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View Full Version : What Sounds Do You Use For Notifications?


Ed Hansberry
07-05-2008, 11:00 PM
<p>I was wondering what sounds you use for various notifications on your device. I suspect a few of you leave the default sounds on, but most of you probably customize just about every sound on the device. Here is my listing of key sounds:<br /></p><ul><li>Ringer - <a href="http://blog.tmcnet.com/blog/tom-keating/mobile-phones/download-24-ringtone.asp" target="_blank">telephone ringer from the show 24</a>. I also have the phone vibrate simultaneously.</li><li>Email - I use the default Alarm3 sound that comes with the device. Well below the annoying threshold for emails.</li><li>SMS messages - <a href="http://www.ehansberry.com/ppct/2008/incomingmessage.zip" target="_blank">A sound from the STNG computer</a> - annoying for frequent SMS messages, but great for just a few a day</li><li>Reminder - <a href="http://www.ehansberry.com/ppct/2008/redalert.zip" target="_blank">TOS Red Alert klaxon</a> - guaranteed to keep you from being late to any meeting. I also use this to wake up.</li></ul><p>I pretty much leave the rest on the default settings, except for MMS, which I turn completely off. So, what's on your device?<br /></p>

Prosper
07-06-2008, 01:44 AM
I'm currently back to the Intercom Ring from 24 as well, after using the ringtone from 'Crank' for quite a while - was kinda annoying after a while though =P

bnycastro
07-06-2008, 03:38 AM
I make my own tones for my categories. *Others: Doraemon Theme
*Good Friends: Dash Berlin - Till' The Sky Falls Down (Vocal Mix)
*Family: John Williams - Imperial March
*Boys: Kyau & Albert - Kiksu
*Girls: Bob Sinclar - World Hold On (Children of the Sky)
*Business Contacts: Tiësto - Lethal Industry
For alerts:
SMS/MMS: Babylon 5 Door Sound
Email: Alarm 3 (default)
IM+: uh oh (ICQ)
Reminders: Paul van Dyk - La Dolce Vita

heov
07-06-2008, 05:28 AM
I have 3 profiles.
Normal, Vibrate, and Silent.

When it's on normal (hardly ever... i hate hearing sounds), my ringtone is Futurama theme (and vibrate sumultaneously). The rest is the same as vibrate...

On vibrate (mostly this), ringer is set to vibrate, texts/mms are pulsing vibrate, emails are LED notification only! i get way too many emails for my phone to vibrate and bother me.

i haven't heard my ringtone in months :D then again, i hate incoming calls... it usually means i have to do something :( whereas anything social i handle/get through texts.

Rocco Augusto
07-06-2008, 05:35 AM
For my ringtone I'm using a clip from 'Thriller' (Michael Jackson, for those unfamiliar.)

SMS, email,instant message - Alert-Outlook
voice mail, exclamation - Alert-Exclaim
reminders - Alert4
keypad - none (i hate keypad tones as much as i hate smudges.)

ajwalker
07-06-2008, 10:22 AM
Mine give me just enough to make my phone my own and are pretty much all Sci-Fi related:D


Incoming Text - Lt. Commander Worf ST:NG "Captain, Incoming Message" (BTW, I forgot to turn my phone to vibrate while I was in my local library and a text came in as I was checking out some books. When the librarian heard it, she said "My, someone thinks they are very important!" Sarcastic noob.)
Incoming E-mail - Computer from one of the Star Trek shows "Incoming sub-space signal"
Voice Message - HAL from 2001 "There is a message for you"
General Ringtone - Jazz song standard "Take Five"
Alarm - Windows Mobile ringtone "Hot Chocolate" (offered around holiday time) Wakes me up just fine to something a little more pleasant than the buzz of an alarm clock.
System Exclamation - HAL from 2001 "Just one moment please"
System Warning - HAL from 2001 "I'm sorry Dave, I'm afraid I can't do that"

I specifically set up the text, e-mail and voice message sounds to be very distinct so I don't have to look at my phone to know which kind of message it is.

Plus, if I'm busy and can't/don't answer my phone when it's ringing, I can listen to see if the person who was calling thought it important enough to leave a message and know if it is something I need to attend to sooner rather than later (or not at all).

Obviously, if they didn't think it important enough to leave a message, then I don't have to worry about it and maybe I'll "get around" to calling them back (not!).

But I think I will be switching one of my incoming message sounds to the one Ed uses for his SMS messages, I downloaded it and really liked it.

