Once IΓÇÖve imported the sounds into Flash, I go through and set the compression on each file individually. Typically, one format will work across the board but for some, accent sounds can be compressed to a higher degree and not be noticeable when the score is built. To do this, open the Library window and double-click on the sound. This will open the Sound Properties window, in which you can set the compression format on the sound, as IΓÇÖve done here.
You can try different formats and test them, which allows you to hear the impact of the compression and see the resulting reduction in file size. I prefer to use MP3 compression to try and stay in the 24-32kbps range. But, for voice over and some effects, IΓÇÖll go all the way down to 16kbps.
Before we build the score, let me first explain the four sync methods available in Flash: Event, Start, Stop and Stream. You select any of these from the sound panel Sync drop-down menu.
Event and Start
Event and Start are very similar. They basically call a sound to play on a frame. The difference is that, for the Start sync, the player will check to see whether this sound is already playing from a previous frame action. If it is, it wonΓÇÖt play, thus preventing sound overlap. This is useful for long button sound effects, for which an overlap will sound like a mistake. Both Event and Start can be looped. The Stop sync will basically stop the playback of the selected sound. The Stream sync will stream in a sound and is the only method that you can use to sync frames to sound. This is great for voiceovers and very long sound files. If you use this method, you must be careful because the player will drop frames in order to keep the sound in sync with the playback. So, if your motion is complex and CPU intensive, on weaker CPUs the playback will be very choppy.
Now weΓÇÖre ready to build our score in Flash. Select the frame in which you wish the main loop to start playing, double-click and select the Sound tab in the Frame Properties window.
