audio in/out points...?

[Phonic Monkey]

- i've got 2 loops
- i want to play the 1st one once, then the third forever...
- they need to keep exact time with each other
- i've put them both on the same frame as 'start' event sounds
- i've used the envelope to bring them in at the right points

the problem is that flash seems to start one loop later than the other and they do not sync. having said that, sometimes they do...

the loops themselves are definitely fine - they are the same length (to the milisec) and they loop fine in cubase or cool edit.

is it something to do with the in/out points that flash sets? because i noticed that they are not exactly on the beginning/end of the loop - i tried to move them but they snapped to a time further away from where they should be.

I REALLY WOULD APPRETIATE some help from you flash daddies... is this a bug?

thanks a lot,

[cre8ive]

make both loops sound objects and have them start playing at the same time.

The volume of loop one should be 100 and the volume of loop2 0.

At the same time you have the sound objects play start a timer. When the timer is greater than the length of the loop have the sound object for loop one stop and set the volume of loop2's sound object to 100.

[hp3]

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the problem is that flash seems to start one loop later than the other and they do not sync. having said that, sometimes they do...
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you use also use the loop mix technique which is backwards compatible with Flash 4 and does not require ActionScripting, which is not as acurate for volume fades as the volume envelope.

The key to sychronization is that you start both sounds at the same time and that they are exact in their duration. Otherwise the loops drift out of sync because the down beats no longer line up.

To start sounds in sync you use a stream sound to temporarily put the player in stream mode. The silent stream sync sound plays before, during and shortly after the loop tracks start. Make sure all loop tracks are in the same frame.

1. create 3 layers, one for each loop track and one for a sync track.
2. add a keyframe to frame 1 and add 4 more frames for a total of 5 to the sync track layer.
3. add a short silent strean sync sound to frame 1 of the sync track layer.
4. loop the sync track enough times to see the wave form of the sync sound in all 5 frames.
5. attach loop1 to its respective layer in frame 3.
6. do the same with loop2.
7. set up your envelope points in each track so that loop2, the infinite loop, is muted while the intro loop plays, then mute the intro loop and bring up loop2.

Since you are using two loops you might be able to place them both in a single stereo wave/aiff file and crossfade the stereo file instead of having two different sounds. The file size may be quite a bit smaller because MP3 compresses stereo and mono sounds to the same file size.

I just completeed an article on how to create Flash loop mixes for Electronic Musician Magazine but it will be awhile before publication.

[Phonic Monkey]

thanks for your help guys...

i've actually got it working now.

all i did was reboot my computer and restart flash - they lined up perfectly after that, must be a bug there somewhere...

thanks again