Not sure which one but that was really nice and will fit in with my general obsession with Sci-Fi / Star Trek and personalizing my phone.;)

ssschmidt
07-06-2008, 10:24 AM
Main Ringer - Unknown caller is a windows mobile tone from my tilt. Echoy.
SMS - Sat phone ring from the unit.
E-Mail - Kim Possible beeper tone (hey, I like it. Was either that or power rangers)
I have various ones set for individuals who call frequently.

rzanology
07-06-2008, 11:15 AM
i usually make short tones from my mp3's. kinda like ring tones but only 3-5 seconds long.

Agent13
07-06-2008, 11:43 AM
For Incoming, I have a shortened. MP3 of Venga Boys "We Like to Party" (more likely known as the Six Flag Theme song a couple of years back).

I also have some contact specific ringtones for people like me wife (I knew the bride when she used to rock & Roll)

E-mail, no sound, just vibrate.

Rest are default on my BlackJack 2, the Out of Box sounds have finally achieved a level of acceptance.

Ripberger
07-06-2008, 12:32 PM
My favorite tone recently is the cry of a red-tailed hawk. I use it for my text-message tone. It tends to turn a lot of heads. :)

Before that I used the Austin Powers Shaguar videophone alert tone.

I also use a clip of the fight music from the Star Trek TOS episode Amok Time as my alarm tone. That'll jolt me awake!

Don't Panic!
07-06-2008, 01:10 PM
I pretty much stick to the default sounds except for the Alarm tone for which I use a modified Big Ben Alarm sound from the sounds.zip collection created by Jonathan Sachs for StopTime 2.0 (http://home.comcast.net/~jonsachs/#StopTime%202.0).

dignow96
07-06-2008, 02:33 PM
My Ring Tone is a custom edit of the Black Eyed Peas song "They Don't Want Music"
Email Notice is "Message for you sir" from Monty Python and the Holy Grail
SMS is "This is CNN" by James Earl Jones
My general 'wake up' and 'go home' alarms are the most annoying sound in the world from "Dumb & Dumber"
I've got a few others but those are the biggies...

Ed@Brighthand
07-06-2008, 02:47 PM
My reminder sound is Chewbacca roaring. It rarely fails to make me and anyone who hears smile, and I'll occasionally throw in a comment to someone who overhears that most personal assistants don't rip people's arms out of their sockets when you miss a meeting. Wookies have been known to do that.
.

sparrowmict
07-06-2008, 03:22 PM
I am glad to see that i am not the only Star Trek Scifi geek around. I have at various times used alerts from TNG Currently i am using a set of voice waves that i stumbled upon somewhere i cant even remember where but its a female British voice that says

"Excuse me sir, you have an important phone call"

"Excuse me your phone is ringing"

"You have a txt message"

"You have a message" for voice mail

Montgomery Burns "yes your in deep dough now" from the simpsons for error messages

US Navy general quarters is my tone for my alarm if you have ever been on a ship for more than 5 minutes that's one sound that you cant ignore

I am going to change ring tones for different people or categories on my contact list but haven't gotten around to it yet.

Raymond
Paramedic Oklahoma City
Motorola Q (no its not what i want but US Cellular sucks for smartphones)

Brad Adrian
07-06-2008, 03:43 PM
I'm one of those people who thinks that too many people have loud, obnoxious ringtones. So, since I use my mobile phone a lot a work, I keep the sounds subdued. For appointment notifications, I came across a nice, soothing cricket chirp, which most of my officemates don't even notice.

dhpss
07-06-2008, 04:11 PM
I am using the very nice WM6 reminder sound as described here (download available)
http://solsie.com/nice-reminder-sound-of-windows-mobile-61/

JesterMania
07-06-2008, 06:24 PM
For my ringtone, I find that music from Super Nintendo games are really good for this. I convert them from SNES format to MP3 using Winamp and use those.

For my SMS messages, I only use one tone and that's the "Receiving Incoming Transmission" sound from StarCraft. Most people love this one, but can't remember where they heard it (StarCraft was very popular back in 1998 when it first debuted). I'm thinking of grabbing more sounds from StarCraft like the "Warning...nuclear launch detected" or something.

wetsleet
07-06-2008, 10:15 PM
I found a great piece of sound - bleating sheep and lowing cows. Its assigned to the wife, of course. But its actually very effective - easy to hear yet deceptively gentle on the ear. I wish I knew where I found it.

grimmbob
07-06-2008, 11:54 PM
Rigth now my ringtone is Death or Glory by Social Distorion. It used to be the 24 phone, but I got a bit tired of it.

