Music Sync: HELP ME PLEEEASE!!!!!!! @_@

[Adam Novagen]

Okay, so, I thought I'd posted this yesterday, but either IE7 went funny on me (possible) or I hit the wrong button (probable.) Either way, I searched for my post & couldn't find it in any forum here, so please forgive me if I've accidentally double-posted. :)

I've been using KoolMoves 6.2.0 (love it! :thumbsup: ) for some time now, and I'm creating a music video of sorts. It's not really a music video strictly speaking, but it's a minute-and-a-half trailer that needs to be synchronized perfectly to some pulse-pounding music. Thing is, I seem to be unable to do that.

Here's the thing: I've been watching Flash anims for some time (I'm a Newgrounds member,) and I've noticed a difference between most movies & mine. When an ordinary Flash clip gets "frozen" from some computer activity, like scrolling, alt-tabbing, and so on, the sound keeps playing. Then, when the activity stops, the clip resumes, skipping all the "missed" frames & returning to the correct point in the animation. However, when one of MY Flash clips gets frozen, the music sometimes stops altogether. Even if it doesn't, when the clip resumes, it continues FROM THE POINT IT STOPPED, instead of where it should be on the timeline.

:confused:

Okay, that wasn't a very good explanation. IN A NUTSHELL: if an ordinary Flash anim gets frozen by computer activity at position 1:30 for fifteen seconds, it will resume playing from position 1:45, skipping the missing fifteen seconds. If MY clip got stopped at position 1:30 for fifteen seconds, it would resume playing from position 1:30 instead of 1:45.

So, what I want to know is, can I solve this problem using KoolMoves, or is it an inherent "flaw" in the way the program creates SWFs? If I can't fix the problem in KoolMoves (maybe using ActionScript?) can I "hack" the exported SWF to resolve the issue? I really hope so, because I don't have $300 to spend on Adobe Flash, and besides, I like using KM!

[blanius]

you could try my mp3 sync tool. Look on koolexchange.com for the tool. Basically it lets you add sync points to your mp3 that will trigger events in the player.

[Adam Novagen]

Thanks blanius; I'll try it, but I don't think it'll work, since the music usually just cuts out altogether.

In the meantime, does ANYONE have any ideas as to what could be causing this problem??

[tmoore935]

Thanks blanius; I'll try it, but I don't think it'll work, since the music usually just cuts out altogether.

In the meantime, does ANYONE have any ideas as to what could be causing this problem??

Do you embed the music or stream it? Or how do you get the music to work in koolmoves?

[Adam Novagen]

Well, I've been embedding it... But even if there's no audio at all, the animations definitely aren't "discarding" the skipped frames the way they usually do.

[tmoore935]

Well, I've been embedding it... But even if there's no audio at all, the animations definitely aren't "discarding" the skipped frames the way they usually do.

Can you post what you did.

And if the files are like 15 meg and there are tons of bitmaps, alpha usage and gradients, You might find that the problem. If you are aware of that then ok.

[Adam Novagen]

Yeah, tmoore935, I know that large files & such cause problems; none of my animations have yet reached 2 MB.

Okay; here's an example of a "proper" animation: http://thewax.deviantart.com/art/Sonic-Dark-Chaos-PT1-62819383

When you play it, do your best to "freeze" the movie; scroll randomly, open a CPU-heavy APP, whatever you can think of. No matter what you do, the animation will keep "playing" at the proper speed, skipping frames wherever necessary to keep up.

When you've done that, here's one of my animations: http://adam-novagen.deviantart.com/art/WIP-Sonic-A-Ep-1-94128060

Do the same stuff you did with the first animation; you should see the movie freeze just like the other one. However, it will not skip frames to keep up, and if you make it freeze enough, it will be severely out of sync by the end of the animation. (You can watch it once without interrupting it to find out where it should be.)

Hope this helps; thanks!

[tmoore935]

I coun't get yours or the first one to lock up. On my side it worked very good. Also the animation is very good also. Does this problem happen only on your computer? Maybe some other readers can look at this also and see how they work on their own PC's.

[Bob Hartzell]

How large is the mp3 file you are embedding? Why are you embedding rather than streaming? If you stream, you can use action scripting to sync the sound to the movie frames.

[necromanthus]

if an ordinary Flash anim gets frozen by computer activity at position 1:30 for fifteen seconds, it will resume playing from position 1:45, skipping the missing fifteen seconds. If MY clip got stopped at position 1:30 for fifteen seconds, it would resume playing from position 1:30 instead of 1:45.

A few years ago I found a nice website containing some useful tutorials.
One of them is called "Keeping Audio in Sync with Movie Animation" and is based on predefined soundtrack checkpoints.
If I'm not wrong, the URL is this one: http://www.koolmoves.com/support.html

:cap:

[Adam Novagen]

Sorry this reply took so long everyone; my computer hours are erratic.

I coun't get yours or the first one to lock up. On my side it worked very good.
Okay... I guess you've got a faster PC than mine... Lucky guy. ^_^ Thanks for testing, anyway!

How large is the mp3 file you are embedding? Why are you embedding rather than streaming?
The embedded file is only about 300K; I use WavePad to cut sound to a minimum.

Okay, Audio Streaming 101 (I'm SUCH a n00b in Flash! =P ) If you "stream" audio, does that mean that you have to upload the audio file to a separate location (outside the SWF) and then link to it with a URL??

One of them is called "Keeping Audio in Sync with Movie Animation" and is based on predefined soundtrack checkpoints.
Thanks necromanthus; I'llit. I have no AS experience whatsoever, but I have done some programming in other languages, so I'll see what i can make of it; it looks compact enough.

[tmoore935]

You are correct about the streaming. The swf will call the music from a URL.

[jimventola]

A few years ago I found a nice website containing some useful tutorials.
One of them is called "Keeping Audio in Sync with Movie Animation" and is based on predefined soundtrack checkpoints.
If I'm not wrong, the URL is this one: http://www.koolmoves.com/support.html

:cap:
I downloaded this and extracted to a folder. When I ran AudioSynch.html, I saw the graphic but got no audio. The .mp3 plays fine alone.

Is there maybe something that has changed?

[Adam Novagen]

I downloaded this and extracted to a folder. When I ran AudioSynch.html, I saw the graphic but got no audio. The .mp3 plays fine alone.

Is there maybe something that has changed?

I thought that too, but I fiddled with the ActionScript and got it working fine. Best of all though, I came up with a super-easy AS formula to automatically skip to the correct frame at ANY POINT IN TIME, not just at specific "checkpoints." I still owe huge thanks to necromanthus, though, since it was his AS that got me started. Ta!