After exhaustive study and hours on the phone with Apple--who were useless--I figured out this:
Set an alarm MANUALLY. Specify the SOUND value you want. SAVE. Now all MANUALLY created alarms will use that sound (assuming, of course, you don't again change it).
- that default is only used when setting the alarm manually.
- that default is not displayed ANYWHERE (other than in the alarm you just created).
- Undocumented advanced stuff:
a. You can NAME an alarm
b. You can CHANGE an alarm: Hey siri, "change alarm JOE to 15 hundred" (I use military time to avoid ambiguity). (Hey sir, "change alarm JOE to 3 p.m." is the same.)
c. You CAN NOT specify a sound using siri.
"hey, siri. Set alarm 10:15 am sound Ripple" will create an alarm with the NAME
"sound ripple".
"hey siri. Set alarm 10:15 am name Joe1" creates alarm NAMED JOE1 (using the default sound--that is, the one used when you last MANUALLY created an alarm).
suggestion
Manually create a few alarms, names something like JOE1, JOE2, JOE3.... You won't need any more than the number of alarm you want SIMULTANEOUSLY set.
Now, each time you want to set an alarm with SIRI, say "Hey, siri. CHANGE ALARM JOE3 to 4:35 p.m." This changes alarm JOE3 ****WITHOUT*** changing it's sound!!!
After JOE3 goes off, you can just change it again.
Voila! (I hate workarounds, but this is what we're left with. Thx APPLE.)
Summary: Basically, the problem is not ALARM, but SIRI. Setting an alarm using SIRI uses default sound. In my case it is RADIAL. HOWEVER, I can not find RADIAL listed as a sound ANYWHERE in any sound or ringtone SETTING I have.
Joe P