Play an audio file

Maya supports the following audio file formats:

Platform	Audio file format
Microsoft® Windows®	.aiff, .wav, .bwav
Apple® Mac OS® X	.aiff, .wav, .bwav, .mp3

Play audio

To play an audio file

1. Do one of the following:
   • Select Import Audio... from the Audio menu in the Animation menu set (F4).
   • Right-click the Volume icon in the Playback options and select Import Audio....
   • Select File > Import from the main menu bar. A file browser lets you select the name of one or more sound files to import.
   • Drag the file from a file browser into one of the Maya modeling views, or onto the Time Slider.

   The peaks of the sound waves are visible in the Time Slider, and the Time Slider is ready to play or scrub the sound.

2. Press Play in the Playback Controls or drag your mouse across the waveform to scrub the audio.
   Important: To hear sound during the playback of an animation, the playback speed must be set to a constant rate so that Maya can determine how slowly or quickly to play the soundtrack. Make sure that the Playback Speed is set to 24 fps x 1 or you can't hear the audio. (To check this, click the Animation Preferences icon in the Playback Options to open the Playback Preferences.)

   
3. Set the Playback Speed to Real-time (24 fps) to play the soundtrack (and the animation) in real-time.

Scrub audio

Scrubbing is useful when you need to locate a specific time at which a particular sound begins. For example, if your soundtrack includes, “Hi Dave,” you may need to locate the exact frame at which the “D” sound begins to synchronize your character’s mouth forming a “D” sound with the soundtrack.

To scrub sound

1. Drag in the Time Slider. The soundtrack plays as you drag it.

Tip:

It can be easier to find the beginning of a sound by having the sound repeat until you drag the Current Time Indicator to the next time in the Time Slider. To use this feature, open the Preferences window and turn on the Repeat Sound option.

Play multiple audio files

You can play more than one audio file in a Maya scene using Audio menu or the Volume icon in the Playback options. If you want to have your sounds overlap, you can use the Time Editor. Both procedures are included below.

1. Right-click the volume icon or open the Audio menu (in the Animation menu set F4), and select Import Audio... to add your audio file to the scene.
   Note: Maya supports the following file formats:

   Platform	Audio file format
   Microsoft® Windows®	.aiff, .wav, .bwav
   Apple® Mac OS® X	.aiff, .wav, .bwav, .mp3

2. Repeat this for every audio file you want to import. The audio files appear in the Audio menu that appears in the Animation menu set or when you right-click the Volume icon.
   

   Audio files appear in the Sounds section with an Option box next to them

   Note: Whenever there is more that one audio file in the scene. The waveform on the Time Slider changes to a solid line.

   
3. Do one of the following:
   • To use only one sound, click the option next to the audio file on the list. The waveform of the sound appears on the Time Slider.
   • To play all the sounds in the scene, select Use Trax Sounds. The waveform becomes a solid line. To offset the files so they play back at different times, see Create Audio offsets, in this topic.

Create audio offsets

If you want audio files to start playing at a time different from the default of Frame 0 in your scene, click the option box next to the file. The Attribute Editor opens with the settings for the selected audio file.

Enter the frame that you want the audio to start in the Attribute Editor Offset field.

Note: If you want to layer multiple audio files and stagger them so they start at different times, see Offset multiple audio tracks in the Time Editor, in this topic. You can also see the Audio Offset settings in the Import Options for instruction on importing audio with offsets.

Offset multiple audio tracks in the Time Editor

To offset an audio clip in the Time Editor

1. Import the audio by right-clicking the Volume icon () in the Time Slider Playback Options and selecting Import Audio clip to Time Editor. Each audio file becomes an audio clip in the Time Editor.
2. Position each file with the offset you want, or double-click the clip to access the Attribute Editor tab for it and change the Offset setting.

See Add audio to the Time Editor for more.