Sounds in OS X? Request for a tip!

jhewell

Registered
How do I convert all of those sound files I have in OS 9 and before, to work in OS X (as alerts, email notifications, etc), without requiring Classic to play them?
 
I've been meaning to do this but haven't yet. I'm on my stupid PC at work right now running Win 2K, but I do know at least how to do this _in theory_

In your root directory there's a folder called System, and a folder called Library inside of that. I think inside there, you'll find a folder called Sounds or something similar where your OS X System sounds reside.

Theoretically all you need to do is drag and drop your Mac OS 9 sounds from its system folder sounds subfolder and they should appear in the OS X Sounds System Preferences Panel. I'm pretty sure they're still AIFF files...

If not, there's a program called SoundStudio, where you can convert the sounds to a new format if OS X is using some new format for sounds. You can get it here http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/audio_video/soundstudio154.html

I'll come back here later after work and let you know if I get this working myself :)

Till then, hope this was helpful
 
yeah, I tried that, but the system responded with "Sounds cannot be modified". So I put the sound file in the Sounds folder within the Audio folder in the Libraries folder that is not in the System folder. The sound is not AIFF, tho. The system didn't recognize it.
 
Originally posted by jhewell
yeah, I tried that, but the system responded with "Sounds cannot be modified". So I put the sound file in the Sounds folder within the Audio folder in the Libraries folder that is not in the System folder. The sound is not AIFF, tho. The system didn't recognize it.

Hmmm this might be a problem related to not being logged in as root. Which is something that I just learned how to do today but have yet to actually do. I'll keep you posted on my progress.
 
To log in at root you need to activate user root. TO do that you need to go into your applications folder and then in there will be a program called netinfo manager. Load that up and when that is loaded go to the menu domain in that menu go to security and there you click on authenticate. this will activate the root. after you hit that then there will be a new item called enable root user. you will have to change the root password since its not set. i hope this helps. and then youll need to log in as root and be able to copy those sounds to the sounds folder.

Garrett
 
You should be able to put the sound files in your local Library folder, found under your home folder. If there isn't a Sounds folder in there, make one.
Apple is strongly recommending that you do not modify anything under System or /Library.
This way, if you have problems, it's really easy to troubleshoot. Just login as another user.
The other reason is so that you can keep your modifications to yourself. Anything in /System or /Library will be there for everyone, so if you put something in there that causes problems, you are in trouble. If you just stick it in your local Library folder, you can always login as another user and fix it from there.
I know I had this problem under Public Beta. I moved some fonts over to my local library folder. Luckily it was my local one and not the global one.
 
MacFixit posted this issue and said they're looking into it.

I tried all the above approaches... root and local... and nothing worked. For now, there doesn't seem to be an easy way to add sounds to the "system". Hopefully Apple will fix this.

In general, there are far too many things I've taken for granted with pre OS X that I am really missing now.

 
If I understoud the problem right, then this may help!

With iTunes set om AIFF encoding I was able to
drag songs from iTunes directly into user/library/sounds/. After changing .aif to .AIFF they came up just fine in SOUND PREF.


[Edited by binHex on 03-28-2001 at 03:17 AM]
 
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