Windows 95 startup sound wav windows#
Microsoft invested heavily into making Windows 95 a hit, and marketing played a key part in the company’s strategy. Their most recent launch is called Reflection. Additionally, he worked together with Peter Chilvers on generative music apps for iOS, including Bloom. Windows 95 wasn’t Eno’s only computing project, as he also created a substantial part of the music included in Spore, a game launched by Electronic Arts in 2008. Furthermore, the Microsoft Sound also ended up being used as a ringtone on smartphones, as its length made it just the perfect choice for a text message or email alert. There are now several copies of the audio file uploaded to YouTube, each with hundreds of thousands of views, while many people exported the file to use it in later versions of Windows. Truth be told, the Windows 95 startup sound, also known as the Microsoft Sound, has become of the most famous ever included in a Microsoft product. No specifics were provided on the app used to make the sound, and the source was never published publicly for a reason that’s not hard to figure out.Ĭreating such a short sound file for Windows 95 changed Eno’s perspective about this work, he admitted, because returning to “working with pieces that were like three minutes long seemed like oceans of time.”
I don’t like them,” he said in an interview with BBC Radio 4 in 2011. All of these samples were made on an Apple computer for a reason that you’re not going to believe. The musician created not one, not two, but 84 different samples, out of which Microsoft picked just one. “We want a piece of music that is inspiring, universal, blah-blah, da-da-da, optimistic, futuristic, sentimental, emotional,” Eno cites the engineers as saying, adding that one of the last things they mentioned was the sound had to be just 3 seconds long. And I really appreciated someone coming along and saying, ‘Here's a specific problem – solve it,’” he said in a 1996 interview.Įno explains that Microsoft designers Mark Malamud and Erik Gavriluk had very specific requirements for the Windows 95 sound. “I'd been working on my own music for a while and was quite lost, actually. But in my world, his Ambient 1: Music for Airports record is the touchstone of his music career.Eno recalls that Microsoft’s request to create a startup sound for Windows came just at the right time because he was “completely bereft of ideas.” * = Yes, Eno is also very well known for his work as a producer with Talking Heads, U2, David Bowie, Coldplay, you name it, as well as a brief stint with Roxy Music. Then when I'd finished that and I went back to working with pieces that were like three minutes long, it seemed like oceans of time. I was so sensitive to microseconds at the end of this that it really broke a logjam in my own work. I got completely into this world of tiny, tiny little pieces of music. I thought this was so funny and an amazing thought to actually try to make a little piece of music. And I really appreciated someone coming along and saying, "Here's a specific problem - solve it." I'd been working on my own music for a while and was quite lost, actually. The idea came up at the time when I was completely bereft of ideas.
Windows 95 startup sound wav full#
Here's the full context from an interview - and also keep in mind that Eno composed the sound on a Mac, saying "I've never used a PC in my life I don't like them." The shortened Eno quote above isn't the full story, though. (You can also listen to the normal-speed version for context.) So listen to it (this is a Windows 95 ad that an enterprising YouTuber slowed way down):
But when you take his micro-music and stretch it out to two and a half minutes, it becomes suspiciously like the music we hear on his ambient albums - slow, ethereal, moody, beautiful in a very different way. The thing from the agency said, "We want a piece of music that is inspiring, universal, blah-blah, da-da-da, optimistic, futuristic, sentimental, emotional," this whole list of adjectives, and then at the bottom it said "and it must be 3.25 seconds long."Īnd, of course, Eno solved the problem, creating a supremely iconic sound. But this track had to be a little shorter. This music would become known as "The Windows Sound." Eno is probably most renowned* for his ambient music - long tracks with deep sound beds and drifting melodies.
When Windows 95 was being developed, executives commissioned music legend Brian Eno to develop a "piece of music" to play when the operating system started up.
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