Looks like no one’s replied in a while. To start the conversation again, simply ask a new question.

Changing the alert sound in Notification Center on Mac OSX Mountain Lion

I would like to change the default notification center sound. I cannot find the sound - it is none of the 14 "Built-in" sounds (certainly not Basso!!) and it is not one of about 20 other sounds I have in my account sounds library---


I especially would like to have different sounds for different notifications--- on my iPad I have a different sound for MAIL for VIP's, for my .Mac account (iCloud now…) and for my Gmail. But on my Mac, everything via the Notification Center has the same (horrible) ding sound….


ALSO: I really don't know WHERE the notification sound is on my Mac.


Thanks for any direction here.


Best regards,



Steve Schulte

Tuesday 2 April 2013

MacBook Pro, OS X Mountain Lion, Also a Mac SE running 6.0.4 - not upgrading that!

Posted on Apr 2, 2013 4:28 AM

Reply
8 replies

Jun 19, 2017 5:38 PM in response to GGx

Thanks for pointing out the location of the sorry tri-tone sound.

Did you ever find a solution to this. I am on 10.12.3 and can't seem to find a solution to substituting the sound.

I did also an exhaustive search of .caf, .aiff, .m4a and.aac files and there is none save the one you pointed out, and deleting it does not even work.

Any clue would be appreciated.

Thanks!!

Jun 19, 2017 11:10 PM in response to lapaki

Sadly no. And as you can see I never got a response on the board. I expect anyone who's tried has been left as confused as I was. After spending hours on the issue I had to give up.


I've never seen anything like it. I literally played every sound file on the system and sms-received1.caf is the only file that makes that sound. So, how is it possible that you can delete that file and the system still play the sound???


Some applications work with Growl, and when the app is coded correctly, it will send its notifications to Growl and not the NC. Then, you can configure Growl with whatever sound you like. Sadly, I'm using Scrivener and although this used to work with Growl pre-Mavericks, it doesn't anymore. Scrivener are working on a 64-bit version and hoping to get that working with Growl. So I'm waiting for that to be released.


Depending on the app you are using, you may have luck with 3rd party apps like Growl.


If you manage to come up with a solution, please post because I'm still hoping for one.


Good luck!

Apr 2, 2013 6:17 AM in response to Radiation Mac

Thanks for your reply!


Isn't everything basically changeable (I mean if a sound or something) -- the sound must exist buried somewhere in an (invisible?) folder or?


Well maybe not-- but sure would be nice to have this customizable. Also (and also for iOS) to have snooze features with notification center. For Calendars (formerly iCal) I had to go spend big bucks on the program BusyCal to get snooze alarms back-- I must snooze 30 alarms/day! And not just for some default 15 minutes but for times from 1 minutes to 90 days! (But still no way to do this when connected to my iPad…)


Sure would appreciate any additional feedback here from anyone on how possibly to change the notification center sound---


Best regards,



Steve Schulte

Tuesday 2 April 2013

Nov 29, 2013 10:53 PM in response to Stephen Schulte1

I just stumbled on the answer to this today, sort of. It's not exactly consistent with what you're saying. Most of what i've read about this says Basso is the (only) alert sound for Notifications Center. The sound can be changed by making an AIFF file of another alert sound, that you desire, and naming it Basso, then putting it into the Sounds folder in the User library. If there is already a sound file in there, first remove it, then put the new file in, but the fix is to rename the new alert sound Basso because that is the only sound the Notifications Center accepts, at least when the article i was reading today said, from May 2013. I will paste the link here--the guy who wrote the article provides the terminal code to copy and paste into terminal to make the alert sound change. However, at least according to what i've read so far today, it's not possible to have different alert sounds for different apps.


http://www.cultofmac.com/226727/mastering-notification-center-change-up-the-defa ult-basso-sound-on-your-mac-os-x-tips/


here is another explanation of making the change, not as clear i don't think, but same idea:


http://www.tuaw.com/2013/03/04/mac-hacks-change-your-default-notification-center -sound/

Dec 2, 2013 3:01 PM in response to Stephen Schulte1

YES Apple !


This is beyond Ridiculous.


I came from 10.6 around 6 months ago. And ML 10.8.x is one of the most horrible incarnations of your OS in recent memory.


I could customize each individual Alert on my Calendar indepednently from every other one. I did not have to rely on a fixated singular global system model.


I can locally select a different sound from a drop down menu option on the Calendar event in ML and change it to any sound I have showing up in the list.


However - it stays MUTED unless I choose Basso.


Additionally - in 10.6.x I could also customize the START TIME for an ALL DAY EVENT.


I was a little peeved when this began DEFAULTING to 9:00 AM on iOS 6.x (but there was a work-around) -- cannot vouch for Mac Lion 10.7.x as I never used it - but in ML 10.8.x this functionality has carried over.


Why do you think the entire free-world is mandated to start their ALL DAY ALERTS at 9am ? This makes no ****** sense.


Apple is continuously making worse and worse decisions around how their Operating System is functioning. Pushing the Desktop OS to the point that it becomes iOS is not viable.


Blah Blah Blah...Apple doesn't read their forums / discussion pages - BULL. Apple like any other major multi-national corporation filters through every spec of information their customer / users give them.


What's funny is that I am now holding onto a copy of 10.6.x - moving it to a Virtual Machine so that I can bring back functionality like the Calendar items that you have taken away. AND Yes - I can resync these w/ the Calendar in ML and in iOS 6 and 7.


Here's to hoping that some of this has been corrected in Mavericks - but I'm not holding my breath !!


Apple has probably restrained even more customization options in 10.9.x.



@ Radiation Mac -- Jaw444 is correct - this same type of "switch" has been done on many many system elements through the various incarnations of OS X. For some unknown reason - Apple tends to fixate on something like a Background Image or in this case a single System Sound (for everything) and Jaw444's solution is the straight-forward fix. Make a backup of whatever you change -- understand that most audio files are containers for the actual audio codec and that some audio might not work unless nearly formatted identically as Apple does tend to place system restrictions on certain elements - usually for stability. Point is not all MP4s are created equal.

Feb 28, 2014 6:13 AM in response to jaw444

Nice workaround! And for the knowledged ones a good reminder to be creative. So the nag is over now, with a nice Morse sound in the meantime that I find something better. Thanks, this also helps a lot for the mood - with the Basso you always had the feeling something bad was going to happen, just like the Funk sound I do not want to hear this one even again.


(Using Mac OS Mavericks)

Aug 25, 2016 2:28 AM in response to CaptPicard

Hi all,


This is a workaround for apps that use the default notification center sound Basso, but not all of them do. When Scrivener reaches its project target it plays a tri-tone sound that's equally annoying but not as farty as Basso.


The sound is here:

/System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/ToneLibrary.framework/Versions/A/Resources/Ale rtTones/sms-received1.caf


But, Notification Center cannot be using this sound, because I've deleted it altogether, rebooted, and still the same nails-down-a-blackboard-awful tri-tone sound plays on project target.


The strange thing is that I've done a root user search from / for every .caf, .aiff, and .wav file on the system and NONE of them make this sound. So where is it coming from????


Where does NC get its sounds????


Thanks all!

Changing the alert sound in Notification Center on Mac OSX Mountain Lion

Welcome to Apple Support Community
A forum where Apple customers help each other with their products. Get started with your Apple ID.