Former Apple Sound Designer Discusses History Behind 'Sosumi', Mac Startup Tone, and Camera Click

[H3LL5P4WN]

I’m not sure if he’s heard the watchOS sound effects. I think they’re beautifully done.

...Wait, the Apple Watch has sounds? You mean I've just had it on vibrate all of this time?

 

[Jimmy James]

I wish I could disable the startup sound.

 

[v0lume4]

The problem I have with Apple now is their products lack heart. The little tiny details (like the startup sound) were what Steve obsessed over and gave the products personality.

The exclusion of the startup chime in new Macs took them from a part of your life to a machine you use when you need it.

Bring back the heart, Apple. Make the machines mean something to people.

Agreed. Owning a Mac (used to) feel like you owned something special. The startup chime -- heck, even the fun intro video that played the first time you ever booted up the computer!

And the aqua color scheme! In a world full of bland grays and whites and blacks on Windows, Mac had these deep blue hues in the windows, the scroll bars, the buttons. I thought it made the computer "fun," instead of just a boring digital box. And yet now nearly everything is gray in macOS, just like Windows used to be.

I don't know why Apple veered away from the fun quirks their computers used to have. I like the way you said it: Bring back the heart, Apple.

 

[mrgraff]

Enjoy!

I guess my early Macs rarely crashed, because I only recall hearing that crash sound once.

I used to use the Macintosh II crash sound as the startup sound for my PC at work. Not to be funny, but because I think that the chime doesn't sound all that negative to be honest.

 

[ignatius345]

Lol that sound IS beautiful but the effect of hearing it is like waving a red cape at a bull for me. I may be the only person on the planet who finds that whole exercise stressful and infuriating. I think it's because it's got the uncanny knack of popping up right when I'm in the middle of something important and can't take the time out for it. So I've come to associate it with all inopportune things like a call from a telemarketer when I'm already answering the doorbell.

Funny, my association with it is more of a "fresh start" feeling after a reboot -- usually (hopefully) after weeks of uptime.

 

[MisterAndrew]

New Macs don't have a startup chime? That's so lame!

 

[Rocketman]

Here ya go: https://reekes.net/sosumi/

Thank you!

 

[pdxw]

Reekes' frustration with the lawsuit eventually led him to the name "Sosumi," because it sounded like "so sue me." Today, Sosumi is still available as an alert sound in the Mac System Preferences.
Reekes also looked back on the Mac's original startup tone, which annoyed him "immensely" because the Mac crashed so many times that it was easy to equate the tone with a frustrating situation. Although he didn't have permission to change it, he recorded a new c-major chord in his living room and used The Beatles song "A Day in the Life" as inspiration

This is a great piece, but there are a couple glaring errors. The sound that they're referring to as "the original" startup tone wasn't. That was a beep. The sound they refer to as "annoying" did not debut until the release of the Mac II in 1987. And the sound that Mr. Reekes created, if the demonstrations they gave are accurate, was not the sound that immediately replaced the "annoying" sound and, in fact, didn't become a part of the Mac until years later. There were several intermediate incarnations in the intervening years, but no one mentions those. Please don't misunderstand me. I don't mean to detract from his work, as it truly was wonderful, but it seems no one did even basic fact checking as part of writing this story.