Audio Xtra AUDIO XTRA HELP: ENVIRONMENT PROPERTIES TABLE  
 

The Environment Properties Table below lists the available properties. Note that some properties only apply to one platform and some cannot be set.

 

Environment Properties
Info Data type Meaning Platform Get/Set
overwrite boolean 0 or 1 If TRUE (1) will overwrite an existing member or sound file if it is specified as the target to record to. If FALSE it will not overwrite an existing member or file and the command attempting to will return an error. Default is TRUE. Win Mac Classic Mac OSX Shock
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Get Set
inputVolumeGain integer from 63-255

Mac recording input volume. Default is 159. On the Mac it can never be turned off completely. On some systems there will be less than 255 discrete settings. On those systems setting a value will set it to the closest valid value.

To set recording volume on the PC you must set it for the Windows Mixer Device using the inputSourceVolume property.

  Mac Classic Mac OSX Shock
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Get Set
recordSampleRate integer sample rate

Sample rate for recording. For example 44100 specifies 44.1 khz. Standard rates are: 11025, 22050, 44100, 48100.

Win Mac Classic Mac OSX Shock
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Get Set
recordSampleDepth integer

Sample bit depth for recording. Typically 8 or 16. Playback of a sound recorded at a non-standard depth will not work unless the depth if supported by the sound card.

 

Win Mac Classic Mac OSX Shock
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Get Set
recordNumChannels integer

Number of channels to record. Device must support stereo recording for this to work when set at 2. Setting this to 1 on Mac for a device that doesn't support it will return a hardware error.

Win Mac Classic Mac OSX Shock
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Get Set
outputDefaultVolume integer from 0-255 Default volume for sound playback in Director. Reflected in the sound property "volume" when sound is viewed in sound list. Can be overridden by setting the property for an individual sound via axSetSoundInfo. Win Mac Classic Mac OSX Shock
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Get Set
soundManagerVersion string Version of the Mac Sound Manager in use.   Mac Classic Mac OSX Shock
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Get  
totalChannels integer Total number of channels on the system available for sound playback Win Mac Classic Mac OSX Shock
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Get  
freeChannels integer Number of available channels (not already in use) for sound playback Win Mac Classic Mac OSX Shock
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Get  
playthrough boolean 0 or 1

Whether or not microphone playthrough is on. Playthrough plays the mike or other input device input through the speakers as sound is being recorded. Changing the playthrough on some systems may change the current input device.

Note: On Mac, set and get this property only while the recorder is open, otherwise the system may experience errors.

  Mac Classic Mac OSX Shock
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Get Set
inputDevice string The name of the current input device used for recording. On most machines there is only one input device, usually a single sound card. But some systems have multiple devices, including multiple sound cards, USB microphones and WebCams. The Xtra will automatically identify and use the preferred audio device for voice recording at startup, according to system preferences. Win Mac Classic Mac OSX Shock
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Get Set
inputDeviceList string Return-delimited list of all available input devices on the system. Most machines have only one input device, a single sound card. Win Mac Classic Mac OSX Shock
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Get  
preferredRecordingDevice string The name of the preferred audio device for audio recording on the system. On Windows this information is obtained from the registry, reflecting the changes made by the user with the Sounds Control Panel. On the Mac the preferred device is also set in the Sounds Control Panel, or System Preferences -> Sound under OSX. Win Mac Classic Mac OSX Shock
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Get  
preferredVoiceRecordingDevice string The name of the preferred audio device specified for voice recording on the system. This can be configured separately from the preferred audio recording device on Windows XP, in the Sound and Audio / Voices control panel. On previous Windows versions and on the Mac this property returns the same value as the preferredRecordingDevice string. Win Mac Classic Mac OSX Shock
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Get  
inputSource string Input source in the current input device that will be used for recording. Each input device can have one or more sources. On Windows the sources are usually input connections in the sound card (microphone, line in, etc.) On the Mac the number of input sources depends on the device used: internal sound cards may have multiple sources (internal mic, external mic, etc.). Other devices like USB microphones have only one source. Win Mac Classic Mac OSX Shock
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Get Set
inputSourceList string Return-delimited list of all available input sources on the current input device. Win Mac Classic Mac OSX Shock
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Get  
availableSoundFormats string A return-delimited list of Director-supported sound formats for playback. The formats are supplied by the available MIX Xtras. Audio Xtra currently supports a subset of the available formats. Win Mac Classic Mac OSX Shock
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Get  
availableConversionFormats string A return-delimited list of Director-supported sound formats for exporting files. The formats are supplied by the available MIX Xtras. Audio Xtra currently supports a subset of the available formats. Win Mac Classic Mac OSX Shock
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Get Set
recordingBufferSize integer The size of the recording buffer. Set by axOpenRecorder(). Recorder must be open or it will return an error. Win Mac Classic Mac OSX Shock
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Get Set
mixAvailable boolean 0 or 1 TRUE if the MIX Services Xtra is loaded. If this property is FALSE, many Audio Xtra functions will fail. Debug aid. Win Mac Classic Mac OSX Shock
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Get  
tempPath string System temp directory. You can use this property to set the sounds directory to the user's temp folder. The path is returned in DOS format, which converts long file names to an 8.3 format. Both Director and Audio Xtra recognize DOS format file paths. Win Mac Classic Mac OSX   Get  
driveList string List of all local and network drive/volume names on the system including removeable and CD. On Win the network drives returned are only those that are mapped to a drive letter. Win Mac Classic Mac OSX   Get  
writeDriveList string List of only writeable drive names. NOTE: Although writeable network drives are listed, recording to a network drive may cause skips in the audio if the network throughput cannot keep up with the volume of recorded data. Win Mac Classic Mac OSX   Get  
useDswMediaDirectory boolean 0 or 1

