Customize Your Mac's Notification Sounds With Audacity

Mac OS X's alarm noises can become irritating after a time, and many of the sounds you hear in iCal and other applications can also be annoying. As long as you know what you're doing, you may easily create a custom alert sound and apply it to your system.

Making New Sounds

Alert noises should be brief, delicate, and simple to accept, even if repeated several times within a few seconds. On the other hand, significant signals may necessitate a more energizing sound. Making new sounds isn't as difficult as you would think. The first is to record pristine audio directly at your workstation with Snow Leopard's QuickTime Player. Choose File ->'' New Audio Recording in QuickTime Player.

A little arrow button pointing downward may be seen on the right side of the Audio Recording Window. In addition to the built-in microphone on your Mac, you may use a high-quality external microphone like Bluemic's Snowball, as well as the default save location, by clicking this option.

Once you've recorded your Sound, you may stop it by clicking the stop button—finally, press "Play" to hear a sample. In the beginning, there will be a lot of stillness, and at the very end, there will be a click of a mouse.

Conversion To GarageBand

GarageBand may be used to transcode your audio files as well. Open GarageBand and select File ->'' New if you need to create a new song. Give the "song" a name and click Create after double-clicking Voice. Ensure the audio block is set as far to the left as possible when you drag your Sound clip into GarageBand's workspace. Uncheck Compress and click Export to save the song to your hard drive. To avoid confusion, you'll be prompted to name and save the file again. An AIFF file will be created as a consequence.

Adding Sound Effects

New sounds may be added quickly and easily. Select Go ->'' Home in the Finder. Once within your Library folder, double-click the Sounds folder and open it. Once the audio files are in this folder, they may be used by any program that needs an alert sound.

The only drawback to this strategy is that you can only use your user account to create unique alert sounds. Some additional steps must be taken if you share your Mac with other family members and want the sounds to be accessible under other user accounts.

Drag the custom sound files into the System's Sound folder, under Macintosh HD ->'' System ->'' Library ->'' Sounds in the Library. Authenticate by providing your system password, and clicking Authenticate will allow you to authorize the modification, despite the warning that "Sounds" cannot be altered. Alerts may now be used across all user accounts after the files have been put in the System's Sound folder.

Assigning Names To Noises

System alarm sounds may be customized instantly; from the Apple menu, select System Preferences, and then Sound. You'll notice a list of alerts incorporating your new custom sounds under the Sound Effects tab; choose the one you wish to use.

Custom alerts may be used in many additional programs, such as Mail, iCal, and iChat. Select a new sound for new messages by clicking the "New messages sound" pop-up option in the General section of the Preferences menu in Mail. You may also use the rules section of Mail to set alert sounds to certain occurrences.

To edit an event in iCal, double-click it and select Edit. Set the alarm for the occurrence, and then choose an appropriate alarm sound. You want to know more about the event, don't you? Record a birthday message for Jenny, such as "It's Jenny's birthday tomorrow. In keeping with your word, place your order for a marble cake from Bob's Bakery as soon as possible!"

Recreating Sounds, You Make

An alarm sound may be recorded using any Sound you like. Your dog's barking, your child's laughter, or even a pot banging on a pan are all possibilities. It doesn't matter what you want to accomplish on your Mac; it's up to you.

If you're going to record sounds for alerts, think about what you will do with them beforehand. To avoid being upset every time you hear the recorded Sound, keep your recordings under a minute in length. If you're bitter enough, you'll unintentionally destroy the point of capturing the audio by turning it off. As short as possible, ideally, no more than two seconds, Listening to a sound makes you understand how lengthy a second is.

Setting Up a Custom Mac

Creating your own Mac computer alarm sounds is just one way to show your originality. Changing them is also a snap, and you don't need any special computer skills to accomplish so. You may not want to stop customizing your Mac's sounds after you've mastered the process.