Sound
Using the panes of the Sound panel, you can configure the sound system of your Mac in any of several ways.
Tip
Here’s a quick way to jump directly to the Sound panel of System Preferences—from the keyboard, without ever having to open System Preferences or click Sound. Just press Option as you tap the
,
, or
key on the top row of your Apple keyboard.
Sound Effects Tab
“Sound effects” means error beeps—the sound you hear when the Mac wants your attention, or when you click someplace you shouldn’t.
Just click the sound of your choice to make it your default system beep. Most of the canned choices here are funny and clever, yet subdued enough to be practical as alert sounds (Figure 9-17).
The other controls on the Sound Effects panel include these:
Play sound effects through: Intriguingly enough, in Yosemite, you can now specify one sound source (a speaker or headset) for most sound playback—and a different one just for your error beeps. That’s the one you specify with this pop-up menu.
Alert volume. The main volume slider for your Mac is the “Output volume” slider at the bottom of the Sound pane. The “Alert volume” slider is just for error beeps; Apple was kind enough to let you adjust the ...
Become an O’Reilly member and get unlimited access to this title plus top books and audiobooks from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers, thousands of courses curated by job role, 150+ live events each month,
and much more.
Read now
Unlock full access