7 ms·

Macintosh Startup Sound History [video]

83 points by dsego 8y ago

otterpro 8y ago
I was reminded of how pleasant the startup beep was on Apple II. The beep was pleasant, soft, and inviting. On the PC side, most motherboard would emit harsh shrilling beep, which sounds more like something had gone really bad. While some would argue that such post-bios/boot beep is not necessary in modern computers, I disagree, especially on machines that do not have built-in monitors or on headless system. Sometimes, I am left to wonder if the computer booted ok. I sometimes have check the monitor/cable/etc... just to see if it actually turned on.
- Waterluvian 8y ago
  Especially machines without a fan. I've dealt with this often in the robotics field. Trying to figure out if my darn onboard computer is even running or not. The LED hidden away in the electronics bay.
- Cthulhu_ 8y ago
  I have this with Macs, they give no feedback whatsoever (not even sound) when they start up.
- yuhong 8y ago
  Not that the 8254-based PC speaker was particularly good in the first place.
netsharc 8y ago
I remember finding a Filemaker database file online which contained the specs of every model Mac, including the startup sound the model made, I found it neat that Filemaker could embed sound files. That must've been during the pre-historic Internet times...
- rdsnsca 8y ago
  Mactracker is still being updated. http://mactracker.ca http://mactracker.ca
ToFab123 8y ago
Not a mac user, but to disable all system sounds is the very first thing I do after installing windows. I would do the same on a mac. I simple just don't want to listen to that noise every time I turn on my computer.
- yoz-y 8y ago
  The startup sound was removed in the previous macOS version. Having a setting would be better because with buttons rather than switches and the removal of the state led it is now really not possible to know if the machine is booting or not.
  - ToFab123 8y ago
    Is looking at the monitor an option?
    - 1over137 8y ago
      Not if it's broken. Or on a headless server. etc.
    - yoz-y 8y ago
      If it works yes, but the startup chime was akin to a PC passing post so it sounds before the screen turns on. Without the sound , if the mac does not display anything you can not really know if there is no power, or something fried or your drive is dead...
  - 1over137 8y ago
    The startup sound was not from macOS, it occurred earlier in the boot process that that.
    - sjm-lbm 8y ago
      This may be true, but it was removed from Apple hardware as part of the macOS Sierra update.
KevanM 8y ago
First thing I switch off when I get a new one.
- reaperducer 8y ago
  Unlikely, since new Macs haven't had the startup sound for years.
  - KevanM 8y ago
    2016 apparently, I haven't had a new one since then?
athenot 8y ago
There's also another sound that macs would make, in case the initial diagnostic tests came back negative, to go with the "Sad Mac" screen. My favorite is still the NuBus Power Mac one (car crash sound). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PTwmtvrdJlQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PTwmtvrdJlQ
- gdavisson 8y ago
  Much more appropriate than the Mac II crash sound -- that was a happy arpeggio that completely failed to convey the message that something had gone wrong.
KenanSulayman 8y ago
When I got a new TouchBar MacBook I was wondering why the sound was muted from-factory, so I cleared the PRAM ... three or four times ... just to find myself very saddened by the fact that the chime was removed. It was always incredibly mesmerising to unwrap a new Mac, boot it and hear that sound. Like buying a car and listening to the engine powering on the first time.
- jerrysievert 8y ago
  that's ok, you'll get used to it as you fall into the comforting sound of "blonk" over and over again, as that USB-C cable that's charging it loosens and slides in and out as you use it.
- kitsunesoba 8y ago
  Can sounds be played from EFI? It might be possible to create a stub EFI bootloader that does nothing but play the chime and kick off the normal macOS boot process. EDIT: In fact I think Apple may have done something like this in their own EFI for the startup chime on Intel Macs – compared to PPC Macs, the sound was always a little delayed and clearly played further into the boot process.
  - amyjess 8y ago
    Honestly, as much as the Mac startup sound makes me nostalgic, if I was going to go to that much effort, I might as well have it play the SGI Indy's glorious startup sound [0]. [0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CH9saUP2460 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CH9saUP2460
- Apocryphon 8y ago
  Another reason to dislike the TouchBar MacBook.
joezydeco 8y ago
Just in case you miss the original Mac128 beep and, just for kicks, wanted to rewrite it in Javascript? Here you go: https://web.archive.org/web/20130302075708/http://blog.parse.com:80/2013/02/27/reproducing-the-macintosh-boot-beep-from-javascript-cloud-code/ https://web.archive.org/web/20130302075708/http://blog.parse...
general_pizza 8y ago
There’s a great Welcome to Macintosh podcast episode[1] that interviews Jim Reekes about this history, highly recommend it. Fun fact, in addition to the iconic startup sound Jim is also responsible for the camera shutter sound on iPhones. [1] https://www.macintosh.fm/episodes/13 https://www.macintosh.fm/episodes/13
notadoc 8y ago
As a Mac user since the 1980s I enjoyed the startup sound and miss it. It was removed for no obvious reason, presumably for some perceived minimalism or desire for austerity, which you can put in the same basket as removing all useful ports and the escape key from their "pro" laptops, or the headphone jack from their cellphone, offering no benefit but apparently done for the sake of doing.
- seiferteric 8y ago
  I agree, new macs are moving toward all polish and no humanity, just a clean sterile machine.
  - reaperducer 8y ago
    I agree, new macs are moving toward all polish and no humanity, just a clean sterile machine. There's a reason for that. Tim Cook is a bean counter, not a technologist, and not an artist. Steve Jobs was a technologist, and a wannabe artist. "The goal was never to beat the competition, or to make a lot of money; it was to do the greatest thing possible, or even a little greater. Steve often reinforced the artistic theme; for example, he took the entire team on a field trip in the spring of 1982 to the Louis Comfort Tiffany museum, because Tiffany was an artist who learned how to mass produce his work." Source: https://www.folklore.org/StoryView.py?project=Macintosh&story=Signing_Party.txt https://www.folklore.org/StoryView.py?project=Macintosh&stor...
- toast0 8y ago
  I agree that the sound could be useful at times, but it was awful when booting a computer in the middle of the night to respond to a page; that sound could wake up everyone in the house, and i couldn't figure out how to turn it off.
  - wool_gather 8y ago
    Yeah, it would be nice to disable it selectively -- just silence it for this one boot. It may be a false memory, but I think this used to be possible at some point in the 00s, by holding down the mute button on the keyboard. Also possibly in the late 90s it went through external speakers if they were hooked up?
makecheck 8y ago
It’s amazing how annoying it is to not have a sound, especially when trying to restart, etc. You just have to “know” that you hit the button correctly and wait one or two awkward seconds of black screen for any sign of life. I’m sure I’ve accidentally power-cycled because I wasn’t sure the thing was booting. Just a stupid thing to remove, really.
b1daly 8y ago
I didn’t know this, as the various Macs I use are all 2015. That startup sound is a great idea example of the importance of the utility of affordances in interface design. After you’ve done something that might have hosed your whole system, the sound alone can bring a sense of relief that at least some life is left in the machine. Because the stakes are actually kind of high for those making a living with their computer.
Tsiklon 8y ago
I liked the startup sound, however if i've hosed my OS and I'm rebooting frequently during the troubleshoot it could get quite irksome to people nearby.
exikyut 8y ago
Tangential question: http://reddit.com/r/loadingicon http://reddit.com/r/loadingicon and similar places list interesting (if not especially useful/practical) concept art ostensibly useful as loading graphics. Is there somewhere I can similarly find good small sound effects useful as startup chimes? I'm only aware of the Mac and Indy boot sounds, which obviously surface due to their reputation as being used at boot time. Surely there are other cool sound effects, I'm just not sure where to look for them.

