History of Mac startup chimes

Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2018/06/15/history-of-mac-startup-chimes.html

1 Like

The original square wave or nothing at all! You kids think those are system beeps? System beeps have been crap ever since the 80s, and thy need to get off my lawn!

3 Likes

i miss the apple startup sound. it was a nice signifier that it was actually, you know, starting. now i have to listen for the drive going, and it’s just not as satisfying.

also, i recognized every chime in that video. such a nice trip down memory lane.

3 Likes

Something tells me it will come back one day…

4 Likes

For a beep compilation video this had decent commentary. But, if you say that a sound effect was introduced with the 840AV, let me hear the 840AV-- not the powerbook with the same or very similar sound–they do have different speakers, after all;

Beeps are very handy if there’s something wrong with the video. I also use it as a “press the option key now” prompt, so I can boot into my other OS.

I like that older crash chime. It sounds so mournful and lost.

I barely know what Transformer di Roboter is, but I quite like what they did with the older Mac startup chime in this cover.

See also:

2 Likes

…and the world gets a tiny bit grayer.

1 Like
1 Like

That early Quadra startup chime still gives me nerdgasms to this day but they all have a special place in my heart. I was very sad when Apple ditched the startup sounds.

1 Like

Betelgeuse!

Er…nevermind, that’s for Reddit.

speaking of windows–there are several windows sounds that can drive me batty-- notify, hardware remove, hardware add have all been muted or reassigned to something that doesn’t grate on my nerves. (It may have something to do with the fact that I have hifi connected.)

I always thought they owed a debt to Sega

1 Like

This topic was automatically closed after 5 days. New replies are no longer allowed.