obligation to answer my request for help. If you do, that's great. I can see that the questions I ask are often revelant to what other KM users are wondering as well. This post is evidence of that, so if you can help, great. If not, that's okay as well.

[tmoore935]

You said that you don't like loading the swf's because they don't play until they are loaded. So you know how to load a swf already. And I believe you know how to stream sounds. So just load the swf with the streaming sounds with a button. It will work effectivly. It may get confusing because you have movies loaded into other movies. If you really can't get this to work, post again and I will give an example.

[gusmus]

I don't see a problem with this at all. Take for example 5 Key movie frames in your main movie. Your menu then points to 1,2,3,4 and 5. On each frame you put two extra buttons "Listen to my Bu!! *****" and "Shut up Please". First button says "Load bull1.swf" and the second button says "unload movie at level 1". You must also remember to put the same "unload movie at level 1" on each of your menu buttons so that your spiel doesn't carry over on to the next scene. That should work without any problems and it's dead simple. If you are using multiple loaded movies then you will have to work out which layer you need to unload on each button command. Thats it.
If you want the sound to preload then put the buttons into your sound swf and put an "actions and sounds" (stop movie) command after the 2nd frame, then put a "load movie bull1.swf on your main menu buttons. The sound swf should load and then stop until you hit the button to play the movie.

[tmoore935]

http://www.diversioncentral.com/mp3/presentation.html


The music is not included with the zips. This loads a presentation. The user hit the sound button or just reads what is there. Then he can stop the sound at anytime. Then he hit the next button and starts all over:)

[weden]

If you want the sound to preload then put the buttons into your sound swf and put an "actions and sounds" (stop movie) command after the 2nd frame, then put a "load movie bull1.swf on your main menu buttons. The sound swf should load and then stop until you hit the button to play the movie.

gusmus, I'm with you about everything except the above statement. I do need the sound swf's to preload so when the buttons are pushed the sound is instantaneous. When I preload them using "actions and sounds" and then use a stop movie command after the second frame the swf is not there when hit the button to play it. What am I missing? BTW, here a link to what I'm working on...http://www.inspireddesign.biz/movie.html