A Sync

 

This is the home of the A Sync startup utility
(For Mac OS7.x to 9.x)

A Sync is an enhancement utility for your Macintosh startup screen and sound. It started out as a simple startup sound utility, with the ability to play the sound asynchronously (hence the name A Sync). Asynchronously means the sound plays while the startup sequence continues. I later enhanced it's abilities by adding a startup picture capability, and also the possibility of displaying randomly chosen, matching startup pictures and sounds.

Download A Sync 1.11b0


FAQs

Where can I find sounds and pictures to use with A Sync?

A good place to look is here on the internet. Here are some of my favorite links with pictures or sounds. You may need to convert sounds and pictures you download to the appropriate formats. I have found that SoundApp and GraphicConverter are very good utilities for performing these conversions.

Andrew Lloyd Webber's Musicals

Sound America

Distant Suns is an astronomy program with alot of great pictures of planets, galaxies, and other stellar objects. But you will have to get the CD version to get the pictures.

IconPlanet - Cool Icons for Your Mac

Maryann Sterling's Art

Will A Sync work on a 68K machine and a PPC machine?

Yes it will work on both kinds of machines. While the current version is only a 68K version, the Power Macs will run it just fine. Also, the toolbox routine that the A Sync extension patches is not one which will cause your machine to run any slower. Hopefully, a future version of A Sync will be a FAT version.

Can I have A Sync play special sounds and pictures on holidays?

I am working on a new version that will allow this. It will be able to play special sounds and pictures for holidays, or any special days you specify, as well as a shutdown picture and sound. This version will probably not be ready for a couple of months, so check back around November.

Why do my sounds break up during startup?

The startup sequence on a Mac is very processor intensive, and sometimes the system cannot keep up with supplying data to the sound generator while trying to initialize itself. Try converting your sounds to a lower data rate (Hz), or try 8-bit instead of 16-bit, mono instead of stereo.

Why does the sound stop playing before it is finished?

If the Sound Manager loads after A Sync, it initializes the sound hardware and cancels any sounds playing. Force the Sound Manager to load before A Sync by putting a space at the beginning of the extension's name, or use a startup manager such as Conflict Catcher. If Quicktime 3.0 loads after A Sync, it will cause the sound to stop playing until startup is complete. Force the Quicktime and Quicktime PowerPlug extensions to load before A Sync by putting a space at the beginning of the extensions' names or use a startup manager.


You are visitor number

since December 30, 1996.