Mail alert sounds too loud; preferences ignored

After I upgraded to Leopard, suddenly the alert sounds in Mail were way too loud. I double-checked my "Alert volume" setting in the Sound preferences and it was set low. Other system sounds are played at an appropriate level. Only Mail ignores it. It seems that no matter what my system volume is set to, Mail alerts are played at 100% volume.
I found this old thread on the same topic, and am wondering if there is any fix for this problem yet?
http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=7058243
Since I have been unable to find any reference to a fix from Apple, and I am sick of about jumping out of my skin when I am concentrating on work and a new message comes in... here is a hack that I did today that might help others: I located each sound file Mail uses (I have several that are used in my Rules), opened each in Audacity ( http://audacity.sourceforge.net/ ), adjusted each to -15db, and saved a copy of the files. I then assigned the "new mail" sound to use the quieter copy. Each rule also had to be edited to attach to the new files.
It's a hack, and time-consuming, but it seems to work.
Message was edited by: PeakD

Same issue here. Been looking for a fix. . .

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Mail Sounds Too Loud

Since upgrading to Leopard I notice that my Mail notification sounds all of a sudden are very loud in comparison to the ordinary alert sounds and other audio. Has anyone else noticed that? Solution?
Resetting the alert sounds in System Preferences doesn't seem to affect it
Not a major issue, just a minor irritation. But the swoosh when mail is sent sounds like a plane taking off in the room even when other audio is at a low level.

I'm having the same problem. The sound volume is linked to the regular sound volume so if I listen to music the chosen new mail sound effect blares out. Perhaps that's intended (otherwise you'd not know you have new mail) but I hate it and was forced to disable mail sounds altogether to prevent getting a heart attack.

Mail alert sounds stopped working

Hi,
About 2 days ago, the mail alert sounds for incoming mail stopped working. I double checked the preferences, and repaired permissions, still not working.
Any suggestions?
Thanks in advance.

I've had this happen intermittently. If you go to the mail alerts sounds selection and change it to a different sound and then back to the one you want it should reset it and start again.
John

IPad Air Mail alert sound

Hi,
I have an iPad Air with the most current OS 8.2. My selected mail alert sound does not work. All I get is a basic ring tone. I can select another one but the selected sound isn't played when new mail arrives. The iPad Air is less than a year old and the sounds works fine with the os installed at purchase, I think it was 7.1.2.
Thank you for any insight and help with this.
Artie

Hi Arthur,
If you are having issues with your being unable to use any other alert sound for your incoming mail, you may want to try some things to troubleshoot.
First, quit all running applications and test again -
Force an app to close in iOS
Next, I would try restarting and if needed resetting the iPad -
Restart or reset your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch
If the issue is still present, you may want to restore the iPad as a new device -
How to erase your iOS device and then set it up as a new device or restore it from backups
Thanks for using Apple Support Communities.
Best,
Brett L

VIP Mail alert sounds delayed on iOS8

I have general Mail alerts enabled to display on the lock screen with no sound, but I have a sound assigned to VIP mail alerts. This worked fine on iOS 7. At work, I often have my phone sitting on my desk and have observed some odd behavior on iOS 8. What I see on the lock screen when I get an email from a VIP is an alert with no sound. The next email that comes in, regardless of who it is from, will usually get the VIP sound even though it should be silent. I'll also hear the VIP Mail alert sound randomly but infrequently for no apparent reason, usually within a few minutes of a phone reboot.
Here is how I have general Mail alerts configured:
Show in Notification Center: off
Notification Sound: None
Badge App Icon: On
Show on Lock Screen: On
Alert Style When Unlocked: Banners
Show Previews: On
Here is how I have VIP Mail alerts configured:
Show in Notification Center: off (this was actually on, I just turned it off, not sure if this will matter)
Notification Sound: Aurora
Everything else is the same as above.
I have an iPhone 6 running iOS 8.0.2. I believe I also saw this on my iPhone 5 with iOS 8 and 8.0.2 before I got my new phone.
Thanks,
Nathan

My VIP alert notifications and alert sounds on my iPhone now happen about 15-20 minutes after emails arrive on my Mac desktop for most of my email accounts. VIP emails coming into my email accounts that allow push notifications show alerts immediately though. This used to work fine - maybe the problem started happening after iOS 8 was installed. Problem only seems to happen when phone screen is locked.
iPhone 5 on iOS 8.1

Where do I find the Mac Mail alert sound files on the computer?

I want to find the sound files because I want to convert them to wav to use as mail alert sounds for Thunderbird which I use instead of Mail, and don't know where to find the files.
Thanks.

I found the solution here:
https://discussions.apple.com/message/3935483#3935483

Start up sound too loud

Hi there , how do you stop the blasting sound every time i start the mac most of my work at night it's too loud how do change that. i looked in system preferences i couldn't it find how to do it. can you help me thanks.

