Introduction
Some Flash movies need to maintain a constant frame rate, but the complexity of animation, and the speed of the computer playing it, can affect frame rate during playback. Certain systems may not be able to maintain the set frame rate and will play an animation slower than designed.

This TechNote discusses one way to ensure that frame rate is maintained throughout an animation.

Solution
A "trick of the trade" commonly used by Flash designers is to use a "blank" or "silent" sound, set to stream in the timeline. This will force the Flash movie to maintain a frame rate even at the expense of dropping frames as the movie plays.

	Pre-determine the frame rate for the Flash movie set in the Property inspector, Movie Properties for Flash 5 and earlier.
	Blank or silent sound created from a third-party sound editing program, which lasts the duration of the Flash movie. The format for the blank sound can be MP3, WAV or AIFF.