Some musicians spend 18 months working on a whole album. At Microsoft Corp., that's how long it took to perfect just four seconds of sound.
Of course, this isn't just any four-second clip. It's the sound — a soft da-dum, da-dumm, with a lush fade-out — that millions of computer users will hear every day, and perhaps thousands of times in total, when they turn on computers running Microsoft's forthcoming Windows Vista operating system.
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 project, under the close direction of Ball and others at Microsoft. Then, it was Ball's job to sort through those hours of live recordings to suss out just the right few seconds.
Audio: Listen to the new sounds of Vista in Larry Magid's report
View: Full Article @ Showbuzz
Of course, this isn't just any four-second clip. It's the sound — a soft da-dum, da-dumm, with a lush fade-out — that millions of computer users will hear every day, and perhaps thousands of times in total, when they turn on computers running Microsoft's forthcoming Windows Vista operating system.
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 project, under the close direction of Ball and others at Microsoft. Then, it was Ball's job to sort through those hours of live recordings to suss out just the right few seconds.
Audio: Listen to the new sounds of Vista in Larry Magid's report View: Full Article @ Showbuzz
It is indeed a very long time. And I, personally, dislike the sounds. And as for the trivial things (e.g. bootscreen), only n00bs care about that stuff -- I'd rather see what the system is loading/processing!
These sounds make XP sound so great, like XP is dominating Vista instead of vice-versa. How strange. I love all the older Windows sounds but this thing sucks. Oh well I'll get used to it.
('
I turn mine off. It delays bootup and it's always an annoyance. (i.e. library)
What the **** was this guy doing for 18 months? solely working on this? if so I think MS got conned
IMO, the best Startup sound was Windows 95's.
Well i didnt want to say anything....can you ssay ssuffering ssucker tash!
Anybody know if the USB sound is the same when you plug something in?
http://www.istartedsomething.com/20061110/...sounds-compare/
I hope these sounds are just placeholders and real not the real ones. I still haven't seen the boot screen of vista so it could be that the final final build has all the goodies. I already replaced my Xp sounds with vista but so far they all sound the same.
Either Fripp is some genius whose work we are unable to comprehend or he just slacked off and pooped something at the end.
I just cant believe they recorded hours of ambient soothing music, and all we end up with are <4 second clips, which honestly, arent better than XPs whatsoever on the whole.
They should have got the original team to do their sounds or someone internal - wounder how much they paid for this bad joke. - Cammon Friipp - at least you could have added some originality here!
rofl!!
waste of time and money
or maybe they actually bought the license for it now?
along it was because they wanted to "get the right sound" for startup/shutdown LOL
The sounds in the OS have to convey their intended message. While the XP sounds get boring after a while, they do convey the message. The critical stop sound, clearly conveys "STOP! Your about to **** something up, so look at me!!". It grabs your attention.
If the rest of the sounds are like those, then what's the point of having any sounds at all?
Win95 had the best startup sound.
Also on that site: Win95's startup sound.
(Now if your question is what is the best startup sound overall: Ubuntu's startup?)
Also on that site: Win95's startup sound.
(Now if your question is what is the best startup sound overall: Ubuntu's startup?)
I really like Ubuntu's startup sound.
A lot of people seem disappointed with them. Once you've had Windows Vista they will be the norm and you guys will be moaning about the next version of Windows sounds instead. Turn them off if you really don't like them.
Last edited by ziadoz on 11 Nov 2006 - 15:27
18 months??? Once again. we're seeing Microsoft's startling talent and efficiency.
What about all the features that were pulled from Vista, leaving it currently as a mere shell of what we were promised in 2003???
But of course, you've got a couple of sound clips that had to be perfected for 18 months. ROFL.
Umm...as for 18 months.... i doubt it took they guy 18 months to produce the sound. There was probably a lot of back and forth nit picking by microsoft. I wonder how many sounds they went through before they landed on that one.
http://soapbox.msn.com/video.aspx?vid=3479...8b-ff2b71d38115
I like all the replacement sounds, just not the startup and shutdown ones.
And yes, the Brian Eno Windows 95 startup remains the best, as this one for Vista is quite uninspired. So, yet another (minor) reason NOT to be excited about Vista. Sigh.
http://soapbox.msn.com/video.aspx?vid=3479...8b-ff2b71d38115
Thanks for the link. For the majority of them, they've just made them quieter. You might as well have no sound at all. I'll definitely be using the XP ones on Vista, when I eventually have to get it.
I was really looking forward to Vista a year or so ago. Now everytime I read some news about it, I get more and more disappointed.
Roll on Vienna (in the hope that it looks better, sounds better and has all the really good features we were promised for Vista).
and dude, that guy has a horrible lisp... either that or hes a flaming homo.
Does vista have that first time installed stuff like in XP (setting up your name, the wizard, ect...), for that they should use Fort Minor - Where'd You Go instrumental
If you think there are billions of computer users in the world, you are seriously misinformed.
If you think there are billions of computer users in the world, you are seriously misinformed.
if you dont think there are, you are a moron
There are billions of computer users in the world, so I guess its you who is misinformed.
There are billions of computer users in the world, so I guess its you who is misinformed.
The actual number is pegged at about 600 million:
http://news.com.com/A+billion+PC+users+on+..._3-5290988.html
There are billions of computer users in the world, so I guess its you who is misinformed.
The actual number is pegged at about 600 million:
He said computers, not PCs. And virtually everything with moving parts is a computer. Remember the first computer was made from a peanut shell by a black man.
