johannol

As you say, oxygen is a mix of “corporate” and “cool attitude”. I think that KDE4 should also be consistent with sound. So sound have to be refreshing, “cool” and sound like corporate.

My 2¢
anyway the first thing I do with a destop is to disactivate sound, but this is my way I know other that love desktop sound. and current sound schema are just old now.

How fortunate that he would offer! There should definitely be a coherent sound “theme.” I personally like the “organic” sounds idea; maybe a bit subdued and subtle rather than bright and glaring. I also usually disable sounds, because they are typically too annoying. If they felt more natural, I would probably keep them on.

what about “simple” and “accoustic”

in the computer we recreate what we already have (take a look at apps ranging from calculator programs to ERP systems), i think the desktop sounds ultimatly add on to that trend.

_c.

I’m also one who turns sound off completely the first thing I do, but my suggestion is to keep the sounds very low key, not too high pitched and not too low. Make them distinct and neutral. Windows actually has some good sounds, though it was a long time since I heard them. I think sounds should be short, little “ticks” and “clicks”.

I don’t know about going with the “plasma” theme and have organic sounds, I really don’t want “bubbling” sounds or sounds of animals *shudder*.

Anyway, I’m sure it will be great!

Well I think that sound has always been underestimated.
It is underestimated because when you turn your computer on for the first time, you actually hear the welcomin sound. A very nice flowing music will help the user to say to himself: “Wow, what a cool O/S, Window manager, etc.” and he’s gonna be keen to try the os out as much as possible.

I think the whole tendance are going towards, organic, environnment, stuff like that.. so it would be a good idea to keep going that way.

An idea I have tho is to have an ambient music, maybe 4-5 samples which would be an avg of 10 minutes each. Why’s that? Just whenever you don’t have a mp3 playin or a video.. as soon as ALSA/OSS/Phonon is not gonna be workin, the ambient sound comes to live again. Something very smooth… like the sound you hear when you’re on a beach in middle of nowhere.. Relaxing, maybe some animals sound from time to time with the waves of the ocean in the background.

I also disable sounds (and the entire sound system) as soon as install KDE. One of the reasons is that sounds are usually just an annoyance, but the other is that I’ve never installed KDE on a computer where the sounds were actually synchronized to the events. So if a dialog pops up, I hear the sound about a quarter or half second afterwards. Very very annoying. I dunno if it’s arts or what the problem is, but if the sound is not synchronized with the events, it is worse than useless.

I would love new sounds in KDE 4

Please try to choose sounds that will not become grating if you hear them too often.

Examples of annoying noises in KDE 3:

- The default “beep” noise used in Konsole
- The glass breaking noise if something stops working. It wasn’t a bad idea, but it really doesn’t feel very professional when you hear it.
- The “question is being asked” cough

Please especially check the sounds for error and warning dialogs.

I think “organic” would be preferable over “techno” / electronic.

As a separate technical issue there is a problem where notification sounds can overlap and clip in KDE 3. It would be better if this couldn’t happen.

Hi.

I would enjoy sounds you know from the electro-ambient-genre, with you mean “organic” i think

The current sounds are much too painful. I’d rather overhear them than bleeding out of my ears.

The breaking glass sound is one of the worst ideas ever, ihmo. It makes user think something just got seriously broken. Only sound of car brakes and traffic accident could be worse. Not professional, really.

Sound themes would be great. Those could be:
* organic (default)
* techno (technical noises / voices like “new mail incoming” / …)
* minimal (only “important” sounds — do they exist??)
* no desktop sound

And I second: please turn konsole beep off by default, I never got it what that’s about…

Please, do not use voices… think of i18n…

Anyway, organic sounds seems like a good idea. But, make something quiet.

IMO the sounds should not hit you, but softly introduce themselves. The problem with sound schemes is that so few of them make things sound non disturbing.

Most sounds, including the 3 offered above sound cold and nasty to me. I would not want to hear them if I was concentrating on something. There are very few who have dedication to a pleasant sounding ambiance. I need to hear a noise which does not have a high attack rate. Should have fade in effects and not hit you like a cold bell does. The sounds should not hit you, but softly introduce themselves.

For example, if ‘new mail’ sounds like a fart, it should slowly introduce itself. As in robots II, where the big lady fart sound builds up. That’s organic sound, or is that not what people mean with organic? Organic is vague, we simply need sounds which do not sound interupting and follow some theme if possible. Sound follows a logic where in it things can sound out of place.

Who should I contact to propose a sound theme?