{"id":106,"date":"2026-08-17T15:29:56","date_gmt":"2026-08-17T22:29:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pointyhair.com\/?p=106"},"modified":"2026-08-17T16:23:52","modified_gmt":"2026-08-17T23:23:52","slug":"how-to-make-sound-effects-with-a-small-window-with-buttons-on-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pointyhair.com\/index.php\/2026\/08\/17\/how-to-make-sound-effects-with-a-small-window-with-buttons-on-it\/","title":{"rendered":"How to make Sound effects with a small window with buttons on it"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
Here are the scripts (Bash, Python and Tcl\/Tk) to get this done<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Now for the bash script to launch the app ( sound-effects.sh )<\/p>\n\n\n\n
python3 sound-effects.py<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n
Remember to change the script to be executable: chmod +x sound-effects.sh<\/code><\/p>\n\n\n\n
And finally the script itself ( sound-effects.py )<\/p>\n\n\n\n
import tkinter as tk\nimport pygame\n\ndef play_air_horn():\n try:\n pygame.mixer.music.load(\"Share\/Audio-Samples\/air-horn-freesound_community-dj-airhorn-sound-39405.mp3\")\n pygame.mixer.music.play()\n print(\"Playing audio file...\")\n except pygame.error as e:\n print(f\"Could not load audio file: {e}\")\ndef play_cheer():\n try:\n pygame.mixer.music.load(\"Share\/Audio-Samples\/cheer-dragon-studio-crowd-cheer-and-applause-406644.mp3\")\n pygame.mixer.music.play()\n print(\"Playing audio file...\")\n except pygame.error as e:\n print(f\"could not load audio file: {e}\")\ndef play_ding():\n try:\n pygame.mixer.music.load(\"Share\/Audio-Samples\/ding-freesound_community-ding-101492.mp3\")\n pygame.mixer.music.play()\n print(\"Playing audio file...\")\n except pygame.error as e:\n print(f\"could not load audio file: {e}\")\ndef play_magic():\n try:\n pygame.mixer.music.load(\"Share\/Audio-Samples\/magic-universfield-magic-03-278824.mp3\")\n pygame.mixer.music.play()\n print(\"Playing audio file...\")\n except pygame.error as e:\n print(f\"could not load audio file: {e}\")\ndef play_bell():\n try:\n pygame.mixer.music.load(\"Share\/Audio-Samples\/singingBowl-soundreality-bell-fx-410608.mp3\")\n pygame.mixer.music.play()\n print(\"Playing audio file...\")\n except pygame.error as e:\n print(f\"could not load audio file: {e}\")\n\n\n# Rest of the code remains the same\nroot = tk.Tk()\npygame.mixer.init()\n\nbutton = tk.Button(root, text=\"Air Horn\", command=play_air_horn).grid(row=0)\nbutton = tk.Button(root, text=\"Cheer\", command=play_cheer).grid(row=1)\nbutton = tk.Button(root, text=\"Ding\", command=play_ding).grid(row=2)\nbutton = tk.Button(root, text=\"Magic\", command=play_magic).grid(row=3)\nbutton = tk.Button(root, text=\"SingingBowl bell\", command=play_bell).grid(row=4)\n#button.pack(pady=20)\n\nroot.mainloop()<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\ntk window<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
Not the prettiest code, but in its simplicity it gets the point across — I wrote this to my wife trying to beat a five minute timer…<\/p>\n\n\n\n
You can launch the script, a window will pop up, with five buttons for the five sound effects. You can drag and drop the window to another screen, go on zoom, and just click on a sound effect when needed. The “app” does not consume multiple threads or lots of memory, you can let it run forever. If you need to suddenly stop a sound effect, just kill the app, by pressing the “X.” The key features of this exercise was that the dialog had to be small and moveable, and the buttons\/effects must be immediate (no loading programs).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Nice enhancements:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n
Automatically build the list of buttons from the files in the directory<\/li>\n\n\n\n
Have a stop button without having to kill the app<\/li>\n\n\n\n
Have the window sizing<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Here are the scripts (Bash, Python and Tcl\/Tk) to get this done First the Python3 & packages… sudo apt install python3-pipsudo apt install python3-tksudo apt install python3-pygame Then we need…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"slim_seo":{"title":"How to make Sound effects with a small window with buttons on it - Pointyhair","description":"Here are the scripts (Bash, Python and Tcl\/Tk) to get this done First the Python3 & packages... sudo apt install python3-pip sudo apt install python3-tk sud"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-106","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pointyhair.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pointyhair.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pointyhair.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pointyhair.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pointyhair.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=106"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/pointyhair.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":116,"href":"https:\/\/pointyhair.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106\/revisions\/116"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pointyhair.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=106"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pointyhair.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=106"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pointyhair.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=106"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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