How to Add Startup Sounds to Your Mac
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We put the text in double-quotes because it contains punctuation marks, and anything in double-quotes is treated as text and not another command. Even if your text doesn't contain any punctuation, it's a good idea to surround it with double-quotes. Select Run from the top right of the screen to test the application. You'll hear your message spoken in the Fred voice, and you'll see green checkmarks in the log below indicating that the script and workflow are completed. When you've verified that your script is working properly, go to the File menu and select Save. Name the file and save it to your Mac. Make a note of where you saved the file.
In this example, we're using a free ZapSplat ocean sound effect recently downloaded: Afplay /Users/gretchen/Downloads/zapsplat_nature_ocean_wave_large_single_crash_on_beach_47861.mp3
If you're having trouble figuring out your sound effect's exact pathname, open a Terminal window and drag the sound file into it. The pathname will display, and you can then copy and past it into your script. Select Run from the top right of the screen to test the application. You'll hear your sound effect, and you'll see green checkmarks in the log below indicating that the script and workflow are completed. When you've verified that your script is working properly, go to the File menu and select Save. Name the file and save it to your Mac. Make a note of where you saved the file.
How to Add Startup Sounds to Your Mac
Use Automator to create custom spoken text or use a sound file
By Tom Nelson Tom Nelson Writer Tom Nelson is an engineer, programmer, network manager, and computer network and systems designer who has written for Other World Computing,and others. Tom is also president of Coyote Moon, Inc., a Macintosh and Windows consulting firm. lifewire's editorial guidelines Updated on March 11, 2021 Tweet Share Email Tweet Share Email Apple Macs iPadWhat to Know
Create an application wrapper around a Terminal command to say a phrase or play a sound file. Add it as a startup item.With this method, you can add music, speech, or a sound effect as your startup sound. You can personalize your Mac by changing the sound that plays when you start it up. Here's how to do so a Mac running OS X 10.4 (Tiger) or later. LifewireCreating Startup Sounds for Your Mac
The shell script we use depends on whether we want the Mac to speak specific text using one of the available built-in voices, or play back an audio file that contains music, speech, or sound effects. We'll show you how to use both methods. The first step is to create an application wrapper from within Automator.Use Automator to Create an Application Wrapper
Whether you want to use custom text with a built-in voice or play back an audio file, you'll first need to create an application wrapper using Automator. Go to Applications and launch Automator. Or, type Automator into Spotlight Search. Select Application as the template type to use, and then select Choose. Near the top-left corner of the window, make sure Actions is highlighted. From the Actions library, select Utilities. Select and drag Run Shell Script to the workflow pane.Speaking Text With the Mac' s Built-In Voices
We'll use the say command to create our custom spoken text application. In this example, we'll instruct the Mac to say, "Hi, welcome back, I've missed you" at startup using the built-in Fred voice. Copy the command below and enter it into the Run Shell Script box: Say -v fred "Hi, welcome back, I've missed you"We put the text in double-quotes because it contains punctuation marks, and anything in double-quotes is treated as text and not another command. Even if your text doesn't contain any punctuation, it's a good idea to surround it with double-quotes. Select Run from the top right of the screen to test the application. You'll hear your message spoken in the Fred voice, and you'll see green checkmarks in the log below indicating that the script and workflow are completed. When you've verified that your script is working properly, go to the File menu and select Save. Name the file and save it to your Mac. Make a note of where you saved the file.
How to Play Back an Audio File
If you'd rather use an audio file that contains music, speech, or sound effects for your startup sound, you'll use the afplay command. The afplay command instructs Terminal to play back the sound file after the command. The afplay command can play back most sound file formats, such as MP3, WAV, AIFF, or AAC files, but it won't play back protected iTunes files. Find the sound effect file you want to use and note its pathname. Use this command in the Run Shell Script box, changing "path to sound record" to the correct sound location on your computer: Afplay path to sound recordIn this example, we're using a free ZapSplat ocean sound effect recently downloaded: Afplay /Users/gretchen/Downloads/zapsplat_nature_ocean_wave_large_single_crash_on_beach_47861.mp3
If you're having trouble figuring out your sound effect's exact pathname, open a Terminal window and drag the sound file into it. The pathname will display, and you can then copy and past it into your script. Select Run from the top right of the screen to test the application. You'll hear your sound effect, and you'll see green checkmarks in the log below indicating that the script and workflow are completed. When you've verified that your script is working properly, go to the File menu and select Save. Name the file and save it to your Mac. Make a note of where you saved the file.