If you have access to a sound editing application, you should use it to optimize your sounds before importing them into Flash^®. The following are some tips to optimize your audio:

1. Create all your sounds in 44Khz stereo 16-bit format.

2. Delete any extra spaces or silence that is not part of your sound file; this will prevent the SWF file from storing unnecessary and unwanted material.

3. Listen to your sounds carefully and make sure that they are free from hiss, clicks or pops. Allow your sounds to loop while listening to the end points. The end and the beginning of the sound should flow into each other seamlessly. You will need to smooth out or fix any pops that may occur at the end points.

4. Make sure that your sound is not clipping. Clipping occurs when sounds are mixed together beyond optimal volume and results in distortion. You can visually see when clipping is occurring in most sound editing applications.

5. Optimize the volume over the entire sound; usually this is called normalization. You can always bring down the volume of the sound using the envelope points when mixing it with other sounds in Flash^®.

6. Always look ahead as to the manner in which you will use the audio in Flash^®. For example, do not spend too much time optimizing a stereo effect in the sound editing application when you know you will have to compress the sound in Flash^® and export it in mono format.

7. If you will be looping a sound in Flash^®, optimize your loop before importing it in so that you have just enough material to complete one cycle or loop. In other words, avoid making your sound file bigger than it really has to be. Let Flash^® do the looping for you.