Project: Windows Startup Sounds, Slowed 4000% (2015)

Written on 24th August 2015

It is twenty years since the birth of Windows 95, released to the world on August 24, 1995. With the widening availability of SoundBlaster sound cards in the mid-90s, the sonic experience of the operating system became a key issue for the first time. Microsoft acknowledged this by commissioning Brian Eno to compose a short signature sound for Windows 95, which later became known as "The Microsoft Sound".

The brief was to evoke a utopian sense of optimism and futurism, resonating with Microsoft's vision of Windows 95 as the OS of the future. Eno describes the experience as “like making a tiny little jewel”.

In homage, I've made a series of extended edits that hold a microscope up to these jewel-like sounds. Six Windows startup tones, from 95 to Vista, are slowed to 4000% of their original speed, transforming each into an ambient piece of several minutes' duration, and amplifying the internal structures of these iconic, dream-like sounds.

More information

• Read more about the sound designers responsible for these startup sounds (Create Digital Music)
• Download the collection (.zip, 57.4MB)
• SoundCloud: Six Windows Startup Sounds, Slowed 4000%