Apple Music is now a giant in the streaming music field, with exclusive albums and a huge library of more than 90 million songs, with more than 98 million users by 2021 (foreign media estimates based on the proportion of share, non-Official Apple's published value), and the number of subscribers in the United States even exceeds Spotify.
However, Apple once made a promise - "not to get involved in the field of music." In fact, not only could Apple not make music at that time, but even the sound effect name had a musical meaning would face the risk of being sued.
▲ Apple Music. Image credit: News Dome
Because long before the now-famous Apple was founded, there was already another "Apple" in the world - Apple Corps, the record label founded by the Beatles.
▲ Comparison of early Apple Corps and Apple Computer trademarks. Image courtesy of YouTube @welcometomac
But it was precisely at this time that Apple's sound effects that have been handed down to this day - the boot start sound, the prompt sound Sousumi and the camera click were born, which are inseparable from an interesting character - Jim Reekes. He started by repairing Apple computers, entered Apple in 1988 during apple's chaotic years, and was nearly fired twice in two years. In order not to be fired, in 1990 he took over the newly vacated position of sound engineer.
▲ Jim Reekes. Image courtesy of CNBC
It's funny because if he's another person who follows the rules and does things exactly according to the process, the above sounds may not have a chance to be available at all, or it may be delayed for us to use for an unknown number of years.
The behind-the-scenes story about Reekes's unruly behavior was kept secret by Reekes for many years, until he left Apple in 1999, and these secrets were slowly revealed in his witty and humorous interviews.
At Apple's press conference on October 18, 2021, the opening video "Start Up" created by Apple and music producer AG Cook was played, which is based on the fusion of Apple's 45 years of device sounds to create new songs.
Reekes saw the video and immediately forwarded it to his website with the words, "Ah, look what they did with my song." Because Reekes's voice became the most important character in it, it is also the best proof that his sound effects have been recognized by the public and time.
Next, let's learn about Reekes' proudest 3 Apple sounds and the little stories behind them.
Pixar Animation also wants to use the boot start sound
Remember Pixar's Robot Story?
When the robot Wali is fully charged and restarted, it also emits the boot sound designed by Reekes for mac computers, such a beautiful sound that symbolizes resurrection, as if heralding a beautiful new day on the screen.
▲ The clip also sounds like the mac computer's boot sound. Image from: The movie "Robot Story"
Before Reekes redesigned the sound, the Mac's boot sound used a trilogy with the name "Devil's Voice" in its entirety.
In classical music, the tritony is an extremely discordant sound, forbidden by the Church, and described by the musician Bach as key words such as devil, hell, and suffering. Such a sound, such as the piano, which emphasizes harmony, cannot even be played.
▲ The Dance of the Skulls (also known as the Dance of Death) with a large number of tritons. Image: YouTube @Christiaan Janssens
However, a mathematician in Apple chose what he considered to be the most perfect trilogy, but it was also the most discordant sound that could be made, as the sound effect of Apple's boot.
If you're going through a constantly crashing and restarting your computer, you'll have to hear the "Devil's Voice" over and over again, which is a worse experience. Even if it is not a restart, when preparing to start the day's work, it is presumable that hearing such a sound will weaken the spirit.
▲ The "Sad Mac" image that will be displayed when the computer crashes before the Macintosh II version. Image courtesy of Wiki
Such an obvious and serious problem lasted for 7 years from the birth of the Apple computer in 1984.
Until the Mac released System 7, the Macintosh Quadra series, which was launched at the same time, will also be equipped with larger speakers and a better PA system, Reekes began lobbying the hardware team and the ROM team for better sound, but received unanimous opposition - "Oh, we can't change these sounds!"
▲ System 7. Image courtesy of YouTube @welcometomac
However, Reekes did not give up, but secretly found a well-connected engineer in charge of ROM, and replaced the original triplet sound with the original triplet sound that he had pre-completed on the Korg Wavestation in the home studio.
▲ Jim Reekes can play the mac's boot sound on a home instrument. Image courtesy of CNBC
At that time, the rest of the team was in a frenzy, but unfortunately could not take the risk of modification, and had to let it come out with the new computer.
▲ Macintosh Quadra 920. Image credit: Twitter @NanoRaptor
▲ Macintosh Quadra 1400. Image credit: Twitter @NanoRaptor
Byte Magazine was still around at the time, and they covered the new Macintosh, and I loved this article because it was the highest review of the new Macintosh, which opened with "I know it's a good machine, it sounds like it sounds," and I felt really great.
——Jim Reekes
And, it turns out that Reekes was right. After Jobs returned to Apple, he claimed to have the coolest boot sound, and every new Mac computer since then has actually used the reekes designed boot sound.
▲ Jobs. Image credit: iMore
This still classic boot sound is inspired by "Zen", which is in line with Apple's design philosophy. Reekes hopes that this sound effect can clear up people's emotions, especially the negative emotions when the computer crashes and is forced to restart.
▲ Image courtesy of Giphy
Interestingly, Reekes, who was always worried about being sued by the Beatles, chose the final chord of the Beatles' famous song A Day In The Life as inspiration to create this C major chord with a variety of timbres and rich stereo sound as apple boot sound.
