Opening a Panel/Sound Combination

Opening a Panel/Sound Combination

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There are three ways to open a Panel and its associated Sounds for editing.

·	The first method uses the normal Windows File:Open menu pick in FS Sound Studio; just as you would open a file in Notepad, for example. All Sounds configurations are stored in a file name sound.cfg, and exist in the following directory:

C:\<FS Install Dir>\Aircraft\<Aircraft Name>\Sound

If you have multiple sound configurations for an Aircraft, there will be multiple Sound directories, eg Sound, Sound.stereo, Sound.new and so on. Note that CFS3 does not support multiple panels or sounds.

·	The second method is to drag a sound.cfg file in the Windows Explorer and drop it onto the FS Sound Studio Icon.

·	The third and last method, and probably the most useful, is to use the File:Open Sound.cfg by Aircraft menu pick in FS Sound Studio (or the corresponding Toolbar button). This will bring up the following window:

The top box will list the current FS Sound Studio Mode and the directory we are searching for Aircraft in (useful for verifying the directories are set correctly in the preferences dialog). The left Aircraft pane shows all installed Aircraft, and the right Panels pane will show the Panels installed for each aircraft along with its associated Sound configuration name. Along with the Panel Name, Sound Name, the Variation, Title and Description are listed to help you select the appropriate Panel's sound (these entries are extracted from the Aircraft's aircraft.cfg configuration file).

NOTE: In the example above, we see there are three identical Panels named Panel. There is, in fact, only one physical Panel on disk, which is shared by three entries in the aircraft.cfg file. They may vary in ATC ID or external texturing, but there is only one Panel. Each also shares the same Sound configuration, named Sound. If you edit this Panel/Sound config, all three Aircraft will fly in Flight Simulator with the modified Panel and Sounds. FS Sound Studio will warn you of this, as is shown in the example above, with the message This Panel is shared with 2 other entries. Only Panels or Sounds with different names are unique. If you select a shared Panel, FS Sound Studio will open the first in the list and edit it.

Note: If your aircraft is not installed properly then you won't see any Panels listed. This can happen if there is no aircraft.cfg file. You can still edit the Sound if it exists in the default location, which is the subfolder Sound with a filename of sound.cfg. In this case simply click on OK, and FS Sound Studio will look for this default Sounds.

Highlight your selection and click the OK button to open. The sound.cfg file will be read and the Sound configuration loaded, ready for editing.

FS Sound Studio has the capability to automatically convert pre-FS2000 format sound.cfg files to FS2002 and later format. If an FS98 format file is detected, you will be prompted to confirm the file conversion.

If FS Sound Studio detects that the sound.cfg file is aliased to another Aircraft, you'll see this dialog.

If FS Sound Studio cannot determine the format of the sound.cfg file, you will be prompted to supply this information. Reading in the wrong format will not harm anything, if you don't know which format to specify, you can try both.