Vista Startup: Sounds Okay to Me

My guess is that it took Stompin' Tom Connors about 15 minutes to write "Bud the Spud" and Antsy McClain a bit longer to write "Living In Aluminum." Which makes you wonder why it took Microsoft 18 months to come up with the Vista four-second startup tune. But then, rolling stuff out in a hurry never has been Microsoft's forte.

Of course, masterpieces like "It Ain’t Home Til You Take the Wheels Off" only appeal to those of us who have discriminating tastes in music, while Microsoft's four-seconds of sound has to please everyone -- "a wide demographic" as Antsy McClain says. Still, a year-and-a-half for four-seconds?

To get that four-seconds down right, Microsoft brought world-famous guitarist and founder of the progressive rock band King Crimson Robert Fripp into Redmond, who recorded hours and hours of his signature guitar sounds. Presumably a committee of Microsoft marketing types then spent the next year or so analyzing, dissecting, commenting on, recommending, sucking down Starbucks, humming along, and -- when they just flat ran out of time and couldn't have any more meetings over it -- deciding on which four-seconds of sound.

The startup clip, which consists of four chords (one for each color in the Vista graphic), is supposed to evoke the rhythm of "Win-dows Vis-ta." Sounds a little subtle to me, but then recall I'm a fan of the Trailer Park Troubadours. And there isn't a whole lot subtle about them.

As for the Vista start-up sound when I get to it, I bet it doesn't take me 18 minutes -- let alone 18 months -- to uncheck that checkbox that says "Play Windows Startup Sound." It's already sounding good to me.

Posted by Jon Erickson at 06:40 PM  Permalink