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How Brian Eno composed the Windows 95 startup sound (1996)
- h-w 4y agoI always love Eno’s description of the spec for this job: “The thing from the agency said, ‘We want a piece of music that is inspiring, universal, blah-blah, da-da-da, optimistic, futuristic, sentimental, emotional,’ this whole list of adjectives, and then at the bottom it said ‘and it must be 3.25 seconds long.’”
- SeanLuke 4y agoWait, he made 84 startup sounds? Are the others available?
- ffhhj 4y agoOne for each version 'till 95 ;)
- anyfactor 4y agoI personally feel that the word that most accurately describe the windows 95,98 and XP startup sounds is "cathartic". Specially the slowed down versions. The closest way to describe my experience of hearing these startup music is like Tom Haverford from parks and rec saying,"A piece of art caused me to have an emotional reaction. Is that normal?"
- aasasd 4y agoBy ‘slowed down’, do you mean this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BnoX3E2WFcc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BnoX3E2WFcc ?
- 01acheru 4y agoSounds like the background music of early SimCity games, at least 3000 had something like this, thanks for sharing!
- aasasd 4y agoIn case you're unfamiliar: it's a whole microgenre. However idk what to call it: afaik the more popular slowdown values are 400% and 800%, so ‘slowed down’ together with these can be used as keywords for searching. E.g. https://youtube.com/watch?v=BFyeuLhjcPY https://youtube.com/watch?v=BFyeuLhjcPY Slowing down music that was already downtempo gonna result in that ultra-ambient: https://youtube.com/watch?v=b3i06yw4A4E https://youtube.com/watch?v=b3i06yw4A4E ‘PaulStretch’ software is often used for this, and its algo gives that ethereal quality.
- isopede 4y agoEverything I know about Brian Eno has come from the New York Times crossword.
- ghostly_s 4y agoHaving been a Mac user in that era, this was actually totally unfamiliar to me. I was expecting the very similar, but much worse, XP startup chime. I realize it's just a puffy little piece but I always get annoyed when writers ignore or are simply unaware of Eno's early career creating (excellent) work in shockingly conventional pop-song formats.
- Optimal_Persona 4y agoThe creative work of Brian Eno is simply some of my favorite stuff in the known universe. Some examples of Eno's earlier work within 'pop' formats: Roxy Music - Ladytron (hint, he's the one in leopard print blouse & gold gloves helming the spaceship console) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XCzhAeukF1A https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XCzhAeukF1A Solo - I'll Come Running https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yFz50q_QmfE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yFz50q_QmfE David Bowie - Heroes https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YLp2cW7ICCU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YLp2cW7ICCU 801 - Tomorrow Never Knows https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UkGXUn0Kuuw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UkGXUn0Kuuw
- candiddevmike 4y agoBrian Eno's ambient work is incredible. I grew up on An Ending (Ascent) and the rest of Apollo thanks to 28 days later, and still find it serene.
- Romanulus 4y ago
- qbasic_forever 4y agoDid most of my coding projects in college while listening to Ambient 1 through 4. Fantastic albums for putting on in background!
- layer8 4y agoWindows should have had a booting track, like home computer games had a loading track. E.g. https://youtu.be/iOHRVbWWfc4 https://youtu.be/iOHRVbWWfc4
- bombcar 4y agoSome systems (game consoles?) the music/sound chip is entirely a separate processor so you can load sound/midi into it at the beginning to play during load.
- turminal 4y agoIt should have release songs, like openbsd
- cpach 4y agoHow about this: https://youtu.be/lAkuJXGldrM https://youtu.be/lAkuJXGldrM
- ntoskrnl 4y agoWindows 95 did have a release song, in a way. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dtfBBNYdcPc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dtfBBNYdcPc
- boomboomsubban 4y agoIt could also have been Weezer's "Buddy Holly" or Edie Brickell's "Good Times," both on the CD-ROM.
- taneq 4y agoWeezer and Hover Tank, that brings back some memories…!
- SonOfLilit 4y agoIn Israel, Windows XP had a whole release musical, with original compositions, dancers, the whole she-bang: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aXmIigsP_Dk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aXmIigsP_Dk (sorry, Hebrew)
- Kwpolska 4y agoThis is blogspam that largely quotes a 1996 article: https://www.sfgate.com/default/article/Q-and-A-With-Brian-Eno-2979740.php https://www.sfgate.com/default/article/Q-and-A-With-Brian-En... They also called some random YouTube video “Brian Eno’s remix”.
- aaron695 4y ago
- dang 4y agoOk, we've changed to that from https://theindustryobserver.thebrag.com/the-odd-story-of-how-brian-eno-composed-the-windows-95-startup-sound/ https://theindustryobserver.thebrag.com/the-odd-story-of-how.... Thanks!
