Exporting Sounds

In Adobe Animate (formerly Flash Professional CC), you can select compression options for individual event sounds and export the sounds with those settings. You can also select compression options for individual stream sounds. However, all stream sounds in a document are exported as a single stream file, using the highest setting of all those applied to individual stream sounds. This includes stream sounds in video objects.

If you select global compression settings for event sounds or stream sounds in the Publish Settings dialog box, these settings are applied to individual event sounds or all stream sounds if you do not select compression settings for the sounds in the Sound Properties dialog box.

You can also override export settings specified in the Sound Properties dialog box by selecting Override Sound Settings in the Publish Settings dialog box. This option is useful if you want to create a larger high-fidelity audio file for local use and a smaller low-fidelity version for the web.

The sampling rate and degree of compression make a significant difference in the quality and size of sounds in exported SWF files. The more you compress a sound and the lower the sampling rate, the smaller the size and the lower the quality. You should experiment to find the optimal balance between sound quality and file size.

When working with imported mp3 files, you can export the files in mp3 format using the same settings that the files had when imported.

 In Windows, you can also export all the sounds from a document as a WAV file using File > Export > Export Movie.

Compress a sound for export

ADPCM and Raw compression options

ADPCM compression sets compression for 8- or 16-bit sound data. Use the ADPCM setting when you export short event sounds such as button clicks.

Raw compression exports sounds with no sound compression.

Converts mixed stereo sounds to monaural (mono) when you select Convert Stereo To Mono (mono sounds are unaffected by this option).

Controls sound fidelity and file size. Lower rates decrease file size but can also degrade sound quality. Rate options are as follows:

note: Animate cannot increase the kHz rate of an imported sound above the rate at which it was imported.

Barely acceptable for speech.

The lowest recommended quality for a short segment of music and one-quarter the standard CD rate.

A popular choice for web playback and half the standard CD rate.

The standard CD audio rate.

(ADPCM only) Specifies the bit depth of the sound compression. Higher bit depths produce higher quality sound.

mp3 compression options

Lets you export sounds with mp3 compression. Use mp3 when you are exporting longer stream sounds such as music sound tracks.

If you are exporting a file that was imported in mp3 format, you can export the file using the same settings the file had when it was imported.

Default setting. Deselect to select other mp3 compression settings. Select to export an imported mp3 file with the same settings the file had when it was imported.

Determines the bits per second in the exported sound file. Animate supports 8 through 160 Kbps CBR (constant bit rate). When you export music, set the bit rate to 16 Kbps or higher for best results.

Converts mixed stereo sounds to monaural (mono sounds are unaffected by this option).

note: The Preprocessing option is available only if you select a bit rate of 20 Kbps or higher.

Determines the compression speed and sound quality:

Yields faster compression but lower sound quality.

Yields somewhat slower compression but higher sound quality.

Yields the slowest compression and the highest sound quality.

Speech compression option

Speech compression exports sounds using a compression that is adapted to speech.

note: Flash Lite 1.0 and Flash Lite 1.1 do not support the Speech compression option. For content targeting those player versions, use mp3, ADPCM, or Raw compression.

Controls sound fidelity and file size. A lower rate decreases file size but can also degrade sound quality. Select from the following options:

Acceptable for speech.

Recommended for speech.

Acceptable for most types of music on the web.

The standard CD audio rate. However, because compression is applied, the sound is not CD quality in the SWF file.

Guidelines for exporting sound in Animate documents

Besides sampling rate and compression, there are several ways to use sound efficiently in a document and keep file size small:

• Set the in and out points to prevent silent areas from being stored in the Animate file and to reduce the size of the sound data in the file.

• Get more out of the same sounds by applying different effects for sounds (such as volume envelopes, looping, and in/out points) at different keyframes. You can get a number of sound effects by using only one sound file.

• Loop short sounds for background music.

• Do not set streaming sound to loop.

• When exporting audio in embedded video clips, remember that the audio is exported using the global streaming settings selected in the Publish Settings dialog box.

• Use stream synchronization to keep the animation synchronized to your sound track when you preview your animation in the editor. If your computer is not fast enough to draw the animation frames so that they keep up with your sound track, Animate skips frames.

• When exporting QuickTime movies, use as many sounds and channels as you want without worrying about file size. The sounds are combined into a single sound track when you export as a QuickTime file. The number of sounds you use has no effect on the final file size.