Exporting and Compressing Sound Files

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If you have more than one sound file per movie, you'll want to set the compression for each individual file because you may be able to compress some more than others. Sound files can add a tremendous weight to your movie, so you need to compress and edit carefully for the best effect and impact. If the movie takes too long to load many people on modem connections simply won't wait. To set the compression settings for a sound file, follow these steps:

1. Open the Library panel (F11).

2. Select a sound file.

3. Right-click (Control+click) and select Properties. Figure 29-3 shows the Sound Properties dialog box.

   
   Figure 29-3: The Sound Properties dialog box

4. Click the Update button if you edited the file outside of Flash. Click the Test button to hear any changes you've made.

5. From the Compression drop-down list, choose a compression type. The options are

   • Default — This applies the settings you have set in the Publish Settings dialog box. You can change the Publish Settings to change the default.

     Cross-Reference 

     Publish Settings is covered in more detail in Chapter 30.

   • ADPCM (Adaptive Differential Pulse-code Modulation) — Normally used for short sounds.

   • MP3 — CD or near CD quality. Used for music, dialog, and long sounds. A quality setting of 20 or above gives you the option of stereo channels or mono. The quality setting of Fast is best compression, but the worst quality. Medium is better than the fast compression. Best is the least compression, but it gives you the best quality for music or sounds that are important.

   • Raw — This option applies no compression at all.

   • Speech — This is new in Flash MX and is meant for human speech. If you select this option but export for Flash 5, it will be converted to ADPCM.

   • QuickTime — This option is used when you are going to export as a QuickTime movie instead of a Flash movie.

6. Click the Test button to hear the sounds.

7. Click OK when you are done.

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