System and method of controlling sound in a multi-media communication application

A method of customizing a voice in a multi-media message created by a sender for a recipient, the multi-media message comprising a text message from the sender to be delivered by an animated entity, the method comprising:

• presenting an option to the sender to insert voice emoticons into the text message associated with parameters of a voice used by the animated entity to deliver the text message;
• and
• delivering the multi-media message wherein the voice of the animated entity is modified throughout the message according to the voice emoticons, wherein:
• the voice emoticons comprise a voice increase volume emoticon and a voice decrease volume emoticon, and
• the voice increase volume emoticon and the voice decrease volume emoticon may each be repeated for a respective amplification of the effect of the voice emoticon.

A method of customizing audio effects in a multi-media message created by a sender for a recipient, the multi-media message comprising a text message from the sender to be delivered by an animated entity, the method comprising:

• presenting the sender with options to insert sound tags within the text message, each sound tag associated with a sound and an intensity associated with whether a symbol in the sound tag is repeated;
• and
• delivering the multi-media message with the associated sounds according to the position within the text message of the sound tags and indicated intensity, wherein:
• the presenting the sender with options to insert sound tags further comprises:
• presenting a template including word representations of sounds to the sender.