I've actually been trying to find the DRADIS sound from BSG but have not been able to find it anywhere. I guess it'll come down to finding the time to rip a bit from an episode and fiddle with it to make my own! :)

All other sounds are stock, ATM.

gb

aNiMeMaN14
07-07-2008, 03:43 AM
I'm a big fan of creating my own ringtones from various rap instrumental loops, but I used to get upset that I could only use them one at a time. Then I discovered a program that chooses a random ringtone out of a folder I specify. Pretty spiffy.

Link to the page: Random Ringtones for Windows Mobile (http://tinyurl.com/67dq2c)

Some of my favorite loops include:
LL Cool J - I Shot Ya
Prodigy of Mobb Deep - Keep It Thoro
Kanye West - Can't Tell Me Nothing
Outkast - B.O.B.
Jim Jones - Reppin Time
T.I. - Big Things Poppin
Young Jeezy - I Luv It
Jay-Z - PSA
House of Pain - Jump Around
Ice Cube - Today Was a Good Day
Dr. Dre - Ain't Nothin But a G Thang

And also...
The theme song to the TV show Dexter
The attack sequence from the anime series Fist of the North Star

As for notifications, the only one I use, be it SMS, MMS or Email, is the old-school AOL 3.0 "You've got mail!" voice clip. Every time I hear it, it hits a nostalgic chord that warms my soul a bit, lmao.

If anyone would like any of these files, or perhaps a zip of all of them, feel free to PM me. Each ringtone is approx. 250kb in size, in 64kbps WMA format, and while it may sound like poop on your PC, they sound just fine when someone's calling.

baralong
07-07-2008, 03:54 AM
Main Ringer - Unknown caller is a windows mobile tone from my tilt. Echoy.
SMS - Sat phone ring from the unit.
E-Mail - Kim Possible beeper tone (hey, I like it. Was either that or power rangers)
I have various ones set for individuals who call frequently.

I used the Kim Possible tone for SMS and E-Mail for a while. I got sick of it, also my kids like to watch KP (I think we've got every episode recorded) and every now and then I'd check the phone because of the TV.

At the moment I've got some I gathered randomly on line
Ring Tone: "phony harmonies" kind of sings (all the words) "ring, ring, somebody is calling please pick up the phone"
SMS: a female french accent saying "SMS Arrived" preceded by 3 chimes, kind of like an airport attention tone
E-Mail: RingChimer.wma, bells kind of soothing

I'll be watching the thread as my co-workers have been complaining about my tones :(

atlp99
07-07-2008, 04:33 AM
Main ringer, Classic James bond theme song
My wife's ringer, the opening theme song from Scrubs

My wife's alarm, closing theme from Scrubs
My alarm, the theme song from Robotech
(Both set using gentimer)

Everything else is standard, and all are set to ring and vibrate.

I get most of my ringtones from tuneusin.com

gavinfabl
07-07-2008, 09:22 AM
My sounds are great IMO :)

Instant Messages - Alarm 1 - dont use this app so no custom sound

New Email - Alert - Atmosphere - (from HTC Diamond)
New SMs - Sms Echo - via www.spbclub.com (http://www.spbclub.com) - very good sound, dont miss these

Ringtone - Formula_One - via Mobile9 ringtones. A cracking ringtone of a F1 car accelerating away. Very clear.

Missed Call, Voicemail - Alarm 4

Reminders - SPB Notifications (either from SPbclub or one of the sounds from spbtime, I think).

hamishmacdonald
07-07-2008, 09:44 AM
Wow, I'm really glad I don't work near any of you guys. I hate, hate, HATE having to hear blasts of people's techno music in public from their mobile phones (which they never seem to answer promptly, letting it play on for a bit). I imagine Star Trek voices coming from my neighbour's @rse wouldn't be any more pleasing.

My rings and SMS alert tones are all very brief, barely-there sounds. Most of them came from this site, which has a bajillion free sounds and a good system for previewing and downloading them:
http://www.soundsnap.com/

It takes a while to sift through them, but there are some nice, original selections in there.

martin_ayton
07-07-2008, 10:25 AM
Vibrate is on all the time and I mostly use tones pre-loaded on the 'ppc:

Incoming SMS:
DoRing. Nice and short

Incoming 'phone call:
OldPhone. Its just the way a phone should sound :)
Pulsar. The only individual ring I have assigned to a contact (my wife).

VoiceMail:
Alarm4. Easy on the ears and easily distinguishable from everything else

Reminders:
Notify. The name says it all.

