How do you add new alert sounds?

cockneygeezer

cockneygeezer

Registered
Dear All

Has anyone found a way of adding new alert sounds in MacOS X? In my opinion there is only one good alert sound, and that is the Submarine. But as we all know, we like to change our sounds from time to time.

So, I have tried to add new sounds. I have found out that the new format is .aiff and the files are located in /System / Library , and as we know, we are not allow to change this directory.

I have even tried Booting Up on MacOS 9.1 and manually moving the files to the same location of the alert sounds, but the Sound Control Preference does not recongise the new files.

If someone has been successful, could you please post your solution.

Thanks

--
PowerBook G4 400Mhz, 512MB RAM, Airport


 
Dear All

After a few hours trying to work out how to add a new alert sound, I have figured it out... at long last!

Here's how it done:

1. Make sure that the alert sounds that you want is in AIFF / 16bit / Stereo format. KHz rate is not important. QuickTime Pro export can do this for you.

2. Restart the Mac in MacOS 9.1 environment.

3. Move or copy the AIFF file to the the following location:

/System/Library/Sounds/

4. Restart in MacOS X environment.

5. Open the sound control panel.

6. See if your new alert sound is listed.

7. If not, you may need to do a restart.


It worked for me, so hopefully it will work for you.

CockneyGeezer

--
PowerBook G4 400MHz, 512MB, Airport Installed
 
It would follow that you could put the sounds in /Library/Sounds or /Users/JoeCool/Library/Sounds instead of /System/Library/Sounds.

-Rob
 
right, so the administrator could put sounds in /System/Library/Sounds and they would be available to any user.

and if you're just a regular user who wants a bunch of cool sounds available to you but not everyone else, you would put them in /Users/JoeCool/Library/Sounds aka ~/Library/Sounds.

The same idea applies to fonts and other such things. each user inherits what's in /System/Library and can add their own in their own Library folder (inside their home directory).

hope this helps...
 
..yes this helps alot!

and whe you just add sounds to the /Users/username/Library/Sounds/ there is no need to Logout or Restart...you only have to restart System Preferences...

also...you have to make sure that the file extention is '.aiff'

i made a few sounds bites with QT and when exported from there it only appends the file as '.aif' OS X no likey.

and...if you place a new sound in /System/Library/Sounds/ make sure the permissions are r--r--r--

-jeh-
 
here are a couple of sounds

i made them mp3's sou you will have to convert them to .aiff format with QT...
 

Attachments

  • sounds.zip
    33.6 KB · Views: 54
Actually, no one should touch /System/. If you want to add sounds globaly (for all users), put them in /Library/Sounds rather than /System/Library/Sounds. You may have to create the Sounds folder yourself if its not there.
 
Originally posted by holmBrew
..yes this helps alot!

and whe you just add sounds to the /Users/username/Library/Sounds/ there is no need to Logout or Restart...you only have to restart System Preferences...

also...you have to make sure that the file extention is '.aiff'

i made a few sounds bites with QT and when exported from there it only appends the file as '.aif' OS X no likey.

and...if you place a new sound in /System/Library/Sounds/ make sure the permissions are r--r--r--

-jeh-
Click to expand...

I tried and tried. I saved the file as AIFF and AIFC, but they still wouldn't show up in preferences. reboot. copied the files to all the directories. No dice.
the .aiff extension was what was missing.
THANKS.
 
Unsanity.com has released a sound utility called Xounds. Neat and affordable ($ 7). And you can choose from a great variety of soundsets, including the "Classic" Titanium sound set.
 
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