4 ms·

Although the engineering behind getting a good sound out of the PC speaker is fascinating. Still wishing the PC standard from the get go had included sound as a

Although the engineering behind getting a good sound out of the PC speaker is fascinating. Still wishing the PC standard from the get go had included sound as a first class citizen. I think this decision back then still ripples through the machines today and sound never truly feels like an integral part of the machine on Windows (Realtek audio driver) and you'll never have the feeling of a built in boot sound on your machine which felt so good on Macs till it was disabled recently. It's not like computers didn't have good sound back then either compare the Lotus III example [0] from the article with the same on the Amiga hardware from around the same time [1] [0]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=72vZ1asBIXQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=72vZ1asBIXQ [1]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CgGSBoivBIY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CgGSBoivBIY

ajmurmann 8y ago
"[...]a built in boot sound on your machine which felt so good on Macs[...]" Ever since I got my first iBook in college I've had mainly negative associations with that sound. Too frequently you'd open the thing in the middle of a lecture with 100+ people in the room and the sound starts blasting. The only solution I found was plugging in headphones so that the sound would go there instead.
- Mister_Snuggles 8y ago
  As I recall, if you muted the sound before shutting down it would stay muted and not play the startup sound. My Mac experience starts at the white iBook G3 running OSX 10.2 though, so it could be that this behaviour is a new thing. I now have a 13" TouchBar MacBook Pro and it makes a sound when I plug the charger in no matter what I do to the volume settings. When I have it muted and open I can actually see it unmute the sound so that it can make the charger sound then mute it again when it's done.
  - ajmurmann 8y ago
    Yep the muting already worked back then. So it always came down to crossing your fingers and hoping you muted before you left the house.
  - glhaynes 8y ago
    Just fyi: I believe (but haven't gotten to try it myself) that this command will turn off the power chime when you plug in a USB-C charger. defaults write com.apple.PowerChime ChimeOnAllHardware -bool false;killall PowerChime
    - Mister_Snuggles 8y ago
      I haven't tried this yet, but based on some quick searching it might need some tweaks[0]. This is a pretty easy change to make, so I'll try it out later. [0] https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/282752/turning-power-chime-off/309947#309947 https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/282752/turning-pow...
  - vvillena 8y ago
    You could also press a certain button on the keyboard (I don't remember which) to ensure no boot sound is played. I'm not sure if this feature is still there.
    - Mister_Snuggles 8y ago
      I believe you could hold the mute button to do this. I don't think the feature is there on mine, the TouchBar probably comes on way too late in the boot process.
PascLeRasc 8y ago
CoreAudio on the Mac is so good. I've never had to install any drivers for USB or Firewire interfaces and the latency is incredible compared to the same setup on a PC.

ajmurmann 8y ago

"[...]a built in boot sound on your machine which felt so good on Macs[...]" Ever since I got my first iBook in college I've had mainly negative associations with that sound. Too frequently you'd open the thing in the middle of a lecture with 100+ people in the room and the sound starts blasting. The only solution I found was plugging in headphones so that the sound would go there instead.

Mister_Snuggles 8y ago
As I recall, if you muted the sound before shutting down it would stay muted and not play the startup sound. My Mac experience starts at the white iBook G3 running OSX 10.2 though, so it could be that this behaviour is a new thing. I now have a 13" TouchBar MacBook Pro and it makes a sound when I plug the charger in no matter what I do to the volume settings. When I have it muted and open I can actually see it unmute the sound so that it can make the charger sound then mute it again when it's done.
- ajmurmann 8y ago
  Yep the muting already worked back then. So it always came down to crossing your fingers and hoping you muted before you left the house.
- glhaynes 8y ago
  Just fyi: I believe (but haven't gotten to try it myself) that this command will turn off the power chime when you plug in a USB-C charger. defaults write com.apple.PowerChime ChimeOnAllHardware -bool false;killall PowerChime
  - Mister_Snuggles 8y ago
    I haven't tried this yet, but based on some quick searching it might need some tweaks[0]. This is a pretty easy change to make, so I'll try it out later. [0] https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/282752/turning-power-chime-off/309947#309947 https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/282752/turning-pow...
- vvillena 8y ago
  You could also press a certain button on the keyboard (I don't remember which) to ensure no boot sound is played. I'm not sure if this feature is still there.
  - Mister_Snuggles 8y ago
    I believe you could hold the mute button to do this. I don't think the feature is there on mine, the TouchBar probably comes on way too late in the boot process.

PascLeRasc 8y ago

CoreAudio on the Mac is so good. I've never had to install any drivers for USB or Firewire interfaces and the latency is incredible compared to the same setup on a PC.