Watching a TV commercial for a car and mesmerized by its music, D once remarked, “You know you’re in trouble when you’re the intended demographic.”
How Microsoft Chose New Windows Sounds
To set the right tone ” clean, simple, but with “some long-term legs,” according to Microsoft’s Steve Ball ” the software maker recruited musician Robert Fripp. Fripp, best known for his work with the ’70s rock band King Crimson, recorded hours of his signature layered, guitar-driven sound for the [Microsoft Vista] project, under the close direction of Ball and others at Microsoft.
Makes you wonder what Adrian Belew is up to these days. Back to the point: Why, Fripp, why? Why do you help the Borg come for me? How can I listen to Darshana and other collaborations again without thinking of Ballmer’s shiny pate?
This means you, too, Loki.
Yet another reason to go Mac.
I hope Fripp got A TON of simoleons for that gig! Doesn’t sound like they made much use of his talents, but I guess when you’re going to hear something 18,000,000+ times a year it has to be pretty unobtrusive. I think it’s crazy that Windows has something like two dozen different event sounds.
This page hosts a decent comparison of the current (XP) and new (Vista) sounds.
Mac-wise, I recall back in OS 9 days Trevor Rabin contributed a couple of (bonus) alert sounds but they were buried in the “OS Extras” folders. They were ok.
Oh, and my brain permanently associates Ballmer with this now. Steve Ball seems like an ok guy, for a Microsoftie.
I liked it better when they got Brian Eno for the windows 95 “startup sound.”