How to make the hardware beep sound in Mac OS X 10.6

Question

I just want that Mac OS X 10.6 does a hardware beep sound like in open suse and other distributions. I tried following approaches

Terminal -> beep = -bash: beep: command not found

Terminal -> say beep = voice speaks out beep (Not a Hardware beep but awesome ;) )

applescript -> beep = Macintosh bell (I want a Hardware beep!)

Does anybody know how to make the Hardware beep in bin/bash or applescript?

With hardware beep I mean that the beep comes from the hardware side. The contrary would be a sound file which is played through the software — elhombre, Jun 27 '10 at 16:35
@elhombre, what makes you think Mac OS X can even do such a thing? — Carl Norum, Jun 27 '10 at 16:38
Try: say "beep" if you don't find anything, closest I can think of. — Patrik Björklund, Jun 27 '10 at 16:42
@Patrik - +1, nice. `printf "\a"` gives the OS beep, if that helps. — Carl Norum, Jun 27 '10 at 16:44
@Carl Norum When you reset the PRAM then you get a hardware beep @Patrik Awesome! But yeah, I want really hard this hardware beep — elhombre, Jun 27 '10 at 16:57
@Carsten: a Mac *is* a PC. PC = Personal Computer. It's just not an IBM(-compatible) PC. — Paul R, Jun 27 '10 at 21:09
@elhombre, that PRAM beep is not played by the OS, so it's unlikely you'll do that from your program. — Carl Norum, Jun 27 '10 at 22:10
[toot](http://github.com/vareille/toot) is a cross-platform C file and command line tool that try to call several sound generators to produce the beep — renataflow, Nov 11 '17 at 06:27

score 304 · Answer 1 · edited Apr 13 '13 at 11:20

304

tput bel works in most shells.

In OS X, this (and any other command that makes the bell go off) also gets you a badge if the command is executed when Terminal was not in the foreground:

edited Apr 13 '13 at 11:20

Arjan

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answered Jun 06 '11 at 18:43

broofa

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Awesome side effect (at least in Lion terminal) of having a bell go off in your terminal when it is in the background is that the icon on the doc jumps, and you get a red indicator saying there has been something completed. Try this: "sleep 5; tput bel" run that command and then tab out of the terminal, when the bell goes off you get an alert. Just what I was looking for! – BadPirate Jan 05 '12 at 18:37
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Iterm users: this does beep, but doesn't create the alert badge :( – Eric Hu Aug 06 '13 at 22:45
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@EricHu -iTerm2 now supports this - https://github.com/gnachman/iTerm2/commit/ef4589f02404075760e5bec44d0ffa8fb0639265 – broofa Dec 20 '13 at 18:59
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`tput` is a great command with [lots of options](http://stackoverflow.com/a/20983251/24874). This command works on Linux as well. – Drew Noakes Jan 07 '14 at 22:26
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`echo -e "\a"`also works on OS X and is probably more portable – wap26 Mar 13 '14 at 08:44
is tput bel only for Mac (although any shell in Mac)? – David Oct 28 '15 at 21:32
Using the above, I added it as an alias. So my scripts can alert me when they are done or have reached a particular milestone ... ```alias bell='tput bel'``` – nvanwyen Feb 04 '22 at 02:37

score 185 · Answer 2 · answered Jul 06 '12 at 13:17

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Printing \a did not always work for me (MBA, 10.7.4). I use this instead:

say "beep"

