Sound recording using SoundEdit

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SoundEdit can be used for two important functions:

For our project, we will use both sets of features to create a soundtrack for the animation that will be displayed in our web pages. This will be an example of sampled sound, one of the major audio technologies that can be used in a web page. Other approaches include MIDI and speech synthesis.


Sound contents

  1. Background ambience noise or music. This is generally looped to save on file size.
  2. Sound hits synchronized to specific events in the animation.

Basic operation:

  1. Launch the SoundEdit application, found in the Sound folder on the hard drive.
    the SoundEdit application icon
  2. Choose the command Apple menu-->Control Panels-->Monitors and Sound. In the dialog, click on the Sound button at the top. Choose your sound source from the Sound Monitoring Source menu (close the dialog when done):
  3. If you selected CD, use the Apple CD Audio Player (in the Apple menu) to select a track for playback.
    selecting an audio track in the Apple CD player
  4. Use the Sound Format command in the Modify menu to choose 8 bits, and the lowest one of the Rates marked with a microphone icon. Make sure to leave Compression turned off.
    choosing a hardware-supported sampling rate
  5. Use the Ruler Units command in the View menu to choose Frames as the unit. In the field that appears next to Frames, enter the frame rate you selected in Director for your animation.
    setting ruler options to match animation frame rate
  6. If necessary, use the Window menu to display the Levels palette. You may also have to expand the palette (clicking on its zoom box) to see the control sliders. Start your sound source, and adjust the recording sliders (indicated by the microphone icon) for the best levels: loud enough to show many green bars in the meter, but not so loud that yellow and red bars appear. In the example pictured here, the left channel (topmost in the display) is set too loud, while the right channel is too soft.
    sound check in Levels palette
  7. Press the record button when your sound source is properly cued up.
    record button pressed
  8. Press the Stop button when done recording.
    stop button pressed
  9. A waveform graph representing the newly recorded sound will appear in the document window.
    a newly recorded sound
  10. Use the Save command in the File menu, choose Audio IFF as the file format.
    saving as an AIFF file


Additional Info:


Copyright by Sandro Corsi.Last modified 12 Oct 98.