"Borealis" sound theme

System Sounds

Source (link to git-repo or to original if based on someone elses unmodified work): Add the source-code for this project on opencode.net

7
7.3
Description:

KDE Sound theme "Borealis"
Version 0.9a (11/14/2004)
by Ivica Ico Bukvic (SlipStreamScapes)
ico at bukvic dot net
http://ico.bukvic.net
http://kde-look.org/content/show.php?content=12584


OVERVIEW
========
The goal of this sound theme is to provide "better feel" through use of the subtle aural notifications. The test I always have in my mind while designing the desktop sounds is to imagine having half-dozen (or more) computer stations in the same office or studio and consider whether their simultaneous use (and resulting desktop sounds) would pose as distraction on users and their productivity. Therefore, in order to minimize the "distraction factor" this theme associates many of the common desktop events with brief, mostly non-pitched, but nonetheless pleasing sound sources (a.k.a. effects).

All of the sounds included have been composed (if applicable), recorded, and mastered by me (although a few of them bear resemblance to other OS's sounds). Some of them are leftovers from my previous compositional and production endeavors, while others are entirely new creations.

All sounds are designed and mixed at CD-quality (stereo, 16-bit, 44.1KHz). Ogg version is distributed as 192Kbit stereo files.

Thank you for your interest!


LICENSE
=======
See below.


FEATURES
========
*Includes sounds for:
*KDE WM
*KDE System Notifications
*Kdevelop
*Kopete
*KDE Sysguard
*KMail
*Konsole
*Proxy configuration
*K3b (missing 1 sound)
*4 startup sounds
*2 exit sounds
*Automated installer and uninstaller (KDE 3.x)

INSTALL
=======
IMPORTANT! installer has been tested only with KDE 3.x series.

Borealis comes with an automated install shellscript making the install a simple 2-step process:

1) Untar the package:
tar -jxvf Borealis_sound_theme-VERSION.tar.bz2

2) Install the theme:
cd Borealis/
su -p
(IMPORTANT! You must do 'su' with the '-p' flag in order to preserve your home dir variable while running as superuser)
sh install.sh

At this point simply follow the on-screen instructions and in a couple moments it should be all ready to go.

Optionally, you may also want to disable animation of minimizing/restoring windows as the theme sounds associated with these actions in my opinion work better when the animation is disabled. You can adjust this setting in the KControl -> LookNFeel -> Window Behavior -> Moving tab -> Animate minimize and Restore option.


UNINSTALL
=========
To uninstall Borealis theme simply use the uninstall.sh script included in the tarball:

sh uninstall.sh

Your votes, comments, and suggestions are most welcome and appreciated. Thanks!

Enjoy!

108 comments
Comments/Ratings

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C

SlipStreamScapes

13 years ago

DOH! I just realized that I already changed the license for the theme's inclusion into the UbuntuStudio project as the default theme some time ago. So, hopefully this makes things a bit easier.

As always, if you opt for using the theme, please do not forget to give credit where credit is due and link to my homepage which is ico.bukvic.net.

Many thanks!

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hadessuk

13 years ago

A few of your sounds are now used in the default GNOME sound theme. Download gnome-audio on the GNOME website for more bits :)

Thanks!

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C

SlipStreamScapes

13 years ago

Thanks! :-)

Best wishes,

Ico

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abrichr

13 years ago

any plans for porting this over to gnome? or is there any way to get it to work with gnome?

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C

SlipStreamScapes

13 years ago

There are definitely plans to implement this. Currently, you can simply associate manually sounds as you like using Gnome sound settings.

That being said, I am still waiting on Gnome to implement ability to import sound themes. Last time I checked this was not possible, but that may have changed since. If you know of a place/way to import all sounds at once overriding current settings, I'll gladly provide a suggested theme. Otherwise, I am afraid the only way to import this into Gnome at this point is to manually configure individual sounds.

Hope this helps!

Ico

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zborgerd

13 years ago

We use these great sounds with Dropline GNOME and everyone loves them.

http://umn.dl.sourceforge.net/sourceforge/dropline-gnome/borealis-sounds-0.9a-noarch-1dl.tgz

Frankly, I find that they are a much better sound set than the GNOME default sounds (which I loathe). Borealis sounds great, and it really helps us achieve the "look and feel" that we wish to have on Dropline GNOME.

It is as you say though - GNOME still does not support multiple sound themes, so we simply omit the GNOME defaults and use these instead. GNOME also uses fewer sounds, so you unfortunately cannot use every single one of the great Borealis sounds at one time.

Thanks for putting together such a great sound set! I think that GNOME should use these as the defaults.

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menoxy

13 years ago

There is some major clipping going on with the logout sound. I think this might have to do with the effects. You should be able to fix this with a limiter or compressor.

Other than that I love the sounds. Keep it up!

Also, with Ubuntu you can change the root password by:

sudo su
passwd

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sinewalker

13 years ago

I found on my SoundBlaster Live (VE) that PCM volume needed to be brought down to around 75% to avoid clipping with these sounds.

