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Start Up Sounds On Your Mac I have had this long standing relationship with Jean Luc Picard, Captain of the U.S.S. Enterprise. He tells me when my computer is up and ready to use, and he tells me when the system shuts down. In return I sigh. Now granted, it is not really him, but that is the beauty of sound bites on the computer. One has total control and can personalize sound usage as much as you want. Using sound is the subject of this weeks column. When I first started researching this subject I went off on some tangents that made it more complicated than it needed to be. My start up and shut down sounds were installed by a friend so I didn't really know how to do it myself. The good thing is that maybe you can avoid some of those false steps after you read the column. The Macintosh hardware provides a standard set of capabilities that allows use of sounds from alert sounds to recording annotations for presentations. The best way to start experimenting with sounds is to install a start up sound because it is the easiest to do. The idea is to make a sound play when your Mac starts up. To make this happen you simply have to download a sound, open your hard drive folder, open your system folder, and drag the icon for the sound you want to use into the folder labeled “Start Up Items.” The Start Up Items folder icon has a circle with a vertical line through it. You don't have to have any special software to make a sound play at start up. While there are programs that let you randomize sounds or you can choose several individually and switch them around by moving them from the Start Up Items folder to the Start Up Items Disabled folder and back again, this is probably more hassle than most people want to go through. If you have two or more sounds in the Start Up Items folder they will all play at once. Unless you want to be really creative and have a music sound coupled with a voice sound, you probably want to avoid having several play at once. To add a sound to your shut down folder you follow the exact same steps except save your choice to the folder labeled Shut Down Items. It contains the same folder icon as does the Start Up Items Folder. By-the-way, one thing you can not do is change the Start Up “Chime” that plays the instant you turn on your Mac. It is coded into what is called the ROM (Read Only Memory) and is embedded on the computer's mother board. It is possible that a start up sound might cause your system to crash every time you try to start it up. If that happens you can't just go into your system folder and remove the sound because you can't get it to come on in the first place! I have never had that happen to me, but if it does you can to the following. Restart the machine and hold down the Shift-key. This will turn your extension off and prevent the sound in the Start Up Items folder from playing so that you can get the machine up. Then you can go back into your Start Up Items folder and remove the sound causing the problem. There is a site designed specifically for Macintosh computers that offers a number of clever alert sounds, start up sounds, and system clock sounds at no charge. For example you can be greeted by “burnin' rubber”, a “Mystical Chant”, or “Infinity” among others. There are about 40 choices of alert beeps that go from the sublime (Mozart) to the ridiculous (Cry Baby). And last but not least, there are system clock sounds that include a female clock sound, a male clock sound, a robotic clock sound, a techno clock sound, and Westminster chimes clock sound. The site for these free sounds is www.clixsounds.com. AOL users can access it by going to Keyword: MMS and then to the “Sound Samples Libraries.” Following the directions above for adding start up sounds, you can choose one of the Clixsounds files by clicking on it. It will download and open using Stuffit. (For reference see Making Stuffit A Little Less Stuffy). There are a few more steps to adding an alert sound, but while you are at it you can add as many as you want to download. First you have to close every program that you have open except the Finder. Then double click on your hard drive icon to open it. Locate the first sound that you want to use. (Note you must decompress the downloaded file before this will work. If you use Stuffit it will be done for you automatically.) If you have downloaded a Clixsounds file it will be contained in a folder. Drag the icon or multiple icons for the sound(s) to the closed system folder. A box will appear that says "This item needs to be stored in the System File. Put "filename" in the System File?" That's at least a close approximation, but whatever the case, just answer yes. You now have saved the new sound(s) in a place where the computer can use it (them) as Alert sounds. To hear it you must choose it. Open your system folder, open your control panel folder, and click on the "Sounds" control panel or the "Monitors and Sounds" control panel (whichever you may have). A box will pop up that says alert sounds. There will be several listed including those that came with your system and any you have added. Simply click once on the sound you want and it will be highlighted. If you double click the sound, it will be played immediately for you. Close the folders and the next time you get an alert sound it will be the one you choose. If you choose to add a system clock sound you download your choice in the usual way. The downloaded sound will be part of a folder. Also contained in the folder will be instructions for making it work. The instructions are easy to follow. As a brief overview you will get 5 sounds: Top of the Hour, 1/4 Past, 1/2 Past, 1/4 'Til, and Chime. Decide if you want Top of the Hour or Chime. Once again, make sure everything except finder is closed. Drag the 1/4 Past, 1/2 Past, 1/4'Til sound icons, along with whichever you chose between "Top of the Hour" and "Chime," onto your closed System Folder. You will get the question box again and again, just answer yes. Next, open your "Date and Time" control panel. Click on "Clock Options" in the lower left-hand corner of the window. On the right side of the window that appears, click on the "Chime on the Hour" button so that it has an X on it. If you chose to use the sound that chimes the number of times of the hour, select "...same number of times as the current hour." If you chose the simple "Top of the Hour" sound, make sure it is not checked. Next, go to the pop-up menu next to the clock icon that indicates the Top of the Hour. Select either "Top of the Hour" or "Chime," depending upon which you chose earlier. Next, go to the icon for 1/4 past and select "1/4 Past" through that pop-up menu. Repeat for the last two, selecting the appropriate sounds. When you have done this, you can close your control panel and enjoy your new System Clock Sounds! One thing that I got tied up on was something called WAV sounds. I came across them when I was searching the internet for sounds that could be included in this column. I could not download them and make them work. Finally all the other writers for The Mac Observer came to my rescue and explained them to me. Files that have a .wav suffix are default formats used by Windows users. That explains why they are so complicated. My fellow authors told me ways that we can use those sounds by using a program called SoundApp, but that is a subject for another column. Another thing I discovered is that you can use start up sounds to make programs automatically open when your computer comes on. Will wonders never cease? I downloaded several sounds that I found on the net that were named Mac sounds. These sounds are set in my Mac to be opened by Netscape Navigator. When I saved one of those sounds into my start up file it caused Netscape to automatically open every time I turn on the computer. Since I use Netscape almost anytime I am on my computer I thought that was useful. And, even though the sound is in the start up file, it doesn't activate until Netscape is activated so it doesn't interfere with Jean Luc! I suppose I could be boring and just place an alias of Netscape Navigator in my Start Up folder to make it launch at start up, but I like hearing the sounds. If you have a favorite show or cartoon or any other venue that might have sounds associated with it you can search for them by opening a search engine and asking for a search of anything related to the title or topic. (For help using search engines see Searching On The Net And Other Mac Adventures.) In upcoming weeks we will delve further into the use of sound on your Macintosh. Meanwhile, I hope you have fun adding start up and shut down sounds now. If you have any tips, hints, or thoughts on these topics, make sure you write me so that I can share your thoughts with other readers. |