Seamless Audio Loops in Rev

[Scott Rossi]

After lamenting the absence of any reliable way to seamlessly loop audio in
Rev, it occurred to me that Flash can loop audio seamlessly and Flash movies
can be played from within QuickTime.  So here is one way to accomplish
seamless audio loops in Rev (tested on a Mac system with FlashMX):

Start with a new Flash movie.  Import your audio clip into the library.

Edit the properties of the clip and set the compression to default or MP3
(haven't tried the other options).

Drag the clip from the library onto the stage, which will cause the clip to
occupy a single keyframe in the timeline.

Select the clip's keyframe on the timeline and set the clip's loop property
to something like 900 (goofy, yes, but this is how you do it).

On the Flash tab under File/Publish Settings, set the version to Flash
Player 4 (make the final movie more compatible with older versions of QT).

Publish a Flash movie only (no HTML necessary).

In Rev, create a button that sets the fileName of a player to the path of
the SWF to start playback, and sets the fileName of the player to empty to
stop.  The player will automatically start the Flash movie once the fileName
is set.  You could add a fade routine that lowers the playLoudness of the
player before setting the fileName.

There you have it: seamless playback of an audio loop within a Rev player
and it requires no special interaction with Flash.  Note that the player has
no currentTime while it is playing so you cannot query its progress, though
for simple seamless playback, this should suffice.  You might be able to get
a more interactive Flash movie by sacrificing backwards QT compatibility,
but this is open to testing.

(Unfortunately, the above technique requires the presence of QuickTime, and
even more annoying is this really should be doable within Rev without Flash
at all, but at least this method should be fairly reliable.)

Regards,

Scott Rossi
Creative Director
Tactile Media, Development & Design
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E: scott at tactilemedia.com
W: http://www.tactilemedia.com