However I also got occasional clipping from DVDs etc., so I put it down to the digital amp in the hardware...

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C

SlipStreamScapes

13 years ago

Actually, there should be no clipping, or I should say it's not there in the Wav file (and as logic suggests, it shouldn't be in the ogg conversion either). I re-tested the files last time someone reported this and found that as expected they were close but nonetheless below the treshold that would make them distort. I noticed, however, that on certain notebook drivers 100% loudness distorts pretty much everything and in some cases KDE tends to do funny things at logon as far as volume is concerned (I don't recall any problems at logout, though). That being said, I have not tried latest versions of ALSA or KDE, so please take this with a grain of salt.

Hope this helps!

Ico

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frodoooo

13 years ago

I'd like to try this BUT :

>>>su -p
(IMPORTANT! You must do 'su' with the '-p' flag in order to preserve your home dir variable while running as superuser)

How can I do this in UBUNTU where I don't know the root password and all I can do is SUDO ???

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yossarianuk

13 years ago

You can assign a root password in ubuntu by typing:-

sudo passwd root

- type your password then the one you want for root.

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ehrocha

13 years ago

just do :

sudo passwd root

change root's password

you'r done

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aleee

11 years ago

this worked 4 me...

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sinewalker

13 years ago

in kubuntu (but should be same for [k|x|.]ubuntu):

sudo -s bash
sh install.sh

worked for me.

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C

SlipStreamScapes

13 years ago

This documentation predates Ubuntu, hence the disparity. That being said, I believe that sudo -s should preserve your home dir as well. Alternately, you can also look up documentation on your flavor of Ubuntu on how to enable su for the root account (although personally I don't think this is a good idea since that may decrease overall security of your system in the long run).

Finally, if you do not wish to mess with these settings, you can always manually copy audio settings into your ~/.kde folder, overwriting current settings. If you do this, please pay close attention into which sub-folder it is supposed to go into as well as make sure to back-up your old file should you desire to go back to original settings. The install script does all this automatically for you but has not been tested with the sudo -s. If I get a chance, I'll test this on my Ubuntu box tomorrow and let you know.

Hope this helps!

Ico

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Otakon

13 years ago

great sound....

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StianM

13 years ago

I use them, but just started. What I really want to tell you is that I love how simple you made it for idiots like me.

I think there must be a script somewhere that empthy the trashcan so it must be posible to lock a sound to that script somhow.

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C

SlipStreamScapes

13 years ago

Thank you very much all for your kind words and compliments! As always, they are most appreciated!

Best wishes,

Ico

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RabidLockerGnome

13 years ago

These sounds are awesome. The startup sounds would be great for a Linux commercial...

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ciccio840

13 years ago

nice sounds, very nice work!

the sound startup 1 is very, very beautiful!

my kde now is very nice!

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ponty666

13 years ago

Ultra sound theme. The Startup sounds remind me of Gran Turismo.

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LabWOLF

14 years ago

I love your sound theme and I uploaded it to the following site for use with a Instant Messenger for Windows.

http://addons.miranda-im.org/index.php?action=display&id=5

I kept the title the same and gave you full credit as the author of the sounds.

Thanks!

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iPirates

14 years ago

these sound files are awesome! good work..

however, i encountered a problem with trying to play them properly...

the only sounds that seem effected are the start up sounds, and the exiting sounds, which play fine until they reach a loud point, then they start to sound all distorted. I did some looking around on forums and believe that the problem is with kde, and a solution i've found to work is to turn the volume in alsamixer down to 50%, then turn my speakers up. the files play perfectly after that, but i was wondering if anybody knows of a better way to fix this??

**all other sound formats, so far have played great, just these ones i've noticed the distortion...

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C

SlipStreamScapes

14 years ago

Hi,

I think this is because the sounds were "enhanced" dynamically with a compressor. Hence they are quite close to clipping but they never actually do clip. Another solution would be to simply take any basic sound editor and take those two sounds and make them softer (i.e. using normalize plugin or amplify or whatever its name is in a particular editor).

I have a similar issue on my computer but have also come to the same conclusion which suggests that KDE sound system is to blame.

Hope this helps!

Best wishes,

Ico

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C

SlipStreamScapes

14 years ago

Oops, apologies for the double-post.

I guess another thing that I forgot to account for is that on certain soundcards I noticed that ALSA tends to be distorting in the higher dynamic range. This is especially true with laptops. So, I guess it may not be KDE issue after all but one of these two.

Best wishes,

Ico

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product-maker adrianzrt Mar 22 2021 9 excellent
9 excellent
product-maker pemartins Jan 08 2018 9 excellent
Excellent sound theme!
product-maker yesuza Dec 03 2017 9 excellent
Great!
product-maker Etemenanki Apr 22 2015 9 excellent
product-maker dfghjk Apr 17 2015 9 excellent
product-maker suther Nov 16 2013 3 bad
product-maker Sweyn78 Aug 24 2012 9 excellent
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license
version
0.9a
updated Nov 14 2004
added May 12 2004
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