▲ Album cover of the Beatles' famous song A Day In The Life. Image credit: Distorsioni
So when I designed the sound, I was thinking – you know you hear this sound every time the computer crashes, so every time it crashes, you restart the computer, you hear the sound, so it can quickly get really annoying and only be associated with this terrible thing, for example, my God, I lost all my data, damn Mac and so on. So, I don't want to be associated with it, I have to think of "Zen."
Today, however, Mac computers are turned on silent by default. Reekes likens it to when a customer enters a restaurant without being greeted at all—no waiter, much less a welcome voice.
Thankfully, the reekes designed sound is still built into every new Mac and can be invoked with a simple setup.
Interestingly, Reekes and Brian Eno, who turned on sound for Windows 95 system design, met each other. Before Brain was asked to design sound, they had a discussion about boot sound.
▲ Sounded the Windows 95 interface with boot sound effects designed by Brian Eno. Image courtesy of The Industry Observer
Sosumi sound that rivals the easter egg at the end of the film
Sosumi is a tone introduced by Reekes in 1991 for the Macintosh System 7 operating system. In the beginning, Sosumi was named Chime (meaning "bell") by Reekes, but was strongly opposed by the legal team, a name that was suspected of creating music.
The team of lawyers even brought in influential executives to pressure Reekes to make it clear that he could not use Chime. This made Reekes angry and troubled, and he even started by saying it might as well be called Let It Beep ("let it beep" and a pun on Let It Be).
▲ Jim Reekes (Beat in the subtitle should actually be Beep). Image courtesy of YouTube @welcometomac
Of course, the team members told him that this would not pass, and after some thought, Sosumi, who was deliberately spelled out by Reekes as a Japanese word, successfully passed the legal team. During this process, Reekes didn't tell the lawyer what the word pronounced, because it reads like So Shoot Me (then sue me).
▲ Jim Reekes. Image courtesy of YouTube @welcometomac
Sosumi is not only suspected of infringement of the name, the real source behind it, the xylophone, makes the design of this sound effect solidly associated with the music, which is the key to breaking the agreement with the Phi Fighter.
▲ Xylophone. Image courtesy of Music Industry How To
At the WWDC 2017 Designing Sounds course, Hugo Verweij, a leader in Apple's sound design team, invited a xylophone to perform the recording process of Sosumi sound. This was followed by an African instrument, the Finger Organ (Kalimba), which, with a gentle flick, made a calendar tone that we are very familiar with.
Before the demonstration, Hugo said something: "Although in history, sound has never been played live on stage. Really, no one thought about that. But today is a special day. Ladies and gentlemen, this is the first time in history that this sound effect has been played since iOS 7 was introduced."
A click from a beloved Canon camera ."
The moment you take a picture with your iPhone or iPad, or press Cmd+Shift+3 on your Mac computer to take a screenshot, the clicking sound is also Reekes' proud work.
Jim Reekes in the iPhone camera. Image courtesy of Apple Insider
It comes from the 1970s Canon camera AE-1 that Reekes purchased in high school. He recorded the shutter sound and "customized" the sound by repeatedly adjusting the shutter speed.
▲ Canon AE-1. Image credit: Lomography
Whenever you take pictures with your iPhone, it feels like you're using my camera, and that scares me. Because to this day, when I hear people take pictures with their iPhones, I want to see who "stole" my camera.
Also in a WWDC 2017 course, Hugo Verweij dissected UI sound effects — "So UI sounds are sounds like keyboard sounds, scroll sounds, pressing buttons, clicking, sliding, or any type of transition." At the course site, Hugo specially explained Apple's keyboard sounds.
Designing Sounds course at WWDC 2017
Even if the keyboard tone was originally designed, there was a special recording of the sound of an old-fashioned typewriter, but when the old-fashioned typewriter hits the keyboard, the sound emitted by each key is the same, and when we type for a long time, this sound will become an irritating noise.
Thus, the sound engineer retains a part of the sound of the letters that appear on the paper, and through the simulation of actual typing habits, gives the keyboard tone a changeable character, rather than a dead, immutable setting.
For example, the sound of some keys on Apple keyboards has been secretly adjusted by sound engineers, such as the space bar and the backspace key. Therefore, when we hit the Apple keyboard, we will hear a melodic sound. Even when we type faster, the volume of the sound effect quietly decreases.
Reekes collected various sounds from daily life, colleagues and friends, and various musical instruments, and finally made these sounds in the Apple system, in addition to these wonderful stories behind them, from a design point of view, what is the good? Hugo's statement at WWDC gave the answer.
We use this notification sound for messages. Why does this work well for messages? We have to think, when will people hear this voice and what will they do? They put their phones in the pockets of their jackets. Maybe they're on busy city streets or airports. So we have to eliminate the noise in these locations. It needs to be very clean and simple.
But it's also important that we really don't want to convey the message you're sending. It's very different from Dark Sky's notifications and can mean just one thing – it's going to rain. In this case, it can mean anything, anything you send with it. So, we also want it to be very neutral.
—Hugo Verweij (leader of Apple's sound design team)
Our impression of a brand, or the impression that the brand wants to give to the user, is gradually deepened by the complete experience of the fusion of what we feel, see and hear. The importance of sound effects cannot be ignored because of the presence of the mute key. The sense of auditory experience given by sound effects is also something that must be considered in product design and even brand building, and put yourself in the user's shoes.