answered Jul 06 '12 at 13:17

Andrei

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the only way worked for me (OSX 10.8). Neither echo -e "\a" nor printf "\a" didn't work. – Valeriy Van Jul 30 '12 at 16:10
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Wow - you can put anything in there, e.g.:say "build completed" – Pete Sep 27 '12 at 18:10
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The best usage of it I see in [Little Snitch](http://www.obdev.at/products/littlesnitch/index.html) - when I run an fullscreen app and do not see regular LS popup warnings, it `say`s me them (only when in fullscreen), i.e. what app has been blocked trying to connect to some host. Really nice. Some time ago I needed to track changes on a website during a day, so instead of sitting in front of my screen, I used `say` to let me know what is going on (obviously meaningful text only - those were sale ads). – Andrei Feb 10 '13 at 12:29
@RandyHoward This is a really funny one, thanks! Here is a list of other options if anyone is interested: http://pastebin.com/raw.php?i=czJ8MVW3 – Andrei Mar 24 '13 at 14:28
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Haha. You can make people wonder if they're hearing things by putting two voices on top of each other: Run `say "Pay attention to me" &` and `say -v Whisper "I own you" &` consecutively. – Matt Aug 03 '13 at 03:45

score 123 · Answer 3 · edited Sep 28 '18 at 20:23

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~~Indeed, the following is effective and somewhat melodic:~~

say -v Bells "dong dong dong"

[Update] Unfortunately Bells is no longer included in latest OS X. Try:

say -v Victoria Do your homework!

Use the following to explore voices:

say -v \?

edited Sep 28 '18 at 20:23

pkamb

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answered Oct 13 '13 at 22:48

k00ka

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say -v Daniel harry potter harry potter – Madmartigan Jul 30 '15 at 21:29
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Or just: `say -v Bells "beep"`. – kenorb Jan 30 '16 at 23:02
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The is no Beels voice on my up-to-date macos. – Martin Jul 14 '17 at 13:24
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Yes, Bells seems to have been removed. Use `say -v '?'` to list all voices. Use `say -v '?' | egrep \`echo $LANG | sed "s/\..*//"\`` to list voices for your current language. – k00ka Sep 20 '17 at 18:09
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Bells can be re-added through System Preferences all the way up to Big Sur! System Preferences > Accessibility > Spoken Content > System Voice > Customize – Jase Jan 28 '21 at 15:07
Just `say beep` is enough – bcb Dec 17 '21 at 00:44

score 61 · Answer 4 · answered Jun 27 '10 at 22:10

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write echo ^G in the bash. to create the ^G press ctrl+v and then ctrl+g.

answered Jun 27 '10 at 22:10

coffeejunk

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`/usr/bin/printf "\a"` and `osascript -e "beep 1"` also work well enough – abe May 23 '11 at 11:31
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can anyone explain what `echo ^G` is doing (i.e. what does this command say in layman's terms) ? Is this a special character that meens beep to OSX? Are there any other related special characters? @mxhaack @wongo888 – Eric Jones Mar 25 '16 at 18:04
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@EricJones `^G` is a "control character" i.e. a non-printable character that is/was used to cause a certain effect like for example triggering the bell/beep. Have look at [this wikipedia article](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Control_character#In_ASCII) – coffeejunk Mar 27 '16 at 07:47

fearless_fool · Answer 5 · 2018-02-02T08:21:15.050

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Play an arbitrary alert sound with `afplay`

I'm surprised nobody has mentioned afplay: that's the command line program that plays arbitrary sound files. It's been around since the original releases of OS X (and NeXTSTEP, if your memory is that long).

For example, you can run this from the command line or put it in a script:

$ afplay /System/Library/Sounds/Ping.aiff

You're not limited to system sounds; one advantage of using afplay is that you can choose your own sound file as an alert. For example, you could download one of these sound files and pick your favorite.

(Extra points if you can find a recording of an Teletype Model 33 bell!)

edited Feb 02 '18 at 08:21

answered Jan 27 '18 at 06:07

fearless_fool

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[Typewriter bell](https://www.soundsnap.com/typewriter_bell_end_of_line_ding_office_blastwavefx_02384) might be close enough. – Andriy Makukha Jun 12 '20 at 12:04
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`afplay /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/ScreenReader.framework/Versions/A/Resources/Sounds/AnimationFlyToDownloads.aiff` is a typewriter bell that may be installed by default on macOS 12.3 (or it came with Xcode). – Blaise May 21 '22 at 10:37

score 40 · Answer 6 · edited Feb 19 '15 at 21:38

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This will loop through all the voices (works on Yosemite):

say -v '?' | awk '{print $1}' | while read voice; do printf "using $voice...\n"; say -v $voice "hello, this is me using the $voice voice"; sleep 1; done

edited Feb 19 '15 at 21:38

Gábor Bakos

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answered Feb 19 '15 at 21:24