There are billions of computer users in the world, so I guess its you who is misinformed.
The actual number is pegged at about 600 million:
He said computers, not PCs. And virtually everything with moving parts is a computer. Remember the first computer was made from a peanut shell by a black man.
in the words of you computer geeks, PWNED
lol
There are billions of computer users in the world, so I guess its you who is misinformed.
The actual number is pegged at about 600 million:
He said computers, not PCs. And virtually everything with moving parts is a computer. Remember the first computer was made from a peanut shell by a black man.
What did it compute? Whether to fall on its open or closed ends? Don't be ridiculous...
lol... my 9 year old could have come up with better on her flute...hell, I'll volunteer to do the next MS os sounds, sounds like easy money.
I'm pretty sure the initial ding is all there is to it. The stuff after is just for dramatic effect at the end of the news (stupid).
(MS, is that you????)
Anyone got a cache copy?
Edit: Ah, OK, my IE7 was blocking it for some bizzare reason. IE6 worked AOK for me.
Last edited by Exosphere on 11 Nov 2006 - 21:35
[fanboy]Ever heard of a Mac for sound?[/fanboy]
Garnett
But if you trace the long course of Vista development, from 2003 and even before that, right up to the present, you'll see that in this context MS' admission that it took 18 months to perfect system sound effects is downright insulting. The very features that have been dropped from Vista (formerly the great Longhorn) were the precise elements that would have made Vista great among all others, not just a significant improvement over XP.
As a former Windows user and staunch devotee of WindowsXP, I was blown away by Longhorn when I finally got around to seeing the videos and marketing bric-a-brac that announced its shortlived existence. Now, after all these years, after all of the mismanagement at MS, after all the announcements of pulled features (which in the end made me switch back to Apple), tech-savvy users are told with inexplicable enthusiasm that 18 months were spent perfecting sounds, rather than figuring out ways to implement the ever-important feature sets that would make the competition green with envy.
Microsoft is (and has been for years) sitting on the laurels of its licensing victories of yore. This will likely never mean the loss of profits - legacy support and an already massive user base that has an MS-dependency has ensured continued revenue. But it does mean that that a leaner, hungrier rival can easily put out sometinhg better, faster, prettier, and easier to use, in far less time without worry that its bigger competition will outdo it.
I am pretty sure the person/people who made the sounds aren't the same as the people who were writing code.
But if you trace the long course of Vista development, from 2003 and even before that, right up to the present, you'll see that in this context MS' admission that it took 18 months to perfect system sound effects is downright insulting. The very features that have been dropped from Vista (formerly the great Longhorn) were the precise elements that would have made Vista great among all others, not just a significant improvement over XP.
As a former Windows user and staunch devotee of WindowsXP, I was blown away by Longhorn when I finally got around to seeing the videos and marketing bric-a-brac that announced its shortlived existence. Now, after all these years, after all of the mismanagement at MS, after all the announcements of pulled features (which in the end made me switch back to Apple), tech-savvy users are told with inexplicable enthusiasm that 18 months were spent perfecting sounds, rather than figuring out ways to implement the ever-important feature sets that would make the competition green with envy.
Microsoft is (and has been for years) sitting on the laurels of its licensing victories of yore. This will likely never mean the loss of profits - legacy support and an already massive user base that has an MS-dependency has ensured continued revenue. But it does mean that that a leaner, hungrier rival can easily put out sometinhg better, faster, prettier, and easier to use, in far less time without worry that its bigger competition will outdo it.
And lets have a look at how long it took to develop you... say... 9 months, which is exactly half the time a relatively small group of people were working on updating the XP sounds. Now, you took half the time but in the end you're two times as silly.
Time necessary for me to hit the del button, 1 second.
There's somethings that MS can't change.
For everything else, there's Linux.
There's somethings that MS can't change.
For everything else, there's Linux.
QFT.
openSuSE startup sound > *.
I'm sure Fripp did not take MS for a ride. It was everyone involved dragging it out and overanalyzing. I doubt Fripp would have been much help in keeping those features from being cut in Vista. He just made the sounds.
I don't know what came over me but I just wanted to cry and laugh at it. I realized at that moment that that'll be the sound thousands, if not, millions of people are going to hear for so many years to come...and I found it saddening.
Ehh...whatever, right?
All in my opinion!
the also needed more than five years to create vista . i see an analogy here ....:-)
Ask yourself this: if you feel that one of these sounds could be made in only an hour of work, is that reason enough to wait until an hour before Vista goes gold to start on it? Of course it isn't. Conversely, if they spent only an hour on it 18 months ago and declared it final, wouldn't you be a little annoyed that they hadn't been open to changes and perfecting it when they had plenty of time until release? Sure, they spent a lot of time on it, but they started early so that they could find the right sounds and have plenty of time to change their minds. When you build something (whether it's an application, website, piece of music or game mod), isn't most of the time that you spend on it actually just tweaking it? You crank it out in record time and then spend 10x as much time making everything perfect, often completely re-writing parts that you're unhappy with. It's the same thing here, I'm sure. If you think that 18 months means that they spent over 4,000 straight hours on it, then you're really not using your heads.
I can't believe I was actually excited to hear it. Maybe I should re-think upgrading after all. I mean, if it took 18 months to get 4 seconds of music right, then there might not be much to show for the 5 years it took to make the rest of Vista.
This is a sad day for Microsot fans (and even fanbois) everywhere.
Commenting has either been disabled on this article or you are not logged in. Click here to login or register, its free!
Note: Anonymous commenting is disabled in order to keep the quality of responses to a high standard.