Sounds from the Web

Note: These lessons are created for version 3.2 of HyperStudio for Windows. Some features may not be present in the version you may have. You may update your HyperStudio version for free at the HyperStudio Update Library.

Sounds can be added to HyperStudio stacks in several ways. The simplest way is to add a button and have it play a sound. Since HyperStudio has lots of sounds already in the HS Sounds folder, this could be considered a "fait accompli". However, sometimes it is nice to have just the right sound. In this case, the web is a handy place to find free sounds to add to your collection. The University of North Carolina's MetaLab a great place to start. We'll use this site later in this lesson.

Open HyperStudio and save the new stack as sounds.stk in your folder on the server or on the hard drive. Recall that you can even save your stacks on a floppy or attach them to your Yahoo email and send them home. Remember, if you plan to switch back and forth between Windows and Mac OS, it's a good idea to get used to naming stacks with 8 or less characters and the .stk extension. That's how Windows likes to see stacks.

Adding your sound button

• Use Control N to add several new cards and save your stack with Control S. These are nice shortcuts to know.
• Go to Objects => Add a Button... . Give the button a name if you want and click OK. If you don't name a button, it will show up on your card as "New Button" every time.
• Click and drag the New Button to another part of the screen, resize your button by grabbing its "marching" red ants border if you want, and then click anywhere outside the button.
• You are now presented with the Button Actions window.

• Choose Play a sound by clicking in the little square under Things to do: and press Done. You don't need to go anywhere yet.
• The Tape Deck window opens up.

• Here is your first choice in this lesson.
  • If you select the default (samples) you get a few standard sounds. Just click one of them and click OK.
    • A few notes:
      • STOPSNDS.WAV stops all sounds. This could come in handy later if you use the HyperStudio CD that contains long sounds, or if you allow an automatic timer to repeat indefinitely.
      • Sound hogs memory, so use short clips.
      • If you really want background sounds, they can be added later when you print to video. They don't take up any memory that way.
  • After clicking OK, the Actions window pops up, and you get to make some transition choices. Choose what you like and move on.
  • Hit OK to get back to the HyperStudio card you're working on.
  • Click on your button and ejoy your sound. You can do better.
• Here is your second choice.
  • Make a new button, choose "Play a sound" and check the "Disk Library" circle.
  • Hit OK and make a choice from the HS Sounds folder.
  • Choose where you want to go and your transitions and hit OK. That's a little better.
• Here's an even better choice.
  • Go to UNC MetaLab and check out the sounds on the menu.
  • If you double click a sound, Netscape opens the sound. You need to have a Java enabled browser to do this.
  • Control S will save the sound. You will need to navigate to the correct folder. It's probably a good idea simply to save in the HS Sounds folder for now. It's important to remember where you save your sounds. They need to be available when you move your stack to another machine. We'll talk about this in class.
  • Now add the new sound as you did above.
• Save your work with Control S.
• There are many other places to get sounds on the web. Do a search and see what you can come up with. Remember to save the sound to the appropriate folder and then add it to your card.