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DESCRIPTION
Play Sound is a simple, no-fuss sound player that supports QuickTime sound files (for example, AIFF or MP3 files), Classic Mac OS System 7 sound files (files with a file type of 'sfil' that contain 'snd ' resources), or any 'snd ' resources embedded into any file. You can play an unlimited number of sounds concurrently or one at a time. You can loop sounds, repeat sounds, play specified portions of sounds, control the volume of sounds played, pause and continue sound play, and press the Escape or Command-Period keys to abort sound play.
To use Play Sound as a simple sound file player, simply drag and drop the sound file(s) onto the Play Sound icon in the Mac OS Finder. Better yet, you can configure the Mac OS X Finder to automatically open sound files with Play Sound whenever you double-click them (see Using Play Sound As a Sound Player in the documentation for easy instructions showing how to do this).
Play Sound is fully scriptable, allowing AppleScript writers to use simple, easy-to-understand English syntax to play most QuickTime-supported sound files, Classic Mac OS System 7 sound files, and even 'snd ' resources that are embedded directly in script applets. To script Play Sound, you call it from any AppleScript script or application.
WHAT'S NEW
Version 1.6.7:
- Fixed a bug where Play Sound, on Mac OS X 10.5, was not handling sound file paths sent as Unicode text strings.
- Fixed a bug where Play Sound would return a "player status" of "quitting" if you sent a quit command, but sounds were still playing. Now, Play Sound will return "playing" until all sounds are done playing, and then return "quitting" just before quit.
REQUIREMENTS
Mac OS X 10.2.8 or later.
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| Play Sound User Reviews (12 posts) | Write A Review |
 | Nov 21 2008 |
RORO01 Perfect for it's purpose but, the developer should realize that we are not busy playing system sounds 24 hours a day - it still uses about 10M of memory (though 0 CPU) when not being used. I hope the developer will add a small "drag onto" window and an icon in the dock when the application is running - then it will be, definitely, a five star application. (Version 1.6.7) | |
| [ 1 Reply - Reply ] | |
Replies:
 | Nov 21 2008 |
MONOCLAST Personally, I have not seen Play Sound reach 10 MB of memory usage; though I suppose it's possible if you queue up enough large sounds. Even so, if you'll compare all the processes listed in Activity Viewer with Play Sound, you'll see most other applications you leave running all the time use lots more RAM than this. Under 10 MB isn't very much at all in comparison. I have noted your feature request to add a user interface to Play Sound. Unfortunately, adding a menu bar and window would not only increase the memory footprint of the application substantially, but would also make it take much longer to launch and quit. Also you should know you are only the second person out of tens of thousands of other users who has asked for a user interface. Most users of Play Sound seem to be perfectly happy with it the way it is, and wouldn't use the user interface anyway. I'm not of the opinion most users should suffer just because one or two users happen to want Play Sound to be something it's not. Remember: Play Sound is designed from the ground up to be a fast, simple, faceless sound player. (Version 1.6.7) | |
 | Nov 20 2008 |
RORO01 There is no need for this faceless application to be running continuously in the background, as the developer suggests, as long as you have DragThing. The application will launch when you drop the first sound file onto its icon and will stay open for ever in the background. However, if you have DragThing you can drag the file onto its alias in the DragThing dock and then you can easily quit it in DragThing after you're done with it. (Version 1.6.7) | |
| [ 1 Reply - Reply ] | |
Replies:
 | Nov 21 2008 |
RORO01 If you don't have DragThing you can still quit it through Activity Monitor. (Version 1.6.7) | |
 | Dec 5 2007 |
DIANE5 Since installing Leopard, I'm having trouble using Play Sound in an AppleScript that's called in a Rule for Microsoft Entourage. The error I receive is "doesn't understand the " set cusrPath to (path to "cusr" as string) set soundAlias to (cusrPath & "Documents:Microsoft User Data:Custom Sounds:Quack.aiff") as alias tell application "Play Sound" play (soundAlias as alias) I'm also having trouble opening scripts in the Script Editor in Leopard. SE crashes when I try to open a script. I rely on Play Sound and the ability it has given me to get custom notifications for email. What do I need to do to get it working again? (Version 1.6.7) | |
| [ 3 Replies - Reply ] | |
Replies:
 | Dec 5 2007 |
MACUPDATE ADMIN http://microcosmsoftware.com/support/index.html (Version 1.6.7) | |