From my experience, the volume your speakers are set to, is the volume your startup sound is set at i.e. low volume - low startup sound; high volume - high startup sound. Also, I noticed that it differentiates the volume setting between your speakers and earphones/output plug. In System preference you'll notice there are two volume controls, one for alerts and the other for output devices so one of those have got to control the startup sound.
Please let me know if that sorts it out.

Mail alert sound doesn't stick

I chose a doorbell sound for mail notification on Mail, but half the time I get the old mail sound instead. It seems to switch back and forth. How do I resolve this? Thanks in advance for any help.

Hola chicos, (OK guys)
Here’s a solution to the (simple) Mail Notification Sound problem that most people are furious over. Whether it’s plays a sound occasionally or not at all, clearly there is a bug in Mail which prevents it playing sounds alerting you to any incoming mail.
There is even a rule you can apply in Mail>Preferences>Rules called Play Sound which SHOULD play a AIFF file of your choice on receipt of Every Message. But I’ve found this not to work too!
So, here’s a workaround in 2 easy steps:
(You need an AIFF sound file. Got it? Good)
_*STEP 1 - Modify & Save this tiny Applescript:*_
Imagine I have the following AIFF on my HD.
/Users/mrlinguafranca/Library/Sounds/doorbell.aiff
A. Copy n Paste the following into the ‘Script Editor’ application on OS X.
tell application "Finder"
open document file "doorbell.aiff" of folder "Sounds" of folder "Library" of folder "mrlinguafranca" of folder "Users" of startup disk
end tell
B. Change the parameters with the location of YOUR AIFF file
C. Click ‘Run’ to test that it plays the sound file. (Success? Good).
D. Save it somewhere and exit.
_*STEP 2 - Setup a Rule in OS X Mail*_
1. Open Mail.
2. Click Mail>Preferences>Rules.
3. Click Add Rule.
4. Set up the rule as follows:
Give the rule a meaningful description e.g. PlayMailNotificationSound
“If ANY of the rules are met” select (Every Message) from the drop down.
Perform the following actions select (Run AppleScript) select (THE LOCATION OF YOUR APPLESCRIPT)
Click OK.
5. Restart OS X Mail.
6. Send yourself a mail and listen carefully.
Hopefully it’ll work for you as it works for me.
(If even I can think of a workaround, what are the guys at Apple doing?)
Buen dia.
Mr Linguafranca.

Headphone sound too loud - how to get very fine volume control in osx

I could not use my headphones on my new MBP, because the sound was always too loud, even on the smallest setting. It appears that lots of other people have similar problems, so here is a way to fix this:
To get very fine sound volume control I use soundflower fromhttp://code.google.com/p/soundflower/. You have to restart after installing it. Then go to preferences/sound/output and choose soundflower(2ch). Start soundflower from the applications folder, click on the flower symbol in the top pannel and soundflower(2ch) built in output. Then go to Audio setup and change the master for soundflower(2ch). This way you can get the global sound less loud or you can amplify it.
Hope this helps a few people

You saved my life (and my ears) ! Thank you marcel-sl for sharing this (;
Prety cool software if you have an USB headset too loud. Now, I can use F11 and F12 (;

Sound too loud and distorted from capture

It seems that for some reason when I capture video from my Sony PD170 DV camera, that the sound captured is way too loud on the timeline, even though it reads acceptable on the waveforms and the green lights that go up and down.
My last capture an hour ago, from the timeline, the sound was crakely listening through the computer speaker and headphones. I then listened through headphones directly from the original tape in the camera and it sounded ok.
Any suggestions? A problem with the compouter or a setting I need to adjust in FCP for capturing video?
At System Preferences/Sound the input volume is at half set from the internal mic.

I tried a capture from a friends camera and FCP system. Same problem on time line. Random pencil thin blank spots on the audio wave form. So it must be on the tape. Maybe bad tape, electronic interference in recording room or some camera problem recording. Used two separate wireless lavs. Drop-out in exactly same place on both channels could rule out room interference because of different frequency lavs.
I did short analogue test copy from PD170 to Trv-900 and it eliminated the drop-out. So I am now making full copy to substitute in time line.
I also think that the sound coming in with the capture is too loud and that's the possible problem, but can't figure how to change the level on a capture. Even though the waveform and meter after capture look ok, it still seems pretty loud. The audio control in the Log And Capture/Clip Settings is greyed out at 1.

No new mail alert sound in Mountain Lion

I did a clean install of ML, In Lion when I had an alert sound when new mail arrived, i cannot get it to work in ML.
It is enables in mail, and also in sound preferences as well, but still no sound when new mail arrives.
Anyone else?

After trying many methods. I found this a temporary fix. The solution is to set a rule in Mail Preference to run an Applscripts if there is new email. This Applescript will play a notification sound of your choice:
tell application "Mail" to if (count of (every message of inbox whose read status is false)) isgreater than 0 then do shell script "afplay '/Applications/Mail.app/Contents/Resources/New Mail.aiff'"
You can change the path /Application/Mail.app/Contents/Resources/New Mail.aiff to any folder that containt an aiff file. For example: /System/Library/Sounds/Glass.aiff (in this folder you can find all the alert sounds of Mac OS)
Applescript Editor
1. Open Applescript Editor in Applications folder
2. Paste the script in after choosing your notification sound path
3. Save in ~/Library/Application Scripts/com.apple.mail (can name it New Mail in my example)
4. Now you can choose the script in Mail Rules setting
For the Mail rules setting
Open Mail Preferences then Rules then Add Rule. The setting like photo
https://www.sugarsync.com/pf/D8942998_67824332_008550
It works like a charm !!!

