Popular Science has published an excerpt from What the Ear Hears (and Doesn’t): Inside the Extraordinary Everyday World of Frequency by Richard Mainwaring that explains why Apple’s Mac chime is off key.
Because of an internationally standardized allocation of named pitches to set frequencies, we have jettisoned the vast majority of other frequencies into musical oblivion (in Western music at least). With this in mind, I’ve held on to an unproved theory: that one global tech giant has exploited our unfamiliarity with such long-forgotten frequencies in order to create an instantly recognizable aural logo for its brand.
The company is Apple, and the genius aural logo is the start-up chime of an Apple Mac computer. It has a strikingly unique sound that most of us instantly recognize, though few can explain why… I was therefore excited to have the chance to interview the composer of the chimes, Jim Reekes.
MacDailyNews Take: Turns out that the off key Mac chime wasn’t intentional. It was the result of non-musician Apple engineers and sample rate changes.
Read more in the full article – recommended – here.
See also:
• Why the return of the Mac’s startup chime is a big deal – December 4, 2020
• macOS 11 Big Sur resurrects the Mac startup chime – June 23, 2020
• RIP Mac startup chime – June 8, 2018
• How to reinstate the Mac’s classic boot chime on Apple’s new MacBook Pro – October 31, 2016
• Apple axes iconic Mac startup chime from new MacBook Pros – October 31, 2016
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I still hear the Apple ][ boot beep used in movies and TV frequently.
The Mac startup chime used to mean something. The chime’s note combination didn’t happen all at once if the Power On Self Test (POST) failed for specific reasons. Upon a POST failure the notes played in a specific order. That order gave direct indication of what failed on POST. This lead to the ability to diagnose problems even if you could not start up your Mac. The order of the notes save me countless hours diagnosing problems in a number of Macs over the years.
It makes me wonder if that is still true today. Does the startup chime still give specific note orders for POST issues? I have not heard anything other than the full chime since the switch from PowerPC to Intel processors years ago.
I miss the chime. It reminds you are on a Mac. Not only the people that heard the chime it told them you’re using a Mac instead that beep that comes from a PC.
You can turn the chime back on again, thankfully, if you want it.
Some commenters here are sometimes a little off key, too 😂🤣