 | Dec 30 2007 |
MICROCOSM SOFTWARE Unfortunately, due to a change in Play Sound's AppleScript dictionary in version 1.6 (logged at the bottom of the Play Sound "Read Me" file), scripts created with earlier versions need to be recompiled to work correctly with Play Sound 1.6 and later. To fix your scripts, open them in Script Editor, add a blank line (or make a similar trivial change to the text), then save the script. (Version 1.6.7) | |
 | Dec 30 2007 |
DIANE5 That worked. Thanks!! (Version 1.6.7) | |
 | Jul 30 2007 |
Thanks for the kind words and suggestions. Play Sound uses 0.00% CPU and about 1.0 MB of RAM while idle in the background. Therefore leaving Play Sound running in the background when sounds are finished playing is not a big deal. In fact, it's actually less work for the system to leave it running than it would be to launch and quit Play Sound each time you play a sound. My goal with Play Sound is to offer Mac users a quick, transparent way to play sound files. Unfortunately, adding a user interface to Play Sound would slow startup times even more, making running and quitting it take even longer. With that said, I do appreciate your input. I've noted your request, and will consider it for future updates. Or perhaps at some point in the future I'll find time to write a companion application with a user interface for those who want such a thing. (Version 1.6.6) | |
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 | Jun 25 2007 |
BRUCE_Y Play Sound does play sounds with a minimum of effort. And, re stopping it, both Esc and Command-period are kind of mac-universal stop commands always worth a try in any application to stop a process. And I second the request for a minimal GUI. Something that shows sound being played, pause/play, stop and Quit would be great. In current form, it is a 'faceless' application that must be controlled by Applescript commands, and either quit by same, or quit using some form of process viewer or Activity monitor. Less than ideal for those of us who don't want stuff running in the background, and don't want to assign all wave or audio files to be controlled by Play Sound. Otherwise, it does seem to play sounds well. (Version 1.6.5) | |
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 | Mar 8 2006 |
ANAME I couldn't find a way of stopping a large soundfile from playing. Some kind of minimalistic gui would be appreciated. (Version 1.6.3) | |
| [ 1 Reply - Reply ] | |
Replies:
 | Mar 10 2006 |
MONOCLAST I'm not sure how hard you really looked. I found it almost immediately in the included Read Me. Heck, for that matter, the product *description* even says you can press the Escape or Command-Period (-.) keys to abort sound play! You can abort sound play immediately at any time one of two ways: by pressing the Escape or Command-Period (-.) keys on your keyboard by sending Play Sound the stop command This script causes Play Sound to abort all currently-playing sounds: tell application "Play Sound" Note: Using either method to stop sound play will clear all queued sounds from the queue." (Version 1.6.3) | |
 | May 29 2005 |
ANONYMOUS I can't download this app. When clicking the DL link on MU site, first I wait about a minute, then 920 KB download starts with speed of 0,6 KB per second. Having a broadband connection sometimes doesn't mean high speeds. (Version 1.6) | |
| [ 2 Replies - Reply ] | |
Replies:
 | May 29 2005 |
MU ADMIN I just downloaded this app at a speed of 130 KB/sec. using my aDSL connection, minutes after you posted your comment. (Version 1.6) | |
 | May 30 2005 |
LOVE THIS APP. try again, if it slow what ever, it is worth the wait.... and it is free. (Version 1.6) | |
 | Dec 27 2004 |
ANONYMOUS Simple & Plain if your'e working with samples!!!! Extra Great Thank You!! (Version 1.5.2) | |
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 | Sep 27 2004 |
ANONYMOUS Using 1.4.2 with OS X 10.3.5 -- I *love* this little utility...but it doesn't seem to play nice with Unsanity's "Detour" haxie. Not sure whose fault it is, but sound re-routing gets all loused up when the two of them are running. (Version 1.4.3) | |
| [ 2 Replies - Reply ] | |
Replies:
 | Sep 27 2004 |
ANONYMOUS Have you reported it to the developer? You can't give it a bad rating, and expect them to fix it, if you haven't taken a moment to send them an email about it... (Version 1.4.3) | |
 | Sep 27 2004 |
ANONYMOUS I wrote the original comment...but I must have screwed up in my ratings; my intent was to give five stars for every category (including value), but 4 for reliability. (Version 1.4.3) | |
 | Sep 24 2004 |
ANONYMOUS Finally, finally... that lost feature in OsX. Works perfectly, absolutely non-intrusive, nothing to think or worry about. This app. does rock. (Version 1.4.2) | |
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