Background Music in Storyline 2

Hi Rachel - 

I've used SoundManager to pull off controlled audio. This will let you load audio in the background at will, pause, play, fade it in, etc.. Takes some figuring out.

I loaded the library in as a web object then dynamically loaded the library to the header with a JavaScript trigger. My load setup trigger looked like this. This was a test to see what could be done. It provides a way to load audio and loop in the background as well as change it out or stop the audio. Your setup may be a little different.

One of the reasons I like this setup is it doesn't require editing files after publish (no post publish surgery). Saves a step and all of the dependencies are saved with the story file.

//where is our carry-on baggage?this.oLocation="story_content/WebObjects/66vjsN26Fjn/";

//load the scripts dynamically
function add_script(scriptURL,oID) {
 var scriptEl = document.createElement("script");
 var head=document.getElementsByTagName('head')[0];
 scriptEl.type = "text/javascript";
 scriptEl.src = scriptURL;
 scriptEl.id=oID;
 head.appendChild(scriptEl);
}

//only want to add these once!
if(document.getElementById('soundman')==null){
add_script(oLocation+"script/soundmanager2-jsmin.js","soundman");
//grab the audio variable value and begin playing the loop on reload if it's not blank
}
window.sound1="";
window.sound2="";
window.sound3="";

window.stopAll=function(){
soundManager.stopAll();
}

window.play1=function(){
sound1 = soundManager.createSound({
 id: 'sound1',
 url: oLocation+'loop1.mp3'
});
stopAll();
loopSound(sound1);
}

window.play2=function(){
sound2 = soundManager.createSound({
 id: 'sound2',
 url: oLocation+'loop2.mp3'
});
stopAll();
loopSound(sound2);
}

window.play3=function(){
sound3 = soundManager.createSound({
 id: 'sound3',
 url: oLocation+'loop3.mp3'
});
stopAll();
loopSound(sound3);
}

function loopSound(sound) {
sound.setVolume(45);
 sound.play({
 onfinish: function() {
 loopSound(sound);
 }
 });
}

window.initSounds=function(){
soundManager.setup({
 url: 'swf/',
 onready: function() {
 // SM2 has loaded, API ready to use e.g., createSound() etc.
 },

ontimeout: function() {
 // Uh-oh. No HTML5 support, SWF missing, Flash blocked or other issue
 }
});
}

I haven't tried this one. It's supposed to be simpler than SoundManager. If you run into problems, this one could be worth a try:

http://zohararad.github.io/audio5js/

So lame Storyline doesn't allow this easily. Adobe Captivate has had this feature for YEARS. 

Hi Matt,

You're welcome and encouraged to share your thoughts on features you'd like to see here in the forums and by sharing it with our product development team here. 

Thanks but people submitted feature requests for this nearly two years ago. I am not sure if it does any good to reiterate it on that form. 

Using that form allows our team to keep track of feature requests as they look to prioritize them for the next update or version of the software. 

Submitted a feature request. Camman lads, prioritize this please!

Thanks Soren for submitting the request. 

Ok it's been 3 months....any update?

Hi William,

We don't announce a road map or timeline for particular features or new updates/versions.  There is another thread here where a few users shared examples of other background music set ups. 

Hi. I really think your development team needs to step up when it comes to things like this. i understand the whole feature request stuff,  but going forward more and more clients are requesting this and we are looking towards other authoring tools that do this. 

Hi Shahied,

I'm not sure if it's an option for you - but Presenter '13 does allow for a playlist, so that you could have background audio there. You can also split a single audio file across slides as described here. 

Hi Rachel,

I think you should try this once. If you don't want the background music to play until the user comes to the 2nd slide of your course, just add the audio in second slide. The best practise is to add the audio for the particular slide. Below is the attachment that you can follow. I hope this will work for you.

Hi Priyanka! 

Thanks for popping in to assist. I'm not sure if Rachel is still subscribed, but you are welcome to reach out to her directly via the 'Contact Me' option on her user profile if you wish.

Hi, all! 

Quick question: Does Storyline 2 allow to have a background music loaded to your entire module and not just at some slides/parts? I need to add a background music for a compliance module I am working on. Please advise.

Thank you!

Hi M

Emily Burnett shared a great demo that might work for you.

Hello M - That's not a built-in feature of the software, but I do know that my colleague Emily shared an idea here that the community seems to enjoy.

Great minds Wendy - sorry for posting on top of you ;)

No worries Leslie - the more the merrier ;-)

Thanks, guys! Will give it a shot! :)