Making Windows Vista Sing: Robert Fripp and the Vista Melody
- Posted: Mar 02, 2007 at 1:06 PM
- 54,345 Views
- 22 Comments
On May 4th, 2006, Steve Ball invited
Robert Fripp back to the Microsoft campus for a second full day of work on Windows Vista following up on his
first visit in the Fall of 2005. This time we get an even deeper glimpse into the creative process as the Windows Product team continued to refine their search for melodies, rhythms,
and orchestrations that could become the new Windows Vista startup sound.
Before the session, Steve Ball, Jenny Lam, and Jim Allchin gave Fripp a demo of the most recent Windows Vista builds and reviewed the goals for the product and the sound. The purpose of this session was to search for textures, melodies, and orchestrations for a sound that could
a) brand Windows in a timeless way
b) ‘work’ with the Pearl Animation
c) be gentle, positive, uplifting, translucent
d) embody the AERO design principles
This 63 minute Vista Week video begins mid-stream with some
extremely rare footage of Fripp
Soundscapes being created in real time. This is followed by Q&A from the Windows product team members in the Soundscapes audience, an overview of Fripp’s gear, and some details about the recording equipment used at Microsoft
Studios. This is then followed with another rare and intimate interview with Fripp and members of the core team working on Windows Vista UX.
This single session resulted in over six hours of multi-channel raw tracks including hundreds of melodies, textures, soundscapes, and orchestrations. After this session, it took another three months of orchestration, iteration, remixing
and refinement to select the final four seconds that became the final Windows Vista startup sound: a “glassy” Fripp melody, a harmony by Steve Ball, and a “Win-dows Vis-ta” rhythm contributed by composer, Tucker Martine. This
all on top of a brief Fripp Soundscape that fades out as the user lands on the Windows Vista log-on screen. The flowing Soundscape ‘textures’ from the session also inspired the sonic palette that was used for the default Windows Vista sound
scheme.
Like the previous Fripp video, this is a very different kind of Channel 9 video. Fripp talks candidly with us about music, his approach to creativity, making music for Windows Vista, shares his thoughts on Vista, and much more.
About Robert Fripp: for close to forty years, Robert Fripp has been a world-renowned pioneer driving innovation in both music and technology. For more details about his history and recent work, check out
Fripp's web site!
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I never realized how much Jenny and Tjeerd where involved in the audio part of the UX.
I'd love to see what kind of sounds the members of Mùm would create for an OS.
Steve Ball is a calm reflective person, in a marketing type person kinda way. He's a bit too "slick" for C9 videos
You can think of sounds in Vista as sonic UE, so you better believe Jenny and Tjeerd would be involved (and Jim Allchin, Steve Ball and many others...)
Steve is not in Marketing. He's a product guy and runs the Vista audio team... He's also a great musician and long time friend of Fripp.
C
Theres a scoble interview in it. Is he back to C9, or?
This was shot in May '06...
C
Oh i see.
Whats the reason for not pushing this video out before now?
We couldn't release until after Vista shipped... This is a historical video that is as pertinent now and into the future as it was when it was shot... Of course, there's the fact that Scoble lost the original source tape so finding this footage (he managed to rip a low quality WMV - the one you're watching- from the tape and store it on an obscure share) was both lucky and surprising
C
There is NO Vista audio experience.
The various system sounds are much too short & too generic (all applications share the same sounds) to be emotional. The much talked-about start-up sound, while interesting, doesn't make enough of an appearance to be noticed. I don't reboot my computers anymore. I simply close my laptop, causing it to go to sleep, to be awaken (not rebooted) later.
I think that an audio experience was planned, but it can only come from the applications themselves (the shows), not the O/S (NBC). I'm guessing that it got cut so that Vista can make its release date.
I'm hopping to see all the hard work seen here makes it into the next version of Windows, Vienna.
I know what you're saying, Minh - but it is better than the alternative.
Brian
Sadly i agree.
I didnt notice any sounds before i heard this sound when theres an error, which got really annoying.
Such a shame. I really liked the sound in this video.
I saw that video a year ago, was it pulled?
Is that Don Box in the public?
This second video was never posted and 'pulled' as suggested above.
And yes, that's Don Box among a number of other people from across Windows and Microsoft product teams who I invited over to give Robert Fripp an audience of listeners to play to for during these sessions.
