Dean's Director FAQ - SOUND
Another FAQ exists at
MediaMacros, which
is new and extensive.
Sound
Question: How do I record and edit sound from CD? What is the
best program to use?
Answer:
There are sound ripping programs that covert an audio track into
a wav or mp3 file in a few seconds. AudioCatalyst
is an example. The trial version is at:
Resources on Emuwater:\samples\benv\multimedia\software\CDaudioGrab
SoundForge or Adobe Audition are sound editing software, that also allow
the creation of cue points ( which I'll talk about in the next question).
Question: What programs can I use to insert cue points (markers)
into my sound?
Answer:
Peak LE, Sound Forge, Sound Edit and Cool Edit Pro can be used to insert
markers into an audio file to be used in Director. If you purchase the commercial
version of Director 7, 8 or 8.5 it will include Sound Forge (Win) or Peak
LE (Mac).
What is the best format for Director and how long
can my sound be?
Answer:
Director imports AIFF and WAV sounds (both compressed - though it depends
on the compressor - and uncompressed), AU, Shockwave Audio, MP3, and Macintosh
sounds. For best results, use sounds that have 8- or 16-bit depth and a
sampling rate of 44.1, 22.050, or 11.025 KHz. MIDI files are not supported.
For Shockwave Audio see the FAQ below.
Length of Sound. Sound can be very big in file size. To reduce the size,
you can make it mono instead of stereo and reduce the sampling rate. But
that may reduce the quality of the sound substantially. So, if you want
to have high quality sound, it is best to keep the sound to about 15 seconds.
Try find a sound that can be looped i.e. when it finishes, it starts from
the beginning. If you do this well, your audience will not realise the sound
has ended and your sound will appear to be longer. Be careful that it is
not too short as if it loops too much it can become annoying.
Question: My sound does not work. Why?
Answer:
Check:
Play the sound outside Director to see if it works there. Is the computer
the problem? Is the volume on mute? Is the file corrupt? Is Director's volume
set to mute? Did you use a puppetSound command, without an updateStage command?
SWA
Question:How do I convert sound to SWA?
Answer:
In Director for Windows you can convert wave sounds to SWA from
the Xtras menu (Convert WAV to SWA).
On Macintosh, you can use SoundEdit 16.