So the geekfest continues.
Today I watched the 2008 documentary 'welcome to macintosh' by Robert Baca and Josh Rizzo.
Most enjoyable it was too, but especially wonderful was the carnaptious Jim Reekes
Reeke was a programmer at Apple for 12 years and was responsible for many things including the Mac OS start up sound. He says about it -
"Mac people are very familiar with the sound, after restarting their machines too often. In fact, that was one of the issues I was conscious of when designing the sound. Turning the Mac on is one thing, but being forced to reboot from a crash is a totally different experience. I wanted to avoid a sound that would be associated with the crash. I wanted it to sound more like a "palette cleanser. The startup sound was done in my home studio on a Korg Wavestation. It's a C Major chord, played with both hands stretched out as wide as possible (with 3rd at the top, if I recall). This just sounded right to me. I wanted something really fat, heavy bass, high notes, and a sharp attack. The chiffy sound was from pan pipes and something like a stick hit (I'm testing my memory here). I wanted lots of evolving timbres, stereo phasing, and reverb for further richness."
He kvetches and bitches all the way through, and was the total highlight of the film for me
Now if you will excuse me, I'm off to reboot the ol' iBook...
Queen Marie
i am completely mac smitten!
Posted by: Karuna | Sunday, 08 November 2009 at 15:00
This sounds like a pretty interesting documentary!
Posted by: Isabel | Sunday, 08 November 2009 at 15:33
Here's a wee fact for you, M, but you'll probably know this already: Brian Eno devised the start up theme for Windows! I only discovered that a few months ago.
Posted by: Lady Ape | Sunday, 08 November 2009 at 16:12
I remember that old boxy Mac. It was ahead of it's time.
Posted by: enc | Tuesday, 10 November 2009 at 01:12
mac porn!
thanks for sharing :)
Posted by: girl | Tuesday, 10 November 2009 at 06:42