Notice: Newer version available

There is a newer version of the action available, with support for Intel and PPC Macs.

You could use the version on this page, but it is only compatible with PPC Macs. Don’t even try to run it on a new Mac. Seriously, it doesn’t work.

Play Sound

Version 1.0 - Nov 15/05

Play Sound is an Automator action that simply tries to play any sound file passed into it.

It will accept a list of files, and only play audio files of types AIFF, M4A, MPEG (MP3), WAV, and ULAW. I may add support for more formats in the future, I wasn’t sure how it would handle trying to play a non-audio file.

Download Disk Image - 208KiB MD5 (playsound10.dmg) = 39fe792f5617cdacd6577489ca4f8354

Requirements

  • A Macintosh
  • Mac OS X version 10.4.0 or greater

Cost

Free!

Installation

Open the disk image after downloading, and open the Installer program. You will be guided through installation. If you prefer to install the file manually, you can drag the file to the location of your choice.

Getting Started

After installing the file, open the Automator application in your Applications folder. Try to recreate the workflow below, substituting in a folder of sounds you have on your Mac. If you don’t know what to choose, try /System/Library/Sounds

You can find the Play Sound action under the System category. If the workflow is correct, it should try to play every sound file in the directory, one after another. You can halt the program at any time by pressing Stop, which will interrupt the currently playing sound.

Known Issues

Limited to audio files of types AIFF, M4A, MPEG (MP3), WAV, and ULAW.

Version History

  • Play Sound Action
    • November 15th, 2005
    • First Release