SoundMaster installs code into your Mac during startup which can play sounds when various things happen.
To select a sound, first click on when you want the sound to be played. Next, select the file containing the sound you want. Then select its playback rate and the volume you want it played at. Click on the big speaker icon at the top of the window to make sure that it sounds right.
None of the selections you make will take effect until you restart your Mac.
The controls:
• Sound selection list
This selects which sound you want to change. Each sound has its own playback rate, volume, off/on status, folder, and file name. If the 'Return key' or 'Space key' sounds are turned off, the 'Key click' sound is used for them instead.
The little speaker is shown with sound waves if the sound is turned on. Click on it to turn the sound on or off. If the sound doesn't have a file set for it yet, you'll get beeped at.
You can also type in the first few letters of the sound or folder you want to select or use the up and down arrow keys. Pressing return or enter is the same as double clicking, and will either play the selected sound or open the selected folder.
Note: The 'Disk insert' and 'Disk eject' and other sounds may sound a bit scratchy because the Disk Driver turns off interrupts when using the floppy drive, and this interferes with the Sound Driver keeping the sound going.
The beep sound will override the system beep sound set with the "Sound" icon in the Control Panel. If there is no beep sound set in SoundMaster, it will use the system beep sound instead.
The sounds with an "ƒ" in front of them are Finder sounds and work only with the Finder from System 6.0.4 or later!!! Finders before that didn't have any sound support. Like the beep sound, if these sounds are not enabled, the ones set with a Finder Sounds program are used instead.
The Alarm Clock sound requires System 6.0 or later.
• Memory size indicators
The 'Memory used' number indicates the amount of memory that will be used by SoundMaster to keep the sounds in memory. The 'Size' number indicates how much sound the selected sound takes up. The startup sound is disposed of after being played and is not counted in the 'Memory used' total. The sample sound is not used at all, and is not counted either. Any sound that is used two or more times is counted only once.
You need to keep the total size (memory used + startup sound size) of your selected sounds to somewhat less than half of the memory installed in your Macintosh due to the memory constraints of the startup environment. If there isn't enough memory to load one or more sounds, a small red 'X' will be drawn through the icon during startup.
If the small red 'X' shows up, your Mac may bomb with an ID=33 later in the startup sequence. If this happens, you will need restart and hold down the mouse button to prevent SoundMaster from loading. Then call it up in the Control Panel and turn off some sounds.
• Preferences
Initially all of these options are turned on:
•• Show icon during startup:
If this is checked, SoundMaster's icon will be shown on the bottom of your screen when it is installed during startup. If you don't want SoundMaster installed, hold down the mouse button or the shift key during startup. The icon will have a large red 'X' drawn through it. A small red 'X' means there wasn't enough memory for one or more sounds.
•• Disable sounds when volume is zero:
If this is checked, setting the control panel volume to zero will completely disable all SoundMaster sounds from playing.
•• Disable key click during chime sounds:
If this is checked, key click sounds will not play during (and not mess up) the chime sounds.
•• Disable key click during other sounds:
If this is checked, key click sounds will not play during any other sounds except for other key click sounds.
•• Disable other sounds during chime:
I this is checked, no other SoundMaster sounds will play during the chime sounds.
•• "Squish" long file names:
If this is checked, file names too long to be displayed in the file list are displayed "squished" in an attempt to show as much of the name as possible.
• About SoundMaster…
Displays this text in a dialog box.
• Speaker icon
This plays the currently selected sound at the selected volume and playback rate. If there isn't enough memory to play the sound (or if you don't have a sound selected), it won't play anything. After the sound is read in (and uncompressed if necessary), it will play in the background, allowing you to do other things. You can even click on the speaker icon again and it will keep playing the old sound until the new one is ready. Keep in mind that each copy of the sound being played has to be in memory, and if you are using MultiFinder, you can easily make the system heap memory grow to an enormous size by playing large sound files this way.
• Playback rate control
This selects the playback rate of the sound file. Some sound files have the rate stored somewhere within them, most notably compressed SoundCap files, but also some of the newer sound programs include info resources containing the playback rate. If the playback rate can be determined, it is automatically clicked when you select a sound file.
If you don't like dragging the control around to change the playback rate, you can click on the numbers to the left of it and set the rate directly.