This property works under Shockwave ONLY, and accepts a boolean parameter that indicates if the Xtra should attempt to create a DswMedia folder if one does not exist.

When the parameter is set to FALSE the Xtra will attempt to use the default DswMedia folder if it is available at the default location. If this fails it will also look for a DswMedia folder in the same directory as the XTRAS folder, to match Shockwave 8 installations. However, in some cases no DswMedia folder is present, and the function will return an appropriate error message (file not found.)

If necessary you can check the error message and call the function again with the creation parameter set to TRUE. In this case the Xtra will attempt to locate the DswMedia folder AND create a new one at the default location if it does not exist. Check the Audio Xtra sample movie for an example on how to use this property effectively and test for the error codes. This property is new in Audio Xtra 5.1.

Win Mac Classic Mac OSX Shock
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Get Set
useTempDirectory boolean 0 or 1 When this property is set, Audio Xtra will set the sounds directory to use a system temporary path for all operations that involve file recording and conversion. This property is new in Audio Xtra 6. Win Mac Classic Mac OSX Shock
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Get Set
simulateShockwave boolean 0 or 1 If TRUE will simulate Shockwave behavior in authoring. Always returns TRUE when running in Shockwave and cannot be reset. Win Mac Classic Mac OSX Shock
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Get Set
soundsDirectoryIsSet boolean 0 or 1 TRUE if the default sounds directory has been set with axPromptForSoundsDirectory or via the environment property useDswMediaDirectory Win Mac Classic Mac OSX Shock
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Get  
soundsDirectory string Path to sounds directory Win Mac Classic Mac OSX   Get Set
peakVolume integer Available only when a recording is taking place. Returns the peak volume for the last recording buffer. Range 0-127. Win Mac Classic Mac OSX Shock
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Get  
inputSourceVolume integer Sets the volume of the selected Windows input source. Range 0-255. Win     Shock
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Get Set
inputSourceLeftVolume integer Sets the left channel volume of the selected Windows input device. Only works for sound devices that support stereo volume.Range 0-255. Win     Shock
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Get Set
inputSourceRightVolume integer Sets the right channel volume of the selected Windows input device. Only works for sound devices that support stereo volume.Range 0-255. Win     Shock
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Get Set
plotBufferSize integer The size in bytes of the RAM buffer to be used with axPlotWaveform. The larger the buffer, the faster the wave-plotting. If the buffer is smaller than the sound data to process, the buffer will be re-used to process chunks of sound until plotting is finished. Win Mac Classic Mac OSX Shock
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Get Set
convertSampleRate integer

Specifies the sample rate of the destination file or castmember when calling axConvertToFile or axConvertToMember.

Set this property to 0 to take the default, which is usually the same as the sample rate of the source sound if the format you are saving to supports that rate.

Maximum value this property can be set to is 88200.

Win Mac Classic Mac OSX Shock
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Get Set
convertSampleDepth integer 8 or 16

Specifies the sample bit depth of the destination file or castmember when calling axConvertToFile or axConvertToMember.

Set this property to 0 to take the default, which is usually the same as the sample depth of the source sound if the format you are saving to supports that rate.

8 and 16 are the only legal values for this property.

Win Mac Classic Mac OSX Shock
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Get Set
convertNumChannels integer 1 or 2

Specifies the number of channels in the destination file or castmember when calling axConvertToFile or axConvertToMember.

Set this property to 0 to take the default, which is usually the same as the number of channels of the source sound if the format you are saving to supports that value.

1 and 2 are the only legal values for this property.

Win Mac Classic Mac OSX Shock
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Get Set