I have a sound (voice narration) which I want to animate to.

I want to see the imported sound in the Timeline for its ACTUAL length in the
frames.

I then want to be able to drag back and forth (or similar) to hear WHERE I am
in the narration, and to do my animation to match it.

How do I do this in Flash 8 Pro ?

Thanks

It really is that simple in Flash Pro 8.

Import the sound. Drag it from the library onto a layer and put enough frames
on the layer until you have no more blue line. If there is an automatic way to
do this, I don't know it.

Click on the sound in the layer and in the properties box, make sure Sync is
set to Stream and you can wipe the timeline.

[q]Originally posted by: rlc5611...put enough frames on
the layer until you have no more blue line. ...[/q]How do I do this? When I
drag, the single frame moves, or the edge of the layer labels area moves, or I
get a wide blank range of frames with a single frame item at the right end...

None of these show any "blue line"...

One the layer where you have the sound, scroll the timeline to the right. Click on the timeline out there somewhere and hit the F5 key and it will extend the timeline frames to that point.

[q]Originally posted by: rlc5611
One the layer where you have the sound, scroll the timeline to the right.
Click on the timeline out there somewhere and hit the F5 key and it will extend
the timeline frames to that point.[/q]Thanks.

Okay, It's stretched out the waveform, thanks.

1) How do I make the displayed frames TALLER ?

2) How do I know in which frame the 2min 6sec sound ends? Do I need to multipy
out 2m06s by 20 fps to get the final frame (frame 2560!) OR OR OR.... Does it
just scale the sound length to FIT the "final" frame I chose, OR OR OR ... does
it CHOP the audio short to fit the magic "final" frame I chose ?

( What I want is 20 frames per second, and for the sound to be shown complete
and unchopped or adulterated at THAT SCALE ON THE TIMELINE )

If you want precision timing, Flash is not your software of choice. You can
sync animation to the sound. The timing will be reasonably close but with
marginal error. The FPS of Flash is not guaranteed. But I'm kind of tired of
GETTING YELLED AT so I'm kind of outta here.

Sorry, I wasn't yelling at you. I'm just frustrated by the terrible documentation. Typical Macromedia....

Well Macromedia hasn't been around for quite awhile, and it all works just like
you want, so stop over-thinking it. It also sounds like you should do some of
the basic tutorials on working with the timeline and the playhead.

You know what frame the sound ends at because the blue wave frame ends. If it
doesn't end you haven't reached the end and will need to add additional blank
frames.

How could it scale the sound to fit? If it scaled it then you would either
have chipmunks or chopped off sound or something else undesireable. You've got
2m6s of sound, that is how long the sound will be. At 20 frames per second that
is 2520 frames -- more or less. If you change the frame rate of the document
the length of the blue line will change, because again it all works just like
you are asking.

As for making them taller, I think the timeline only has normal and short
choices for the height of the timelines. So if you aren't already on short it
doesn't get any taller.

"Scaled to fit" -- adjusted frame rate so that the length I dragged out would
fit the length of the sound. 2m06s over 126 frames would "scale" to 1 frame
per second.

Don't kid yourself, Macromedia is still there, just without the name.

I seem to be able to set the width of the frame indicators, but not the
height. Sigh.

I've never used sounds this way, I've always used ActionScript to control
everything, but my son wants to do a simple frame-by-frame animation sync'ed to
narration, and I'm trying to set it up for him. I've read the documentation,
and its Not Clear what's actually happening.

William, you're getting yourself all worked up and confused over nothing. I'm
also unsure what you mean by "Typical Macromedia". I, and many others on this
forum, tend to believe that the documentation that comes with Flash is
some of the best-written and most thorough on the market, especially for the
less advanced topics.

As others have said, a simple tutorial about the Flash user interface will
answer all your questions. Look for the tutorials in the Flash menu to
start with.

It is extremely easy to work with sounds in Flash. What you're trying is
absolutely basic. But you're panicking, it seems.

Flash does not scale sound to fit. As Rothrock said, you need to extend your
timeline to 2520 frames or thereabouts.

Some of the steps you need to take:

1) In the Properties panel (normally at the bottom of your screen), you'll see
the Frame Rate window. The default is 12. Enter 20 instead.

2) Place your sound on the timeline. Then scroll way to the right, aound frame
2520. Click on the sound layer around that point and hit the F5 key.

3) Click anywhere on the sound layer in the Timeline. In the Properties panel
you'll see a dropdown menu called "Sync". Set this to Stream. This enables you
to scrub the timeline.

4) Look at the Timeline. Above the layers is a numerical scale showing you the
number of frames. To the right of the numbers is a little button that looks
like a bulleted list: 3 dots and 3 dashes. It also has a tiny triangle which
indicates that it's a drop-down list. Click on it. This offers you choices for
the height of the timeline layers. Click on Preview or Preview In Context. Now
you should be able to see an enlarged view of your waveform.

5) Go to the menu in Flash (hit the F1 key). In the Search menu type
"Working with sound". Then go to the "Working with Sound" section. It will
teach you a lot about what you can do next. It's a series of good,
easy-to-understand tutorials. Typical Macromedia. Don't kid yourself!

Have fun with it!

Elias, thanks for your extensive reply. I appreciate it, but I'm still having
trouble.

Thanks for "Preview" etc.


Okay, I've gone to 10 fps for clarity of discussion.

I cannot do this in one step for some reason (perhaps you have a PC), I have
to scroll the timeline out to about 595 first, then I select that frame and hit
F5, then scroll out to 1190, then select and hit F5, then scroll out to 1300,
then select and hit F5.

It looks like the sound ends at the right edge of frame 1266.

If I try to drag the end of the sound back to 1266, it looks like a new copy
has been added. If I UNDO twice, then the "missing" waveform is not refreshed
(erased), or is still set as a copy. What a pain.... I actually have to go to
a different app, then come back to Flash to see the correct waveform...

Is there a way to drag the end of the sound back to frame 1266 ?

Otherwise, how do I now shorten the sound back to 1266 ?

---

"...allows you to scrub the timeline..." - I don't hear anything... Is there
a way to hear the audio?

Oy vay! Select several frames anywhere in the sound layer and hit the delete
key. That'll remove frames without actually deleting any part of the sound.
Best way is to select those empty frames at the end.

And I (and others) told you to set the sound Sync property to Stream. Then you
can hear the sound when you scrub. Unless the sound is in some sort of
incompatible format, such as an MP3 encoded at an unusual rate (I fear this
will get you asking more questions). If that happens, try to reformat your
sound file as a plain 44.1 kHz stereo WAV or AIFF file and reimport it.

You really sound like you need some very VERY basic . Your questions are
Day 1 Lesson 1 questions about how to use the Flash user interface. If you're
having this much trouble figuring out how to work with a single layer
containing a single sound, I worry for you when you start creating layer-based
animation. I strongly urge you to do some beginner's tutorials. You'll feel a
lot better when you do.

Thanks

As I say, I've only every really used Flash via ActionScript, not via the
timeline... (Two years ago I made 450 flash movies about UK Parliament
buildings at www.explore-parliament.net )

And the scrubbing, Oops! User Malfunction here. I didn't realise my son had
earphones plugged in, sorry. I can hear the audio now...

Thanks to all for your support. I appreciate the .