83 points by dsego 8y ago

I was reminded of how pleasant the startup beep was on Apple II. The beep was pleasant, soft, and inviting. On the PC side, most motherboard would emit harsh shrilling beep, which sounds more like something had gone really bad. While some would argue that such post-bios/boot beep is not necessary in modern computers, I disagree, especially on machines that do not have built-in monitors or on headless system. Sometimes, I am left to wonder if the computer booted ok. I sometimes have check the monitor/cable/etc... just to see if it actually turned on.

Waterluvian 8y ago
Especially machines without a fan. I've dealt with this often in the robotics field. Trying to figure out if my darn onboard computer is even running or not. The LED hidden away in the electronics bay.
Cthulhu_ 8y ago
I have this with Macs, they give no feedback whatsoever (not even sound) when they start up.
yuhong 8y ago
Not that the 8254-based PC speaker was particularly good in the first place.

netsharc 8y ago

I remember finding a Filemaker database file online which contained the specs of every model Mac, including the startup sound the model made, I found it neat that Filemaker could embed sound files. That must've been during the pre-historic Internet times...

rdsnsca 8y ago
Mactracker is still being updated. http://mactracker.ca http://mactracker.ca

ToFab123 8y ago

Not a mac user, but to disable all system sounds is the very first thing I do after installing windows. I would do the same on a mac. I simple just don't want to listen to that noise every time I turn on my computer.

yoz-y 8y ago
The startup sound was removed in the previous macOS version. Having a setting would be better because with buttons rather than switches and the removal of the state led it is now really not possible to know if the machine is booting or not.
- ToFab123 8y ago
  Is looking at the monitor an option?
  - 1over137 8y ago
    Not if it's broken. Or on a headless server. etc.
  - yoz-y 8y ago
    If it works yes, but the startup chime was akin to a PC passing post so it sounds before the screen turns on. Without the sound , if the mac does not display anything you can not really know if there is no power, or something fried or your drive is dead...
- 1over137 8y ago
  The startup sound was not from macOS, it occurred earlier in the boot process that that.
  - sjm-lbm 8y ago
    This may be true, but it was removed from Apple hardware as part of the macOS Sierra update.

KevanM 8y ago

First thing I switch off when I get a new one.

reaperducer 8y ago
Unlikely, since new Macs haven't had the startup sound for years.
- KevanM 8y ago
  2016 apparently, I haven't had a new one since then?

athenot 8y ago

There's also another sound that macs would make, in case the initial diagnostic tests came back negative, to go with the "Sad Mac" screen. My favorite is still the NuBus Power Mac one (car crash sound). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PTwmtvrdJlQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PTwmtvrdJlQ

gdavisson 8y ago
Much more appropriate than the Mac II crash sound -- that was a happy arpeggio that completely failed to convey the message that something had gone wrong.