- ninjanomnom 4y agoThe year in the title should be changed to 1996 as well
- dang 4y agoThanks! Done now.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- beachy 4y agoOur EV (a Hyundai Ioniq 5) emits an artifical sound, presumably to warn pedestrians, which I find interesting. It's an attention grabbing electronic hum, swelling, but not overtly threatening. Sounds something like a well tuned very resonant transformer. It's also not too annoying to the car owner. I'd love to know the backstory of how these sounds are created and what sort of testing goes into it. On the same note, the light saber noise from Star Wars was allegedly inspired by an idle video projector. “Immediately something went off in my mind and I had a feeling for what they would sound like,” Burtt said. “In the booth where we projected the films, those projectors made a hum…the motors would sit there with this magical, mysterious humming sound… I thought ‘that’s probably what a lightsaber would sound like.’”
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- ninkendo 4y agoI had seen an interesting video about this on YouTube lately but I can’t find the link… but searching yielded this which seems just as good: How Music Composers Are Replacing The Sound Of Engines In Cars https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=W3JEvecS_fI https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=W3JEvecS_fI
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- mc32 4y agoMaybe they can use the Logan's run solar car sound as a stand in for engine noise. Or grippier tires too but then that gets loud on the highway. Maybe a certain frequency would be noticeable (rumble) at low speeds but ultrasonic at high speeds?
- skavi 4y agoA good video demonstrating the Hyundai’s sound for anyone else interested: https://youtu.be/xpvQ1Y27t70 https://youtu.be/xpvQ1Y27t70
- ggm 4y agoAnd Wall-E wakes up to (basically) the same sound Apple promoted in the quadra in 91 The stones got $3m for "start me up" I do like Brian Eno, and I like how much thought he put into 3 seconds in everyone's life worldwide. Possibly the most played tune worldwide? (or is that the Nokia ringtone?)
- danachow 4y ago> Possibly the most played tune worldwide? Not even by a long shot - even among Microsoft startup sounds. In the grand scheme of things, Windows 95 was a significant but brief blip for less than 3 years when PCs were still a growing niche. Likely the Windows 98 and ME/2000 sounds played a lot more times given their longevity.
- ggm 4y agoGiven the longevity of the chord-sequence in its re-interpretations, I think the Mac startup sound has more legs on it, but we mac owners reboot less frequently than windows pC owners... the ^G VT100 beep is probably it, for all the vi mashers who hit ESC to get back to command mode from insert mode.
- cpeterso 4y agoHere's the startup sound slowed down from 3.25 seconds to 4 minutes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BnoX3E2WFcc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BnoX3E2WFcc
- zeppelin101 4y agoThat is brilliant. Thank you for linking.
- ffhhj 4y agoSomehow reminded me of Space Odyssey.
- skc 4y agoOh wow. This moved me rather unexpectedly.
- csnover 4y agoThe podcast Twenty Thousand Hertz recently did a two-part series on all of the Windows startup sounds[0][1]. They interviewed some of the Microsoft employees who worked on the various sounds, and included archival tape of Eno being interviewed by the BBC about the Windows 95 sound. (It looks like the BBC interview may be the primary source for this SF Gate Q&A.) [0] https://www.20k.org/episodes/tadaitswindows https://www.20k.org/episodes/tadaitswindows [1] https://www.20k.org/episodes/windowslogonwav https://www.20k.org/episodes/windowslogonwav
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- fimdomeio 4y agoThere's two pretty interesting podcast episodes about windows startup sounds at Twenty Thousand Hertz: https://www.20k.org/episodes/tadaitswindows https://www.20k.org/episodes/tadaitswindows https://www.20k.org/episodes/windowslogonwav https://www.20k.org/episodes/windowslogonwav Also All Apple startup sounds. Really interesting how one could describe the two companies complete approach to design just from the startup sounds. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PLEupC2OWUU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PLEupC2OWUU
- pram 4y agoThe Windows 98 welcome music (not the startup sound) is also an amazing piece of music. Very underrated in all these nostalgia reminiscences: https://youtu.be/mTf806u38Ng https://youtu.be/mTf806u38Ng
- Gigachad 4y agoKinda miss when technology had music. Now its basically all stripped from modern systems. MacOS has a couple of clicks and pops left but its always such a jarring moment to here a lone sound effect when doing something. Even less serious tech like game consoles are stripping it out. The Switch has no menu music like the previous consoles had.
- lostgame 4y agoThe Wii menu music may unironically be one of my favourite ambient music pieces of all time, if I actually think about it. So much character!
- amlib 4y agoDid they ever release a full version of this?
- alekun 4y agoI remember he used the pirated version of SoundForge, cracked by Radium if I am not mistaken. You can find Radium’s watermark embedded in the wave file edit; not Radium, DeepzOne https://forum-archive.magix.info/showmessage.asp?messageid=332340 https://forum-archive.magix.info/showmessage.asp?messageid=3...
- qbasic_forever 4y agoIIRC Eno was really into the Yamaha DX7 FM synthesizer around the time he did the Windows 95 sound, it was almost certainly created using that hardware and then later someone mastered it to a wav file (perhaps using a pirated copy of soundforge).
