Create a Soundboard

This flash tutorial will teach you how to create a basic sound board. There are many ways to create a sound board but I will show you the most straight forward method. A sound board is basically a collection of buttons which play audio clips when a button is clicked. Examples of sound boards can be found at soundboards.com and ebaumsworld.com

Of course, a sound board needs sound or audio. You can create your own audio files by recording samples of yourself, friends, and even audio clips from dvds or the television. Just make sure you have permission before recording your audio clips. If you don’t want to record your own audio files you can also download your audio files from the internet.

This tutorial requires some knowledge of creating basic buttons.

Create a sound board

Step 1

Open a new flash document.
Select an appropriate stage size and background colour.
Import all your audio files in the library by selecting File > Import > Import to library then select all your audio files and click ok.


Step 2

Using the rectangle tool create your rectangle button shapes on the stage. Use the correct number of buttons on the stage relative to the number of audio clips you have. Once, you have created all your buttons on the stage. Your stage should look something like below. I have also included headings such as greetings, questions, replies, statement etc. You may add these headings if you wish.



Now convert each of your rectangle shapes into a symbol by pressing F8. Choose an appropriate name, check button and click ok.


Step 3

Using the selection tool (v) double click on one of the buttons. The timeline should now have four states. You can change the other states to whatever colour you wish. If you don’t know how check out this tutorial.

Insert a new layer called “sound” and then insert a key frame on the down state by pressing F6.

Go to the properties tab at the bottom of the screen. And change the sound drop down menu to your corresponding audio file.



Your timeline should now look like below:



Now repeat step 3 for all your buttons.


Step 4

Select the text tool (t) and type “Press the spacebar to stop sound” somewhere on the stage. On the timeline insert a new layer called “actions” right click on the first frame and select actions. And add the following code:

_root.onEnterFrame = function() {
if (Key.isDown(Key.SPACE)) {
stopAllSounds();
}
}

This code will stop the currently playing sound.

**You could have created a stop button instead of the spacebar to the stop the current sound.


Step 5


Test your movie clip Ctrl + enter. Click the individual buttons and a sound should play.




You should now have a soundboard.