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Borealis

Borealis

Submitted By Christian Cosas (csquared)

Description

This is a port of Ivica Ico Bukvic's Borealis sound theme for KDE. The sounds have all been converted from OGG to AAC at 128, 192, and 224 kbps; the different bitrates reflect the original OGG encoding.

From the original author's description:
    The goal of this sound theme is to provide "better feel" through use of the subtle aural notifications. The test I always have in my mind while designing the desktop sounds is to imagine having half-dozen (or more) computer stations in the same office or studio and consider whether their simultaneous use (and resulting desktop sounds) would pose as distraction on users and their productivity. Therefore, in order to minimize the "distraction factor" this theme associates many of the common desktop events with brief, mostly non-pitched, but nonetheless pleasing sound sources (a.k.a. effects).

I've omitted all four system startup sounds from the original KDE theme—at over 12 seconds apiece, they're far too long to be functional for instant messaging purposes. Also, they were adding bloat to the archive size.

I have included all of the other bundled sounds, but not all of them have been assigned to Adium-specific events. Also, perhaps contrary to the original sound designer's intentions, I've assigned sounds to IM events that sound natural to my ear (e.g., I thought the sound designated for "Send" would make a better "New Message" alert). Feel free to adjust and tweak to your taste in the Events Preferences.

Licensed under The Artistic License, version 2.0.

Changes

Version numbering in sync with original KDE sound theme

v0.9a - Initial release for Adium.

Comments

You can reply to individual comments by clicking the "Reply" link next to each.

# by 61Tipo61 on 10/18/07 at 02:25:05

Excellent port, my new soundet :)

# by visualize27 on 10/18/07 at 19:19:53

Thanks! Love these sounds (:

# by DBrenz on 11/05/07 at 15:22:27

This set is great and i love the "pop" sound when i get and receive messages. I was wondering if perhaps for the message received (initial) sound that you turned on the internal mic on the MacBook Pro and just rubbed your finger on the brushed metal surface (below the left speaker). I was just fooling around today doing that and it sounded exactly like the sound you used.
Anywho, love the pack thanks!

# by csquared on 11/05/07 at 18:10:32

I didn't actually design or create the sounds on Borealis—I only ported it from the KDE original—and I'm not sure how the original author did it. (I'd like to incorporate some foley into my own composed soundsets, but I don't have the equipment for it.) Thanks, though, for the kind words.

# by DBrenz on 11/05/07 at 18:59:11

Oh i see i see. Oh well that would be cool and i'm glad you ported this great pack! Thanks again man and i hope you get to make some sounds in the future.
Peace man

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Install | Download
1.17mb (6034 downloads)

12345
3.90 / 33 votes
Current Version: 0.9a
Last Updated: 10/15/07
Credits:
Original KDE sound theme by Ivica Ico Bukvic

Ported to Adium by Christian Cosas