How do I manipulate the position of multiple sound objects client-side in Flash and then mix them together?

Question

If you wanted to create a client-side Flash-based sound editor that lets you load more than 1 sound to an interface that allows you to manipulate the individual positions of the sounds, and mix/play them in real time, how would you accomplish this?

I'm looking to create a simple version that can mix 2 mp3s, allowing the user to adjust the positions of each. Sort of a dumbed down version of Aviary's Myna audio editor.

At the end of the mixing, I would also like our server to mix the 2 mp3 files with the proper positioning into 1 mp3 file...

Answer 1

Depending on the kind of output you need to think of the right strategy to match. You say at the end of the editing you need a server to mix down multiple mp3 files. You could also think of creating that mix in the flash player, it's powerful enough these days. The binary result you could send to the server, which only needs to write out the bytes into a .mp3 file.

I think you need to delve into the realm of audio processing a bit and decide on what kind of tool you want to make. Check out Tonfall, by Andre Michelle, the techniques he uses are about as high-tech as it gets.

On the other end of the spectrum, you could write your own mp3 sequencer, with Timers set to call a Sound instance's .play() method at the right moment. That's about as low-tech as it gets.

You'll probably want to be somewhere in the middle, and then you can return with specific questions that are easier to answer. Good luck.