New mail alert sound?

According to the user manual for the iPod touch, there is a setting (under 'Settings') to allow the touch to play an alert sound when you have new mail yet I can't see or find this option anywhere. Does anyone actaully have this alert option on their touch?

I have a second problem in relation to this, I wanted to know if the ipod touch >will beep to alert you about calendar events.
Yes it will. Mine does. I have it set so it does.
Secondly, is it beeping through the built-in speaker or only through headphones, >if through speaker is it loud enough to hear from another room?
There is a setting so you can set it to beep through the built-in speaker, the headphones, or both. Through the speaker, it is loud enough to hear if it's in your pocket but i doubt from another room unless it was completely quiet.

Install different Mail alert sounds

Is there somewhere a free application to install new, nicer, louder Mail alert also to apply to other alerts ? Thanks

If you mean on the Apple website somewhere I don't know. All I did was download something, (copyright free of course). Use iTunes to convert it and then pop it in the folder I mentioned previously. It will then be selectable in Mail and other areas of the system.
If you have something like Audio Hijack you can use virtually any sound you want and have permission for.
iTunes will not convert everything but google will find you an App to do it should the iApps come up short.

IMovie to iDVD--Video too dark, sound too loud--Help!

I created three iMovie projects for my son's swim team, then made a DVD using iDVD. It was fine when viewed in iDVD's preview, but when burned to the DVD-R the video was too dark and the sound was way too loud. This is footage taken on a Sony digital camcorder (DCR-TRV11).
I did the iDVD project by starting from scratch from within iDVD, then dragging the iMovie pieces and still images into the iDVD project. The iMovie pieces were prepared by using Share to make them into "full quality" .dv movies.
When I play the finished DVD on my iMac, there are no unusual problems with the video or audio. It looks and sounds like it did when played from the digital camcirder. But when played on both of my standalone DVD players + TVs, the video is too dark and the audio is much too loud.
Any idea why this is, and to fix it? I don't find a way to reduce the audio volume in iMovie. Maybe there is a workaround using the Relative Volume feature, but all my clips have a similar sound level. Any help will be appreciated.
--Eric
iMac G5 Mac OS X (10.4.3)

when burned to the DVD-R the video was too dark
They is a VERY slight darkening during the MPG-2 compression process (see my pages Digital Video Color Bars Test at http://homepage.mac.com/profpixel/color_bars/colorbars.htm and iMovie HD and iDVD 5 Gray Patch Test at http://homepage.mac.com/profpixel/gray_patches/graypatches.htm )
I suspect what you are seening is a major difference in brightness/contrast between your computer monitior and your TV set (and in fact you admit this: "When I play the finished DVD on my iMac, there are no unusual problems with the video or audio. It looks and sounds like it did when played from the digital camcirder. But when played on both of my standalone DVD players + TVs, the video is too dark and the audio is much too loud.") so you aren't seeing an iDVD problem.

Sound too loud in Built DVD

Hello. New to Encore and Premeire Pro. Just completed a project in Premeire Pro and burned a DVD using Encore (both CS5). When I play commercial DVDs on my settop player, the sound can be set between 40 - 50 on my receiver. The one I burned nearly blew the speakers. I had to drop the volume down to 8 to make it comperable to the commercial disks. How come it burned so loud? Is there a setting in either Premeire or Encore to control the level for the whole DVD? We made individual adjustments to various parts of the footage in Premeire, so I really don't want to change that. I am hoping there is a setting in Encore to control the level output to the DVD.
Thank you very much.

Back in PrPro, you can use the Audio Mixer to adjust the SPL (Levels) of the Master and that will probably be the easiest place to accomplish this.
One side-note: I find that many Menus' Audio is set far, far too loud on commercial DVD's (and also on non-commercial ones too). Besides the SPL for the overall Audio, do consider any Menu Audio. It should be background only, IMHO, and not something to rattle the rafters.
Though I use my ears a bit more than the meters, I end up around -6 to -9 dB for the general Audio and about -12dB for any Menu Audio. That is just where I like it. Of course I also hate Audio mixes where the Score (music) and the SFX are at about +3dB and the dialog is at -18dB, but that's 'cause I am old and like to hear the dialog. Also, my my system will reproduce those SFX at monster levels, and my neighbors will complain - closest one is almost 1/4 mile away. The airplane crash scene in Fight Club almost resulted in having the cops called on me, and all I wanted to do was hear the dialog. Just a pet-peeve of mine.
Good luck,
Hunt

Mail alert sounds too loud; preferences ignored

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