SoundMaster installs code into your Mac during startup which can play sounds when various things happen.
To select a sound, first click on the button for when you want the sound to be played. Then click on the folder that contains the sound file. (Only folders within the System Folder are shown.) Select the file, then select its playback rate and the volume you want it played at. Click on the speaker icon to make sure that it sounds right.
ΓÇó None of the selections you make will take effect until you restart your Mac.
ΓÇó I do not plan to support 'snd ' resources or selecting multiple random sounds like CheapBeep does.
ΓÇó There is no way that I can play a sound when the Finder empties the Trash, as there is no proper place to patch into when this occurs.
The controls:
ΓÇó Sound selection buttons
These select 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 'Disk insert' and 'Disk eject' sounds may sound a bit scratchy because the Disk Driver turns off interrupts when using the disk drive, and this interferes with the Sound Driver keeping the sound going.
• 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.
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 you get an ID=33 bomb during startup, you have used up too much memory for your sounds and may have to start up from another disk to recover. (The ID=33 would occur before SoundMaster's code gets loaded and it would not even have a chance to show its icon.)
ΓÇó Startup icon
If the 'Show icon' button is clicked, SoundMaster's icon will be shown on the bottom of your screen when it is installed during startup.
If you don't want SoundMaster to install itself, hold down the mouse button during startup. (You won't see the icon if it doesn't install itself.)
• About SoundMaster…
Obviously, if you are reading this, you don't need me to tell you what this button does.
ΓÇó 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), the sound 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 a large sound file this way.
ΓÇó Rate
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 the sound file.
ΓÇó On/Off
This enables or disables each individual sound. It is automatically clicked 'On' when you select a sound file.
ΓÇó Volume
This selects the volume for each sound. A fresh copy of SoundMaster has them all set to 3, except for the Startup and the various key click sounds, which are set to 7.
ΓÇó Folder list
This selects the folder from which to choose sound files for the selected sound. If none are selected, the System Folder is used. Click in the white space just below the last folder name to select the System Folder.
The folder is remembered by its directory ID, making your selections invalid if you move SoundMaster to another disk's System Folder or after you reinitialize your hard disk.
ΓÇó File list
This selects the file to play for the selected sound. When a file is selected, the 'On' button is automatically clicked, and the playback rate (if available from the sound file) is also automatically clicked. To unselect a file, click in the white space just below the last file or change to a different folder.
The best way to get in touch with me is to send me e-mail on the GEnie network to address BTOMLIN. The latest version can always be found there. (My CompuServe ID is 72507,2742, but I rarely dial it up.)
