Information About Sound packs
From Qwitter Wiki
Contents |
What Is A Soundpack?
A soundpack is a collection of short sounds, whose function it is to tell you what is happening on Qwitter, and therefore Twitter. Each time there is a new event, you hear a sound, for example, when a new tweet arrives, not only will your sapi speech or screen-reader announce this, but the relevant sound will also play.
Why Are There So Many Soundpacks? Do I need Them All?
Most soundpacks are made to some kind of theme. For example Star Trek, Cartoon sounds, animals, musical instruments, etc. The collection of soundpacks is growing all the time, so there is bound to be at least one you like. Some people have every single one, and some people may have only a few, it's entirely up to you.
So, Where Do I Get Them, And How Do I Install Them?
You can download them from the soundpack link on Qwitter Sound Pack Central
you will find a full list there of all the soundpacks, with short descriptions and download links. Also, by following qwitter_sounds on Twitter, you will recieve updates when new soundpacks are added to Sound Pack Central.
The pack will be downloaded as a zip file. To install the new soundpack, unzip it directly into your qwitter sounds directory. You can find this on a typical C drive as follows: go into my computer, local disc C, program Files, Qwitter, sounds. It's much the easiest to use the browse function of the Windows Extraction Wizard to get your new Soundpack into the right place, but if you decide to put it there manually, make sure you don't have a folder inside a folder, or the sounds won't play.
This Soundpack Is Too Loud! I Want Qwitter To Shut Up! What Do I Do?
You will find there are a huge variety of soundpacks, some much louder than others. Experiment with them, and see which suits you the best. But there is a way to mute Qwitter altogether. Just press Control+Windows+M. You're speech will say Mute on, or Mute off. When mute is on, you will hear neither sounds nor announcements. Qwitter will go on working, but will be totally silent.
Soundpacks Are Groovy! Can I Make One?
All you need to make a soundpack for Qwitter is some kind of audio editing equipment such as Goldwave, sound Forge, Studio Recorder, Audacity or similar; some good sound effects, an idea for a theme, and some know-how
A soundpack consists of eleven sounds. Look inside the folder of any finished soundpack to see what these are, and model your new pack on them. Then think of a theme. Let's say, you like cars and motor bikes, and want to make a sound pack from cool car and bike sounds. So, you go on to a good site for free sounds. I always use Find Sounds
everything's free there, and there's good stuff to find there if you look.
So you spend time searching through sounds till you have eleven you like. Then you may have to edit them, because the sounds for qwitter don't want to be too long, or too short. Also the volume needs to be right. This is a matter of taste, but too quiet, and it won't be heard. Too loud, and it won't be so popular.
Next you need to see if the beginning and end of the sound need to be faded at all. Sometimes this has already been done on the effect, but sometimes not, and nasty abrupt beginnings can make you jump. Then if it's a car, or something that moves, you might want to, if you have the capability, pan it across the soundfield. The more interest you can put in a pack, the more popular it's going to be.
So now your sounds are ready, you name them, and this is important. Name them exactly as you saw them named in the folder you looked at. Then think of a nice snappy name for your sound pack, put all your finished sounds into a folder with that snappy name, zip it up, write a short description to go with it, and email it to , where it will be submitted to Sound Pack Central.
My Soundpack Isn't Playing. Why Not?
Ok, you're testing out a new soundpack, and it's not working? first, check you don't have a folder inside a folder. it's an easy mistake to make, and it'll stop anything from playing. Then Check your files are all wav files. then, check your files are named exactly, letter for letter, like the files in a finished and working soundpack.