The presence of an audience for part of the day, among other things, helped us keep the energy up during the session.
* * *
This is a great revelation into one particular aspect of Vista that I find inspirational. I get to see the people who try to put "soul" into Vista. But the thing about the Vista audio experience is...
There is NO Vista audio experience."
Thanks Minh - this is actually by design.
It was our goal for the default inbox sounds to be just noticeable enough that if they weren’t there you would notice, but when you do hear them, they don’t get in your way.
Like the the rest of the AERO interface, then new sounds in Windows Vista are glassy, ”rounded” and “translucent.” The default sound scheme in Windows Vista is much gentler and softer than the more literal pianos and orchestral sounds used in previous versions of Windows.
We also tried to get some of these beautiful Fripp soundscapes into the product in other places, but it was too late in the produt cycle to add sonic content so, for example, you could listen to a soothing Soundscape during the install or upgrade process. In the end, shipping Vista on time was (obviously) the more important goal.
This also does not mean that we don't have aspirations to do something significant with the additional music and sounds from these sessions in future releases.
* * *
I can understand the need not to create the most homogenised lowest common denominator sound, but that doesn't mean leaving everyone with a single soundscape.
Couldn't the same sounds be recorded in a slightly different set of instruments / styles just to give a bit of leeway for users to customise their experience? e.g. using the same micro-compositions throughout, but giving people 2 or 3 versions of each sound using different instruments.
It does appear to me that Vista's veered too close to the apple "one-size-damn-well-better-fit-all" approach. Strong branding's alright, but I'd like a few more knobs to fiddle with (all around the UX, not just on the sounds front.)
You don't appear to have answered the Personalisation vs. Branding question.
I can understand the need not to create the most homogenised lowest common denominator sound, but that doesn't mean leaving everyone with a single soundscape.
Couldn't the same sounds be recorded in a slightly different set of instruments / styles just to give a bit of leeway for users to customise their experience? e.g. using the same micro-compositions throughout, but giving people 2 or 3 versions of each sound using different instruments.
It does appear to me that Vista's veered too close to the apple "one-size-damn-well-better-fit-all" approach. Strong branding's alright, but I'd like a few more knobs to fiddle with (all around the UX, not just on the sounds front.)"
Good observation, Massif -- we wanted to provide additional inbox Sound Schemes besides the default set, but in the end, that plan did not fit into ship schedule. Of course, it is still relatively easy for users who really wish to create their own Personalized sound schemes using their own sounds.
In our original Sound Scheme plan, recommended that we ship a 'minimalist' scheme, a 'home' scheme a 'Fripp' scheme, and a 'Classic XP' scheme along side the default Windows Vista sound scheme -- although these sounds and sound schemes exist, it was not considered to a priority to get these inbox relative to the very hard task of sticking to the RTM date.
So these remain an available aspiration for future releases.
Also, I would not necessarily characterize the default sounds we chose as 'homogenised lowest common denominator.' IMHO, 'lowest common denominator' would be silence. As I've mentioned elsewhere, the primary driving influence for the design of the default sounds was to offer a subtle compliment the translucent, rounded, AERO glass UI.
I hope this helps provide some context for this default sound UX (and I also hope that we'll find an appropriate ship vehicle for some of the other great stuff we captured in these sessions.)
* * *
Fair enough, you don't have infinite resources.
Absolutely, I wasn't trying to imply that you had created a lowest common denominator soundscape. In fact I really like the Vista sounds (if only the speakers on my tablet worked. sigh...) I apologise if that appeared to be what I was saying.
Now how do you plan to get it on your iPod?
I know you can download and convert... however, that just takes insanely long
And even more so when it comes to something as ethereal as audio.
Just face it, you'll never see a glowing Vista decal on the back of a laptop
- an excellent window into a very interesting process. I am an owner of Vista and have been enjoying much of the experience, most notably the UX.
.
It is fascinating between the two videos - at least from my chair it seems to have evolved from something I would describe as precarious but hopefull into a healthy, workable creative process.
It seems you have beaten the two year mark in at least building your internal audience.
- one brief but significant correction if I may - designing "chairs" and "car washers (was it?)" is anything but trivial
Anyway, nice work on the O/S and the video.
paul
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