sound-cues.el

Use sound cues to tell the user when things happen in Emacs.

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Introduction

This is a small tool designed to add audio feedback to Emacs.

Sound cues can be attached to any function. Want to know when another package completes a slow, asynchronous function? Just attach a sound cue to that function. Want to know when it completes a background process? Add a sound cue to the callback function.

Adding cues is easy:

;; Add to a function
(sound-cues-add-cue function sound)

;; Add to a hook
(sound-cues-add-cue-to-hook hook sound)

The sound will then play each time function completes.

Some example uses:

• Play a sound when Emacs has finished loading.
• Notify the user when a background process returns.
• Notify the user when an asynchronous function completes.
• Play a buzzer when a function calls its "failure" callback, play a success sound when it calls its "success" callback.

Usage

Installation

sound-cues.el isn't on MELPA yet. For now, I recommend installing directly from GitHub with Quelpa. Evaluate the following:

(package-install 'quelpa)
(require 'quelpa)
(quelpa '(sound-cues
          :fetcher github
          :repo "jcaw/sound-cues.el"
          ;; You have to explicitly download the sounds folder
          :files ("*.el" "README.md" "sounds")))

Then require as normal:

(require 'sound-cues)

Alternatively, you can clone the repo and add the directory to the load-path yourself.

Test Your Speakers

Once installed, test that sound cues can play successfully with:

M-x sound-cues-test-speakers

Adding Cues

Add sound cues to a function with:

;; You can use inbuilt sounds
(sound-cues-add-cue 'some-function 'success)      ; `success' is an inbuilt sound
(sound-cues-add-cue 'another-function 'failure)   ; `failure' is another inbuilt sound

;; Use your own sound files too
(sound-cues-add-cue 'third-function "/path/to/sound-file.wav")

The cue will play when the function completes. Note that only one sound cue may be attached to each function.

The cue can be an inbuilt sound (pass a symbol to use an inbuilt sound) or a path to a sound file (as a string). Sound files must be in WAV format.

You can also add cues to hooks:

;; Inbuilt sound
(sound-cues-add-cue-to-hook 'after-init-hook 'startup)

;; Custom sound
(sound-cues-add-cue-to-hook 'python-mode-hook "monty-python/not-the-messiah.wav")

You can also play sound cues on their own:

;; Inbuilt sound
(sound-cues-play-sound 'alert)

;; Custom sound
(sound-cues-play-sound "~/wilhelm-scream.wav")

Removing Cues

Remove cues with:

(sound-cues-remove-cue)           ; Remove cue from one function.
(sound-cues-remove-cue-from-hook) ; Remove cue from a hook.
(sound-cues-remove-all-cues)      ; Remove cues from all functions and hooks.

Built-In Sounds

sound-cues.el contains a number of built-in sound effects, listed in sound-cues-inbuilt-sounds. Here's a list of available sounds:

• success
• failure
• alert
• startup
• startup-2
• startup-3
• negative-beep
• success-bells-major
• success-bells-minor
• ding-dong
• sonar
• sweep
• ooh-yeah
• womp-womp-trombone

You can demo the available sounds with M-x sound-cues-demo-sounds. All sounds are licensed under the Creative Commons.