Bizarre Sound Distortion on Export -...

I'm trying out the Flash CS3 demo - OSX. (Using OSX 10.4.10.)



I've got a slightly complicated timeline with about 8 layers
and some things alpha fading in and out, and a bunch of sound
samples being used as timeline sound effects (forget the term, but
attached to frames not streaming). No scripting.



The sounds are mostly too long for the amount of time
allotted to them in the timeline, and cut previous sounds off. I'm
speculating this might be a possible issue. That is, I have say a 5
second sound, which has only 3 seconds of time to play, before
another sound interrupts it in the same timeline layer.



There are two separate layers of sound playing at the same
time.



All the original sounds are imported into the movie as
44.1/16bit AIFFs. They are mono files (might be another possible
issue).



I'm trying to export with quality of 128k MP3. I've been
trying different variations:



- setting the compression for the audio files in the
Library/setting movie export settings to use Library settings



- setting audio files in the Library to use ''default
compression'', and specifying the correct 128k MP3 setting in the
export settings



- or both of these (set individually in library, then
overridden in export settings).



I've tried with and without the ''use mono'' setting (both in
Library files and export settings). (This is a question for me:
what should be the correct setting for that when the original file
already is mono?)



Sometimes everything's great. I test or export the movie and
the sound is fine.



Other times I test or export the movie -- with exactly the
same audio settings as the last time when it worked -- and now get
unbearably hideous hissing/cracking instead of the correct sound.



Most dangerously -- I think but haven't quite convinced
myself -- the same flash export file may sometimes play fine, and
sometimes play with the distortion. So I'm not sure if this is an
export issue, Flash player issue, or combination of export doing
something semi-weird that the player only sometimes chokes on. A
''bad'' export is distorted both in the desktop Flash player that
comes with the Flash demo, and in a browser with Flash plugin 9 r45
(OSX).





GUH!



And this is the $800 product which is little more than a
basic text editor for scripting and an animation timeline that
hasn't gotten updated functionality since 1999.Bizarre Sound Distortion on Export -...
Not that I'm bitter that this is inexplicably destroying my
life at the moment or anything.Bizarre Sound Distortion on Export -...
Boing.



These Adobe boards are not very useful with so little traffic
(how many posts with 0 responses?). And having such noticeably
little traffic keeps the traffic low -- why waste precious time
posting as I have done with such little chance of assistance?



Solution: get Adobe support people in masquerading as users
to actually get questions answered, so the boards will grow in
popularity, and eventually be self-supporting.
This is a peer-to-peer public forum - if you demand
individual and undivided attention to your issue

then you can use the official adobe tech support.



As for your issue...let's go step by step:





[*The sounds are mostly too long for the amount of time
allotted to them in the

timeline, and cut previous sounds off. I'm speculating this
might be a possible

issue. That is, I have say a 5 second sound, which has only 3
seconds of time

to play, before another sound interrupts it in the same
timeline layer.*]



Is this intended? You are having an issue with 5 second
sounds being cut off after 3 seconds...why

not place them on different layers to avoid this? I don't
understand the workflow here.



[*There are two separate layers of sound playing at the same
time.*]



Ok - that makes more sense, so you have 2 layers both
containing sounds that cut each other off?



[*All the original sounds are imported into the movie as
44.1/16bit AIFFs. They

are mono files (might be another possible issue).*]



Mono shouldn't matter - but the quality of the original will
matter - specifically the levels, if

the overall level is originally too high (or ''hot''), then
clipping will occur once compressed from

Flash (in some cases).





[Sometimes everything's great. I test or export the movie
and the sound is fine.]



Can you provide the FLA?



[Other times I test or export the movie -- with exactly the
same audio settings

as the last time when it worked -- and now get unbearably
hideous

hissing/cracking instead of the correct sound.]



Never heard of this before - need to see the FLA.



[And this is the $800 product which is little more than a
basic text editor for

scripting and an animation timeline that hasn't gotten
updated functionality

since 1999.]

You may take exception to this but it sounds very much like
user error or something beyond Flash

(like an issue with the source audio files). Your opinion is
subjective but AS3, Flash, Flex is

hardly ''little more than a text editor''. True the timeline
hasn't changed much over the years but

funny that it is still the king when it comes to animation
across so many mediums - why fix what

ain't broken and works so very well for so many worldwide?



:)



Chris Georgenes

Adobe Community Expert

www.mudbubble.com

www.keyframer.com

www.howtocheatinflash.com



Mr Distortion wrote:

%26gt; Boing.

%26gt;

%26gt; These Adobe boards are not very useful with so little
traffic (how many posts

%26gt; with 0 responses?). And having such noticeably little
traffic keeps the traffic

%26gt; low -- why waste precious time posting as I have done
with such little chance

%26gt; of assistance?

%26gt;

%26gt; Solution: get Adobe support people in masquerading as
users to actually get

%26gt; questions answered, so the boards will grow in
popularity, and eventually be

%26gt; self-supporting.

%26gt;


I'm not a Mac person, but I've had surprising success with
actually multitracking audio in Flash8 (Windows). I stack up as
many layers I need and have no issue with cut off sounds or odd
noises. I would check to see if there might be any issue with audio
drivers and the operating system. Don't forget, if you convert your
audio to mp3 before being into Flash, it will get passed along to
the .swf file unchanged.

Also, I would check to see if anything is feeding your audio
card digital input. Most cards will try to slave to the incoming
clock and will cause problems with file playback if it doesn't
match sample rate.
For anyone else getting this...



It's looking like this is a Flash CS3 app bug.



The app is either intermittently losing track of
document/library sound settings, or the MP3 converter just chokes
sometimes trying to convert AIFF files to MP3 on movie export.



Fortunately it looks like once an .swf movie is exported, it
will either be distorted or not, and this isn't a player or random
playback issue.



So you can just export repeatedly until getting a ''good one''
(!).



I've only gotten it with 128k MP3 export, never with 64k MP3
export. For 128K it seems that fiddling with the sound settings
before trying to export may prevent the distortion. My best results
seem to be:



- all AIFFs in Library set to ''compression - default''



- Publish settings of ''Audio event: MP3, 128kpbs, Mono'';
Override sound settings unchecked
OR, you could change your audio to MP3 BEFORE importing it
into Flash, and bypass the issue altogether. Flash has always had
problems with audio formats other than MP3, back to when I first
learned on Flash 6, so this is nothing new.



You can also try not taking your frustrations out on a p2p
forum when your problem goes unanswered for 1 day. There are a lot
of messages getting posted in any day, and sometimes you just have
to bump yours up to the top to get noticed. This is true of every
forum on the net. Most of the time you will get a response quickly,
but sometimes you don't, this isn't a problem, and it isn't Adobe's
job to watch their p2p forum to answer simple questions that can be
prevented if the user just does a little research and works
intelligently. If the problem is big enough that the forums cannot
answer it, then it can go into Adobe's realm, via the official Tech
Support.
I think I had this same problem; I fixed it by dropping the
sound levels slightly before importing, it seems to only happen
where the audio peaks and hits '100% volume'.