Retrotastic: Apples vintage system alert sounds - From the Beep to the Eep
Time for a trip down MacOS memory lane.
I have been a Mac user since OS 6, and when you have been a Mac user as long as I have you get to know and love the old alert sounds. With every new OS release Apple eliminates a swath of their old alert sounds, from System 6 to System 7 we lost Clink-Clank and who could forget the hysterical Monkey noise. Over the other OS changes we lost ChuToy, Submarine, Laugh as well as the dearly missed Wild Eep to name a few.
Some alert’s even have their own back story - for example “Sosumi.” The sound’s unusual name was coined during a trademark dispute with the Beatles. The sound’s name also exists currently in an inside joke on Apple Computer’s website, where it marks the CSS class denoting a copyright notice #.
Anyway, might as download all these alert sounds and bring your modern machine back to the good ol days. Windows users don’t fret, they are encoded a WAV’s so you can join in on the fun.
Download Now (Updated with more older sounds - Big thank to Mark F)
33 Comments, Comment or Trackback
FernyB
I still got my old mac system 7 Performa CD
May 1st, 2006
R031E5
Cool set!! hey but Submarine and Sosumi are still used in OS X 10.4 Tiger!
May 1st, 2006
Benji
Cool, I’ll post this over at Aqua-Soft.org.
May 1st, 2006
SE/30
I used Clink-Clank on my SE/30 for many years. It sounds too clear and sharp on my desktop speakers, I only remember the muffled sound it made from my old classic style mac.
May 1st, 2006
LinkinJunior
nice.
May 2nd, 2006
TriangleJuice
I only miss one sound here: quack! But still… thanks!
May 2nd, 2006
Dan
I’ll have that for you tonight!
May 2nd, 2006
Jason
My old favorite Mac audio clip was the one where Mr. Ed says “Hello, I’m Mr. Ed!” Granted, it’s not an alert sound per se, but it was cool anyway.
May 2nd, 2006
TriangleJuice
Yay!
Thank you very much!
May 2nd, 2006
Dan
Before the night is over check back
May 2nd, 2006
Boil
How about the old SGI Sounds that I had on my System 8.6 box…?!?
May 2nd, 2006
Randy Rowles
where is the classic quack?
May 2nd, 2006
Mark Fleser
I recorded quack, indigo, and droplet from system 7 (using audio hijack and mac-on-a-stick so they are good quality) and they are winging their way to you guys now.
May 2nd, 2006
Mark Fleser
A little tip is to put them in your system>library>sounds and the system will treat them as if they are built in. I don’t know if it will work with the wavs though, if not convert them to aiff using something like Audacity or QT pro. It’ll give you an error message when you try to install them, but just click authenticate and enter your password. But as always when mucking about in system folders make sure you have a backup (option drag the folder to the desktop to back it up easily).
May 2nd, 2006
Bjorn Nitmo
Using Quicktime to convert the files to an appropriate format will NOT work. See this Apple bulletin: http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106409 (which gives instructions very much like the ones I gave actually).
May 2nd, 2006
Nat
It’s better to put them in ~/Library/Sounds — you can still select them as system sounds that way, and you really don’t want to muck about in /System if you can avoid it.
WAV files will work fine; no need to convert to AIFF.
May 2nd, 2006
Dan
Quack!
May 2nd, 2006
Alan
You’re the man, Dan!
May 2nd, 2006
brian
For all of you who enjoy the “Quack” sound and can run a Classic app, this website has a simple, funny treat for you.
Robot-Frog was one of my favorite sites from back in the day.
May 2nd, 2006
TriangleJuice
To quote Alan:
“You’re the man, Dan!”
May 3rd, 2006
Phil
At a time when we all should want to hide under the covers and make believe everything is fine, a little nostalgia hits the spot. Thanks so much
May 3rd, 2006
Carola
Hi y’all,
THANK YOU!! I really missed that Quack :’-)
May 3rd, 2006
rsl
these are great! still got soundmaster running on my mac classic.
on the subject of old sounds from the good old days, my fav was always the stooges - trying to think but nothing happens!
May 3rd, 2006
Mike Kirby
I’ll tell you what I’ve been looking all over for - that voice saysin “Ta daa!” when you finished the sliding puzzle desk accessory in OS 8. If anybody can send that to trams@GetRidOfThis.mikeycosm.GetRidOfThisAlso.org, I’d really appreciate it! (Remove the ‘getrid of this’ parts to email.)
Thanks,
Mike
May 8th, 2006
retonite
gracias por el quack!
quack!
Jul 2nd, 2006
Floyd
How about old built-in alert sounds? The most common is the start up sound, but I also remember the creepy sad Macintosh sound. And there may be more. There was this time when I clearly listen to a loud car crash sound coming from an old PowerPC 6100/66 having a bad start up. Does anyone here knows what could be the meaning of this one?
Thanks.
Floyd
Oct 22nd, 2006
Randy
After upgrading a Powerbook G3 to 9.2.2, I noticed that many of the sounds were GONE! I was shocked, shocked! So happy to find this way to restore them.
Thanks so much!
The Quack is Back!
Randy
P..S. Also put them on one of my other computers, “Wild Eep” looks wild indeed in Microsoft Windows Media Player!
Nov 20th, 2006
Torley
Freakin’ awesome! I’ve been looking for these, and what a lovely compilation it is! *clapclap*
Does anyone know how to properly extract the HQX files in the Info-Mac Hyperarchive?
» http://hyperarchive.lcs.mit.edu/HyperArchive/Abstracts/art/snd/HyperArchive.html
I tried going about it several different ways, but all have results in packages with generic document icons that just… don’t… open… gr!
There’s gotta a collection of startup chimes too out there. :o)
Feb 25th, 2007
David
Hi,
I’m trying to download the zipped alert sounds, but it seems to be no longer available?
I had a floppy disc full of those fantastic mac sounds - even used them on my pc to make it sound right. ;->
I seem to have thrown out all my floppy discs!!! ;-o
Can someone tell me where to find the archive now?
THANKS!
David. ;-)
Oct 5th, 2007
isecore
Yeah, why isn’t the download link working? These sounds are awesome, I’d love having them on my machine.
Feb 22nd, 2008
Thure
Yeah, I’m also getting a timeout on your .zip file. I’ll try again later but it’d definitely be great to get them again!
Best wishes.
Apr 15th, 2008
Thure
Oop, I found a good alternate version here:
http://www.macupdate.com/download.php/19079/macossounds.zip
Apr 15th, 2008
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