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Looper's Delight
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Wow! I heard about this on NPR today, and actually heard the clip, but I had no idea who it was. It is a cool sounding little clip and less intrusive, though perhaps not as catchy as the current start-up sound for XP IMHO. --Josh samba - wrote: > Nov 10, 3:12 PM EST > > Long Process Leads to Short Vista Sound > > By ALLISON LINN > AP Business Writer > > > > SEATTLE (AP) -- 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.Fripp's involvement is not > surprising. His occasional collaborator, Brian Eno, recorded sounds > for Windows 95. Also, Ball, the Microsoft group program manager for > WAVE - Windows Audio Visual Excellence - has in the past been Fripp's > student and business partner. > > Ball, a self-proclaimed renaissance man who is both an engineer and a > musician, considered the work of about 10 musicians for the project. > Some of those people were influential in the final four seconds as well. > > Redmond-based Microsoft seriously debated several other sounds before > settling on the final startup sound about three weeks ago. The rejects > included a longer, lusher clip and a quick, techno-sounding piece. > While many people liked an upbeat ditty with a clapping rhythm, it was > eventually nixed for sounding too much like a commercial. Ball said > the hand-clapping also seemed like too "human" a sound when paired > with the new graphic for Vista. > > "There's nothing that's especially human about our new Windows > animation," he said. > > The short startup clip that was eventually chosen is meant to evoke > the rhythm of the words "Win-dows Vis-ta!" and Ball hopes the sound > will serve as a calling card for the operating system. It also > consists of four chords - one for every color in the new Windows > graphic that appears as the sound plays. It's no coincidence that it's > also four seconds long. > > There are a total of 45 Vista sounds that Microsoft has spent the last > year and a half perfecting, including the dings you hear when you get > a new e-mail, receive an error message, or log off your computer. > Generally, these are more muted, less jarring variations of the > prompts familiar to Windows XP users. > > If it seems like overkill to go to all that trouble for a few seconds > of sound, consider this: Microsoft estimates that the clips such as > the e-mail alert will be played trillions of times in years to come. > That's a lot of opportunity to annoy, offend - or, if the job is done > right - please or appease computer users the world over. > > One major concern was that the startup sound not grow grating after a > time. > > "You want a sound that people will love the first time they hear it, > but it's a paradox to also say, 'Oh and by the way, we need people to > love it the tenth, or the hundredth, or the thousandth time they hear > it,'" Ball said. > > That's one reason he was glad to have 18 months to choose the clips. > > "We had time to live with the music," Ball said. > > Still, for all the time Ball has spent on the sounds, he says one > measure of success would be if people noticed them very little, if at > all. > > Ball is the first to admit that the percussive beeps in past Windows > versions could be jarring enough to bother nearby workers or interrupt > others in a meeting. With the number of intrusive sounds from cell > phones, handheld devices and other gadgets only increasing, that's > something Ball and his colleagues were keen to avoid with Vista. > > "We want you to know they're there, and you would miss them if they > were gone, but we would like them to be just barely noticeable, almost > like they are part of the environment or part of your wallpaper," he > said. "We want them in the background, rather than the foreground." > > © 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. > > _________________________________________________________________ > Get FREE company branded e-mail accounts and business Web site from > Microsoft Office Live > http://clk.atdmt.com/MRT/go/mcrssaub0050001411mrt/direct/01/ > > > >