Jason Ryan Taylor

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Hilarious, such a treasure! :D – idleherb Jan 20 '19 at 14:32
Gold: works in Big Sur too. – Aaron A. Jun 26 '22 at 03:27

score 30 · Accepted Answer · answered May 18 '17 at 19:49

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There is no "hardware beep" in macOS.

The functionality you're thinking of is an artifact of very old (pre-1990s) IBM PC-compatible hardware. Before most computers had sound cards, most machines had a small speaker or piezo buzzer connected to one of the channels of a timer chip. This could be used to generate simple tones or beeps. Even after many computers integrated sound cards, it remained common for quite some time for computers to route this output to a separate internal speaker. More recently, many computers, especially laptops, have integrated this functionality into the onboard sound card.

(If you're curious about the technical details of how the PC speaker interface worked, there are more details here.)

This hardware has never existed in Apple computers. The only audio output available is through the sound card, and the only system beep in macOS is the user's alert sound.

answered May 18 '17 at 19:49

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After 7 years, the search came to it's end^^ Thank you Dog on the Internet. But I still enjoy all the creative ways people answer the question, so keep em coming! – elhombre May 19 '17 at 07:25
That's an interesting bit of trivia, but it doesn't really answer the question... – Ian Dunn Oct 21 '17 at 20:14
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@IanDunn Sure it does -- read the first and last paragraphs carefully. The question is asking for something that doesn't exist. – Oct 21 '17 at 20:31
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Ah, you're right, I didn't read the OP's question and comments closely enough, and thought that they just wanted the sound itself, regardless of whether it came via software or hardware. My bad. – Ian Dunn Oct 22 '17 at 22:03
There's some nice comments on the history of this in the documentation for the equivalent Windows function: https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/ms679277(v=vs.85).aspx – c z Dec 20 '18 at 15:21
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The terminal bell predates the PC of the 90's by nearly 100 years: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bell_character – kwerle Aug 28 '19 at 21:28

score 30 · Answer 8 · answered Jul 13 '11 at 08:59

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In the terminal type :

echo -e "\a"

The -e parameter tells echo to process escaped characters. As the \n is the new line character, the \a is the bell one (the same as Ctrl+G).

answered Jul 13 '11 at 08:59

Zaphod

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One benefit of this approach is that it works in Linux (and others?) as well. As mentioned elsewhere, you might also try `printf "\a"` – rinogo Jul 09 '15 at 17:23
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For those who love the bell but are lazy about quotes, `echo -e \\a` works also. – Seldom 'Where's Monica' Needy Feb 19 '16 at 08:07

Albert · Answer 9 · 2017-04-29T02:03:54.837

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Under OS X terminals, execute command: osascript -e 'beep'

Using OSA (Open Script Architecture) technology to tell AppleScript to execute command beep.

edited Apr 29 '17 at 02:03

answered Nov 04 '15 at 15:44

Albert

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Alex Coplan · Answer 10 · 2012-07-28T19:22:49.763

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printf "\a"

If you look at man printf, it gives you a list of escaped characters, including \a:

\a      Write a <bell> character.

edited Jul 28 '12 at 19:22

answered Mar 19 '12 at 17:09

Alex Coplan

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score 9 · Answer 11 · answered Oct 13 '16 at 23:00

If you need something, that sounds like "important"

you can use

tput bel && sleep 0.33s && tput bel && sleep 0.33s && tput bel && sleep 0.33s && tput bel && sleep 0.33s && tput bel && sleep 0.33s && tput bel && sleep 0.33s && tput bel && sleep 0.33s && tput bel && sleep 0.33s && tput bel && sleep 0.33s && tput bel && sleep 0.33s

