The new Actionscript 3.0 in Flash CS3 can be a bit tricky sometimes, especially when you're normally used to Actionscript 2.0. But there are a number of nice new functions in AS 3.0 which make it really attractive to just make it your coding standard for Flash.

Here I'll explain how to use the leftPeak and rightPeak properties of AS 3.0. With these, you can read the volume of both audio channels (left and right) seperately. With that value, you can create some nice Flash files, like this visual audio bar.

To create this, use this (relative simple) AS 3.0 code.

barLeft.mask = maskLeft;
 barRight.mask = maskRight;
 
 var s:Sound = new Sound();
 s.load(new URLRequest("audiofile.mp3"));
 
 var sc:SoundChannel;
 sc = s.play(0, 1000);
 
 this.addEventListener(Event.ENTER_FRAME, showPeaks);
 
 function showPeaks(eventArgs:Event)
 {
   maskLeft.y = barLeft.height + sc.leftPeak * - barLeft.height;
   maskRight.y = barRight.height + sc.rightPeak * - barRight.height;
 }

Because of the Event.ENTER_FRAME, this code works best when you set the FPS from Flash to a minimum of 24.

Attached files:

Audio Visualizer in Flash:
Source code:

Interested in this topic? You might enjoy another article I've written called

• WordPress and Flash 10x: Book review and Giveaway
• Giveaway contest - FlashMint.com WordPress Themes
• FlashEff2 Premium Plus Beta Invites Giveaway
• Flash Web Roundup - Great tutorials and experiments
• X-Mas 2008 Giveaway - Comment2Win Flash Banner Prizes

Did you like this article? Subscribe to my feed or email to keep updated on new articles.

Spread the word and submit to: