a swf that edits mp3s?

long story short...

i'd like to build a swf so that users can upload mp3 files into the swf, make some minor edits (maybe even jsut cropping) of the sound file, then hit a button to complete their editing.

upon completion, im hoping the flash file would export the edited file as either an .mp3 or maybe even its own swf.

now, it certainly wont be me doing this :) but i have a few flash developers online that i could have help me develop this concept. i just wanted to check with you masses if this was (1) possible and (2) what would be involved in the process?

what're your thoughts on the idea?

You realize that flash cannot do anything like this by itself. The only thing flash can do is be the interface for an advanced application you will need to build.

Building the interface is the easy part. Writting all the php scripts to do the functions and configuring your server are the hard parts.

Your server will need to be highly configured to run FFMPEG and mp3lame. FFMPEG is an opensource utility that will convert one file format to another, or in your case convert an mp3 to an edited mp3.

Here's a breakdown of the process:
1) Build a form that allows all of the following: browse for a file, select times (in/out (cropping)), and upload the file.
2) The file will get uploaded to the server, converted and cropped using FFMPEG and MP3Lame, then stored in a folder.
3) Build an mp3 player that has a dynamic playlist either from a database or just getting all files from the conversion folder on your server.

That is the "simple" explaination and basically what needs to happen.

So, YES this can be done but it's a very advanced application. If you are not familiar with uploading in flash, or php scripts, or server utilities, then you could be in for a long few months!

I just built a database driven Flash Video application that will convert any video file to FLV on my server. Very cool, very useful and very difficult to pull off.

heya LP -- i appreciate the response!

honest opinion:

if the end result, from the user's perspective, is an online interface where you can upload an mp3 to crop / compress it... do you think that this is the best way to go about it?

would you recommend something else? not using flash?

Well like I said, Flash can ONLY be the interface. It can't do any of the converting. Meaning, it's just the online form for this application. Everything else depends on your server and your server-side scripts (php).
You could use a straight html form to do the same thing!

This is totally possible but it's a very tricky and complex applicaton to build. I'm not trying to deter you from building this because it would be awesome but if you are not very advanced with php and server configuration you will never be able to build it. Also, if you use a shared hosting account for your websites, you don't even have access to the root of that server. So you have to own or rent a dedicated server to even consider pulling this off.
Applications like this and the video converter I just built sell for huge money because they are worth it and takes months to build.

I can't recommend anything else because there are only a handful of applications that currently do this. They have to be built from scratch. That's why I built my video player/converter because no one else has really built one.

Building the interface/form is easy. But 99.9% of this application depends on your php and server config.
This is why it's going to be difficult for me to sell my video application because so much depends on the server config and if the user can pull that off.