Web Audio Review: Sound Nails

NOTE: This is not a sales letter. This is a critical review and analysis of this web audio program.

What it is: Sound Nails is a web audio program that lets you convert an existing WAV or MP3 file into Flash SWF format. The program then links the SWF audio file to a SWF button file for your audio controls.

Computing Platform: Windows only

Web Audio Advisor Review:

Sound Nails is extremely easy to use and gives out good sounding Flash Audio. I personally like a couple of the buttons that have "time counters" embedded in them since I have several audio files for clients that run a couple of minutes long.

The strength of the program is in the fact that you can "batch process" multiple files at once (up to five in the "Easy" version, unlimited numbers in the "Pro" version). When you use this feature, the end result of Sound Nails proves useful. The end result is one web page with a controller for each of your audio files laid out in a table format. This is especially attractive if you are offering your visitors music files to listen to.

I found a few drawbacks to the use of the program. First, the Flash files created by the program MUST reside in the same directory as the page on which they are used. This means if you use audio from Sound Nails on your home page, you must keep the Flash files for that page in the root directory of your site. If you use Sound Nails on a file that is located in a subfolder, then the SWF files for that page must reside in that same folder. I personally like to stick my media files into one centralized folder on my website, so I found this limitation rather bothersome. In addition, you can't use Sound Nails with Site Buildit, because Site Buildit doesn't offer an FTP utility and wants to automatically move SWF files into a particular folder.

The second drawback I found is that the program doesn't readily display the necessary HTML code to make it easier to place your buttons anywhere on your site. The program does generate an HTML page at the end of its process, and on that page is the HTML to display the SWF buttons. However, you must then view the HTML, find the code for your button (everything in the <OBJECT> .... </OBJECT> tags), and then copy that code to the file where you do want the control buttons to display. This seems to be a lot of extra steps ... but that's what you get for $10, right?

Despite the drawback, I think Sound Nails is a nice program for use in certain circumstances. It's an easy to use program that creates good sounding Web Audio. The negatives against it include the limitations on where you can place files and the contortions you need to exercise in order to get the HTML code. However, the positives include buttons that show playback time and the ability to batch process multiple files to get a nice "playlist" page as a result.

Cost: Free 30-day trial. $10 for "Easy" version (batch up to 5 files at once), $65 for "Pro" version (no limitations on batch results).

Website: www.soundnails.com

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