Streaming Audio using Flash

topics: flash streaming audio, embedding sound and voices in web pages, speaking websites, briefing voices for your website

We have heard too many hypes about "websites that talk" (intended as websites that include a "guiding voice" --urgh!!!! while navigating) and the SCIENTIFIC (???) theories behind the fact that audio embedded pages can multiply internet sales up to 300%!!!
Web agencies offers embedding audio services for a "low-price" of about 150$ per minute (aaaaaaaaargh!!!) and some other developers sell "a proven and easy method to incorporate sound and voices to your pages" for a low-price investment of 80-100$ (we could link some of these lamer sites,but we are not an Adv agency, and we dont want to promote them in any way, suckers!)

Even if those marketing-scientific-theories should be demonstrated before selling something that could be uneffective at all, we believe it's nice to include a briefing voice on your pages, introducing your products, speaking about your work, your site, your sister or whoever...Most of all ---and that's what the lamers REALLY sell -- this voice (or sound) must start when your page is loaded, at the same time, with no two-hours waits for the sound to load.

Well, here's the revelation: those guys have only discovered hot water! There's no audio-conversion secret, no hidden html codes, no strange players, no weird sound format, nothing. Web Agencies embed sound using a well known feature of Macromedia Flash, which is the streaming audio support; what the lamers sell is a Macromedia Flash source file ready to be exported with your own voice: what the pigs are doing is (re)selling Macromedia's copyrighted technology!

The purpose of this article is to show you that if you need hot water you just have to warm your free cold water and NOT to purchase expensive pre-warmed water...

Let's start.

You need a microphone (everyone have one) connected to your Pc.
The sound recorder included in Windows 9x/Nt/2000/Xp is more than enough
(in this tutorial we have streamed the full version of Radiohead's Karma Police song)
Macromedia Flash (we use MX version in this artcle, but 5 version is good anyway)

Here's how our streaming flash player will look at the end of all (sounds scary...)

Imaging you have to embed your voice, just record it with Bill Gate's wonderful sound recorder and your microphone, and save it in WAVE format (.wav). Don't mind about compression, Macromedia Flash will do it better. Just to make some tests you can grab a Wave you already have on your hard disk or convert one of your 389.876 mp3s into a wave file (that's what we did....oooooops!)

The output flash file in this article is 200px x 100px. This is not mandatory: minimum size is 18x18px, so you'll be able to produce some more discreet players :-)