Wake-up Alarm:
A recording of my wife telling me (nicely) that it's time to get up. I can sleep through just about any alarm sound, but I will always wake to a voice.

I use the profiles feature in Spb Phone Suite extensively to make sure my 'phone is silent in meetings and at night. I leave the vibrate on at night so someone can get through to me if they really have to, but are unlikely at the same time to disturb the rest of my family.

I've tried the novelty stuff and I generally find it amusing for the first 'ring,' tolerable for the next 24h and unbelievably irritating thereafter, so I've given up and I think I'm with Hamish on this generally: Short(er) and quiet(er) is better and rather more considerate of others.

hubermsdj
07-07-2008, 03:05 PM
my reminders are beauty and the beast, my work day alarm is when you wish upon a star, my misc alarm is wistle while you work, and my sunday morning alarm is he can fly from peter pan.

Jason Lee
07-07-2008, 04:21 PM
Most of my sounds are the defaults for my TyTN II.
My ring tone changes from time to time. I like something that actually sounds like a ring. I have an array of old telephone sounds and about 20 or so different beeps from Star Trek computers from over the years that sound ringish. :)

My new SMS message tone is a custom one I made by splicing ST:TNG incomming hail noise and the computer voice saying "Incoming transmission".

The thing i am the most proud of are my sliding keyboard sounds. Normally i have this turned off because i don't want my phone to make noise every time i open or close the keyboard however there are times where i like to show off a bit. :)
One sound is the open/close noise from the doors on ST:TOS.
The other two have a separate open and close wav files. A lightsaber turning on and then turning off and the Transformers noise from car to robot and then back.

People get a big kick out of it when my phone makes these noises when i slide the keyboard open or closed. :)

Pufferish
07-07-2008, 04:22 PM
I use a sampled Murloc sound from World of Warcraft as a ringer. On low volume.

It doesn't need to be loud -- the sound is trauma-burned into the brain of anyone who has ever played the game. Whenever it goes off, I can identify WoW-players in audial range by their twitching and/or looking around for the source.

Jason Dunn
07-07-2008, 08:28 PM
I use a sampled Murloc sound from World of Warcraft as a ringer. On low volume. It doesn't need to be loud -- the sound is trauma-burned into the brain of anyone who has ever played the game. Whenever it goes off, I can identify WoW-players in audial range by their twitching and/or looking around for the source.

Haha...that's classic! I don't play WoW, but I can imagine the effect that would have on people around you. Haha. Funny stuff. :D

felixdd
07-07-2008, 08:36 PM
My incoming SMS is the doorchime from TnG. Nice and subtle, but audible.

Jason Lee
07-07-2008, 08:43 PM
I use a sampled Murloc sound from World of Warcraft as a ringer.

That is just cruel...

;)

kerrins
07-07-2008, 11:09 PM
The only thing I use is a phone call, British woman, "Please answer your phone."
Other than that, everything is turned off. Same with all the freaking noises that my PC makes. I take the tilt out of my pocket often enough that I don't miss a whole lot of stuff.

Richard76
07-08-2008, 12:34 AM
Another Trekie here.

Incoming Calls: STNG

Email: Lt. Cmd. Worf ("Captain, incoming message.")

SMS: Lt. Uhura ("Message from Starfleet, Sir.")

Main Alarm: Cpt. Picard ("Red Alert")

Lord_Zelo
07-08-2008, 06:06 AM
I use the intro song to the old car game i76 as my ringtone, it's an awesome 70's style funk song.

The rest of my sounds are taken from the idSoftware game Doom 3 from the in-game PDA that you have.

Lord_Zelo
07-08-2008, 06:19 AM
That is just cruel...

;)

You got that right. That is one of the most awful sounds in the game. I have to go find it now.

SteveHoward999
07-09-2008, 12:32 AM
I have no interest in all that racket.

I have a simple ring tone for the phone ringing - medium to low volume.
Single beep for messages - low volume.
Vibration on for each of them.

No beeping or anything when I press a key or select anything or click on screen or whatever.

It irritates me to hear someone's favourite theme tune or rap song blaring out at 200 decibels in a restaurant or at the movies and I'm not going to inflict anything similar on other people.

Yes I know. Bah humbug! ;-)

Steve Jordan
07-11-2008, 03:46 AM
My ringtone is a sonar ping... you should see the heads turn! Recently, I came across various backround electronic sounds from Space:1999, which make great PC tones... I'm in the process of porting a few over to the cellphone next!