KenanSulayman 8y ago

When I got a new TouchBar MacBook I was wondering why the sound was muted from-factory, so I cleared the PRAM ... three or four times ... just to find myself very saddened by the fact that the chime was removed. It was always incredibly mesmerising to unwrap a new Mac, boot it and hear that sound. Like buying a car and listening to the engine powering on the first time.

jerrysievert 8y ago
that's ok, you'll get used to it as you fall into the comforting sound of "blonk" over and over again, as that USB-C cable that's charging it loosens and slides in and out as you use it.
kitsunesoba 8y ago
Can sounds be played from EFI? It might be possible to create a stub EFI bootloader that does nothing but play the chime and kick off the normal macOS boot process. EDIT: In fact I think Apple may have done something like this in their own EFI for the startup chime on Intel Macs – compared to PPC Macs, the sound was always a little delayed and clearly played further into the boot process.
- amyjess 8y ago
  Honestly, as much as the Mac startup sound makes me nostalgic, if I was going to go to that much effort, I might as well have it play the SGI Indy's glorious startup sound [0]. [0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CH9saUP2460 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CH9saUP2460
Apocryphon 8y ago
Another reason to dislike the TouchBar MacBook.

joezydeco 8y ago

Just in case you miss the original Mac128 beep and, just for kicks, wanted to rewrite it in Javascript? Here you go: https://web.archive.org/web/20130302075708/http://blog.parse.com:80/2013/02/27/reproducing-the-macintosh-boot-beep-from-javascript-cloud-code/ https://web.archive.org/web/20130302075708/http://blog.parse...

general_pizza 8y ago

There’s a great Welcome to Macintosh podcast episode[1] that interviews Jim Reekes about this history, highly recommend it. Fun fact, in addition to the iconic startup sound Jim is also responsible for the camera shutter sound on iPhones. [1] https://www.macintosh.fm/episodes/13 https://www.macintosh.fm/episodes/13

notadoc 8y ago

As a Mac user since the 1980s I enjoyed the startup sound and miss it. It was removed for no obvious reason, presumably for some perceived minimalism or desire for austerity, which you can put in the same basket as removing all useful ports and the escape key from their "pro" laptops, or the headphone jack from their cellphone, offering no benefit but apparently done for the sake of doing.

seiferteric 8y ago
I agree, new macs are moving toward all polish and no humanity, just a clean sterile machine.
- reaperducer 8y ago
  I agree, new macs are moving toward all polish and no humanity, just a clean sterile machine. There's a reason for that. Tim Cook is a bean counter, not a technologist, and not an artist. Steve Jobs was a technologist, and a wannabe artist. "The goal was never to beat the competition, or to make a lot of money; it was to do the greatest thing possible, or even a little greater. Steve often reinforced the artistic theme; for example, he took the entire team on a field trip in the spring of 1982 to the Louis Comfort Tiffany museum, because Tiffany was an artist who learned how to mass produce his work." Source: https://www.folklore.org/StoryView.py?project=Macintosh&story=Signing_Party.txt https://www.folklore.org/StoryView.py?project=Macintosh&stor...
toast0 8y ago
I agree that the sound could be useful at times, but it was awful when booting a computer in the middle of the night to respond to a page; that sound could wake up everyone in the house, and i couldn't figure out how to turn it off.
- wool_gather 8y ago
  Yeah, it would be nice to disable it selectively -- just silence it for this one boot. It may be a false memory, but I think this used to be possible at some point in the 00s, by holding down the mute button on the keyboard. Also possibly in the late 90s it went through external speakers if they were hooked up?

makecheck 8y ago

It’s amazing how annoying it is to not have a sound, especially when trying to restart, etc. You just have to “know” that you hit the button correctly and wait one or two awkward seconds of black screen for any sign of life. I’m sure I’ve accidentally power-cycled because I wasn’t sure the thing was booting. Just a stupid thing to remove, really.

b1daly 8y ago

I didn’t know this, as the various Macs I use are all 2015. That startup sound is a great idea example of the importance of the utility of affordances in interface design. After you’ve done something that might have hosed your whole system, the sound alone can bring a sense of relief that at least some life is left in the machine. Because the stakes are actually kind of high for those making a living with their computer.

Tsiklon 8y ago

I liked the startup sound, however if i've hosed my OS and I'm rebooting frequently during the troubleshoot it could get quite irksome to people nearby.

exikyut 8y ago

Tangential question: http://reddit.com/r/loadingicon http://reddit.com/r/loadingicon and similar places list interesting (if not especially useful/practical) concept art ostensibly useful as loading graphics. Is there somewhere I can similarly find good small sound effects useful as startup chimes? I'm only aware of the Mac and Indy boot sounds, which obviously surface due to their reputation as being used at boot time. Surely there are other cool sound effects, I'm just not sure where to look for them.