• Volume control
This selects the volume for each sound. Initially, the Sample, StartUp, Restart, Shutdown, and the various key click sounds are set at 7, and all other sounds are set to '*'. The '*' means to use the volume currently set in the Control Panel. You can also click in the area to the left of the control to set the volume directly.
• File list
This selects the file to play for a sound. When a file is selected, the playback rate (if available from the sound file) is also automatically clicked.
Double-clicking on a file name plays the sound, just like clicking on the speaker icon. Double clicking on a folder opens up that folder. To go back a folder level, use the pop-up menu above the file list.
The folder is remembered by its directory ID, making your selections invalid if you move everything to another disk or after you reinitialize your hard disk and then restore it from a file-by-file backup. If you merely move the folders around on the same disk (or rename them), however, there is no problem.
The finder and chime sounds need a bit more explanation:
• Chime count — played after the Chime :00 sound to count the hour
• Chime :00, :15, :30, and :45 — on the quarter hour
• ƒEmpty trash — when the Finder empties the trash
• ƒOpen icon — when the Finder does the enlarging zoom effect
• ƒClose icon — when the Finder does the shrinking zoom effect
• ƒCopy done — when the Finder is finished copying/duplicating files
• ƒClick icon — when you click on an icon in the Finder
• ƒDrag start — when you start dragging an icon around
• ƒDrag idle — played repeatedly while dragging an icon around
• ƒDrag on — when dragging an icon over a folder/disk/trash
• ƒDrag off — when dragging an icon off of a folder/disk/trash
• ƒDrag done — when you let go of an icon (but not into a folder/disk/trash)
• ƒDrag drop — when you drop an icon into a folder/disk/trash
• ƒSelect wind — when you click on a Finder window and bring it to the front
• ƒGrow wind — when you resize a Finder window
• ƒScroll bar — when you use a scroll bar in a Finder window
Q: How do you make sounds?
A: The way most people do it is with a Farallon MacRecorder. You should be able to get it from your favorite mail-order company.
Please don't ask me for sounds. I don't make any serious effort to collect them. Not only that, but how would I decide which ones you would like the best? Try companies like EduCorp, Diskette Gazette, and Somak Software (listed in the order that I became aware of them) which make a living selling disks full of sounds and other goodies. User group libraries are also a good place to look.
Q: I can't get the trash sound to work on my SE/30 with System 6.0.3! What's wrong?
A: What's wrong is that you have to upgrade at least to System 6.0.4. All you really need from it is the Finder, but you might as well go all the way and upgrade completely to 6.0.4.
--- Traps patched ---
(for those who Want to Know)
SysBeep, for the beep sound.
PostEvent, for the disk insert and key click sounds.
Eject, for the disk eject sound.
MountVol, for the bad disk sound, tail-patched.
GetOSEvent, for repeat key click sounds, tail-patched. (but the Script Manager has it tail-patched already in System 6)
SysError, for the disk request sound.
OpenResFile and GetResource to support finder sounds. Tail patched only when the Finder is calling them to open up the Finder Sounds file.
SystemTask, for the chime sounds.
VInstall, to avoid having SoundVBL installed twice because of conflicts between the sound driver and the sound manager over the low-memory global SoundActive.
NMInstall, for the Alarm Clock sound.
A shutdown and a restart procedure are installed for the shutdown and restart sounds.
The size of the installed code is a mere 2082 bytes.
This is a shareware program. If you like it, send $15 to the address below. If you want a copy of the latest version of my programs (US & Canada only, please), send a disk with SASE, or $5 to cover postage and handling and disk. If you're already registered for ten bucks as of April 15, 1990, it's a free upgrade, but you still have to send the $5 for the disk. Don't forget to tell me what version you have and where you got it (if you want to).
Canadians, please don't send personal checks. Because they don't have a US bank number on them (looks like a fraction of the form '12-3456/7890'), it costs me $2.50 each to collect on them. Money orders and checks drawn on US banks are okay, as are postal money orders.
Bruce Tomlin
15801 Chase Hill Blvd. #109
San Antonio, TX 78256-1037
GEnie: BTOMLIN
AppleLink: D4872 (occasionally)
Voice: (512) 641-2064 (just keep time zones and such in mind, ok? If you wake me up, you will be officially grumbled at.)
••• DISCLAIMER: I am not responsible for anybody else's lack of taste in sound choice.