Flash CS4 All-in-One For Dummies®

Chapter 3. Editing Sound Files

In This Chapter

• Optimizing sound in Flash

• Editing sound files in Flash

If you don't have sound editing software, you can still do a lot of work in Flash. All you need to do is change some properties in the document library and you can tweak the sound file to sound its best, while also creating a relatively svelte Flash file. The compression method and sampling rate affect the file size of the published SWF file. Tweaking the properties of individual sounds results in files that sound good and are as small as possible. You can also modify effects you apply to sounds, such as the duration of a fade-in or fade-out or panning from one speaker to the next.

Optimizing Sound for Your Project

If you don't have sound editing software, you can accomplish quite a bit in Flash. You can't eliminate background hiss, or slice and dice a sound file to cut out the bits that don't sound good, but you can find the optimal compression method and settings. You can optimize sound globally when you publish a file. (We cover optimizing sound when publishing a document in Book VIII, Chapter 4.)

You can also optimize individual sounds by modifying their properties in the document library. When you modify a sound's properties there, the published sound settings aren't applied. To optimize an individual sound file, follow these steps:

1. Choose Window

   The document library opens.

2. Select the ...