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Day 442: Microsoft Vista Is Coming For You!

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.

4 comments… add one
  • ashley November 13, 2006, 2:57 PM

    Yet another reason to go Mac.

  • rcs November 13, 2006, 6:23 PM

    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.

  • rcs November 13, 2006, 7:31 PM

    Oh, and my brain permanently associates Ballmer with this now. Steve Ball seems like an ok guy, for a Microsoftie.

  • Andrea November 14, 2006, 2:52 PM

    I liked it better when they got Brian Eno for the windows 95 “startup sound.”

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