- the-rc 4y agoNo, he used SSEYO's Koan software
- jmmcd 4y agoHe was involved in creating that, but he definitely didn't use it for this 3-second piece. It's not suitable for micro-management at all.
- TonyTrapp 4y agoFor what it's worth, the DX7 isn't capable of producing most of the sounds heard in the Windows 95 sound. If it was used at all, it would be one out of several synthesizers.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- S_A_P 4y agoBrian didnt use a PC though, so its possible it was someone downstream that used the cracked soundforge. That version of SoundForge was what I used in college very heavily. I should look at my old sample folder and see how many have the watermark...
- zaps 4y agoI haven’t RTFA but I had though it was Robert Fripp that did the W95 startup sound?
- dang 4y agoRecent and related: Once in a Lifetime - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31542502 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31542502 - May 2022 (40 comments) Edit: – well, why not: Brian Eno‘s list of words that didn’t exist in 95 (scroll halfway) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26026726 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26026726 - Feb 2021 (4 comments) So you want to contact Brian Eno? (2000) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24718365 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24718365 - Oct 2020 (78 comments) Generative Music – Brian Eno (1996) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24702201 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24702201 - Oct 2020 (15 comments) Free, Open Spaces: Brian Eno’s Favourite Records (2016) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18289129 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18289129 - Oct 2018 (35 comments) Brian Eno and Peter Schmidt's 'Oblique Strategies' (2014) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14917458 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14917458 - Aug 2017 (5 comments) How Brian Eno managed to urinate in Marcel Duchamp's “Fountain” - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14708316 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14708316 - July 2017 (27 comments) Brian Eno: Composers as Gardeners - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14288339 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14288339 - May 2017 (35 comments) Brian Eno Plays the Universe - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12050224 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12050224 - July 2016 (8 comments) Just A New Fractal Detail In The Big Picture (2015) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12027055 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12027055 - July 2016 (175 comments) Brian Eno Examines the Ecology of Culture in John Peel Lecture [pdf] - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10384526 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10384526 - Oct 2015 (9 comments) What Books Could Be Used to Rebuild Civilization? - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9084466 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9084466 - Feb 2015 (112 comments) Oblique Strategies: Brian Eno’s Prompts for Overcoming Creative Block - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9017960 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9017960 - Feb 2015 (13 comments) Get creatively unstuck with Brian Eno's Oblique Strategies on a web app I built - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3637545 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3637545 - Feb 2012 (1 comment) Brian Eno: What is art? - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1389872 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1389872 - May 2010 (2 comments) An audience with Brian Eno - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1073122 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1073122 - Jan 2010 (8 comments)
- mortenjorck 4y ago> Everybody thinks that when new technologies come along that they're transparent and you can just do your job well on it. But technologies always import a whole new set of values with them. Eno was talking about the advent of sequencer software, but this holds true across so many disciplines that I’m surprised I don’t see this quote more often.
- ystad 4y agoBrian Eno message - Don't get a job https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-53tzx69fM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-53tzx69fM
- quijoteuniv 4y agoBrian Eno is responsible for Windows hold on earth! I wonder if he has bad conscience about this
- meerita 4y agoWhat was the idea behind of using a sound? It would be nice to know how they reached that idea.
- wsc981 4y agoMy guess would be to kinda mimic the Macintosh start-up sounds, though the Mac startup sounds would be heard when pressing the power button: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PLEupC2OWUU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PLEupC2OWUU
- meerita 4y agoDid Apple started this idea of playing a sound on boot?
- disillusioned 4y agoHa, the podcast Twenty Thousand Hertz just did TWO whole episodes on this: https://www.20k.org/episodes/tadaitswindows https://www.20k.org/episodes/tadaitswindows https://www.20k.org/episodes/windowslogonwav https://www.20k.org/episodes/windowslogonwav
- erie 4y agoI am still listening to that song in Windows 95 (OSR1/2) CD - Good Times - YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iqL1BLzn3qc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iqL1BLzn3qc
- michelb 4y agoWould love to hear the sounds that didn't make it.
- murbard2 4y agoIsn't the sound 7 seconds long though?
- jmmcd 4y ago> My part of it is going to be a speech with a rather dramatic demonstration, which I can't give details of because it must remain a surprise. But I'm going to be talking about this idea of generative art. I wonder what this was.
- singularity2001 4y agoTangential: The cookie accept dialog is the perfect dark pattern: none seem pre- selected, until you scroll down.
- shp0ngle 4y ago> The producers describe your appearance next weekend as multimedia, which is a great cliche. If you speak and hold up a picture, you're multimedia, aren't you? Ah yeah, the 90s. We got our hypes of AI and blockchain and whatnot, they had their multimedia and hypermedia
- MomoXenosaga 4y agoThis was from an era when people actually shut down their PC.
- crispyambulance 4y agoBrian Eno is such a treasure. His fingerprints are on not just his own compositions but in his many collaborations, work as a producer, and also indirect influencer. It's so amazing that his life's work spans over 50 years and is still going.