:)

score 7 · Answer 12 · edited Sep 26 '14 at 18:04

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printf "\a" also works in a terminal and will play the set alert sound.

edited Sep 26 '14 at 18:04

David Mulder

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answered Sep 26 '14 at 17:22

Oantby

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score 7 · Answer 13 · answered Apr 19 '20 at 22:51

7

This works for me (mac os 10.14.6)

echo "\x07"

answered Apr 19 '20 at 22:51

morgancodes

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This works well as both audio and visual alert, as it also flashes the screen so you don't miss the notification if you have the sound turned down. It also adds a badge to Terminal app, and shows a bell icon in the tab that issued it. I think that's all - more than enough! – Matt Sephton Oct 14 '20 at 22:40
I needed to add an `-e` for it to work: `echo -e "\x07"`. Also as an FYI, `x07` is the hex ascii code for `BEL`. – wisbucky Apr 23 '22 at 01:42

score 3 · Answer 14 · answered Mar 24 '13 at 09:04

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on MacOS X, the "sound warning" option (Terminal/Preferences) has to be activated to get a sound.

answered Mar 24 '13 at 09:04

MaxF

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Actually it's called "Audible bell". It's in Settings/Advanced. – Denis Malinovsky Aug 10 '13 at 03:31

score 1 · Answer 15 · edited Sep 26 '12 at 18:49

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If you've got XCODE installed you can make a beep/bell. I haven't figured that I can make the printf "\a" character work in C.

There's one way to make the tone work as the program runs, start XCODE, drop down menu under XCODE, Preferences, Behaviours,check the first box PLAY SOUND, choose from the list or add a sound.

That's one way to do it, but only as the program runs, I believe.

edited Sep 26 '12 at 18:49

mschr

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answered Aug 28 '12 at 23:23

Stewart Scott

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Xcode "behaviours" are only executed when the corresponding events occur in Xcode. They do not apply elsewhere in the system. – May 18 '17 at 04:44

score 1 · Answer 16 · edited Feb 17 '20 at 11:01

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osascript -e 'tell application "System Events" to beep'

edited Feb 17 '20 at 11:01

Sangram Shivankar

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answered Aug 05 '15 at 19:25

noah

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`beep` is a part of **Standard Additions** in **AppleScript** and therefore you do not need to use, nor should you use, **System Events**, simply `osascript -e 'beep'` is all that is necessary. However, the OP already stated they tried `beep` and it does not produce what's wanted! – user3439894 Dec 31 '20 at 16:04

score 0 · Answer 17 · answered Dec 08 '21 at 14:28

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For more options, hear and pick

ls /System/Library/Sounds/ | awk '{print $1}' | while read sound; do printf "using $sound...\n"; afplay /System/Library/Sounds/$voice; sleep 0.5; done

ls /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/ScreenReader.framework/Versions/A/Resources/Sounds/ | awk '{print $1}' | while read sound; do printf "using $voice...\n"; afplay /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/ScreenReader.framework/Versions/A/Resources/Sounds/$sound; sleep 0.5; done

answered Dec 08 '21 at 14:28

Sankarganesh Eswaran

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While some of the other answers worked and invoked the configured bell sound. I found myself wanting something specifically less obtrusive. I ended up going with `afplay /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/ScreenReader.framework/Versions/A/Resources/Sounds/RotorLeft.aiff` thanks to your suggestion here. I didn't want to listen to all of the sounds, but I used ls on the aforementioned folders and played a select few – justFatLard Feb 03 '23 at 06:31

How to make the hardware beep sound in Mac OS X 10.6

17 Answers17

Play an arbitrary alert sound with `afplay`

Linked

How to make the hardware beep sound in Mac OS X 10.6

17 Answers17

Play an arbitrary alert sound with afplay

Linked

Play an arbitrary alert sound with `afplay`