PURPOSE:

This tutorial is intended for those who wish to change the system bell to something a bit more pleasant, or a sound that they can control the volume of via standard volume controls. This tutorial will replace your standard system bell with a command and sound of your choosing.

PREREQUISITES:

All you'll need installed aside from your already installed packages is the package "libasound2-dev" install it using: 

sudo apt-get install libasound2-dev

XBELLD:

Download xbelld by pointing your web browser (or wget) at: https://xbelld.googlecode.com/files/xbelld-0.3.3.tbz2 or my local mirror, http://www.ewnix.net/xbelld-0.3.3.tbz2

Untar the file by using:

tar xf xbelld-0.3.3.tbz2

Change directory to the xbelld-0.3.3 directory by issuing:

cd xbelld-0.3.3/

Build the source code by using:

make

Once the source code it made, issue the following:

./xbelld -b -e "/path/to/command /path/to/file"

For example, if I wanted to use ogg123 and play the file 'glass.ogg':

./xbelld -b -e "/usr/bin/ogg123 /usr/share/sounds/gnome/alerts/glass.ogg"

This will replace your default system bell with a more pleasant sound that can be controlled via your normal volume controls. For more information on xbelld issue:

./xbelld -h

If you would like for this to take place by default, use your window manager or desktop environment's settings to start the command on startup. Enjoy!