The sound of Vista

I’ve been following some of Robert Scoble’s postings in the past six months regarding the start-up sound of Vista, so I was quite pleased to actually get to hear it on MSNBC.com today.

It isn’t what I expected, but I actually like the start-up sound - it sounds fresh, perky, almost like a “new day”. I do agree with Scoble, though: I’d love to choose between all the other clips that Robert Fripp generated, and put on a cool jazzy or rocking startup sound on one day. What do you think of the new start up sound?

From MSNBC:

The short startup clip that was eventually chosen is meant to evoke the rhythm of the words “Win-dows Vis-ta!” and Ball hopes the sound will serve as a calling card for the operating system. It also consists of four chords — one for every color in the new Windows graphic that appears as the sound plays. It’s no coincidence that it’s also four seconds long.

There are a total of 45 Vista sounds that Microsoft has spent the last year and a half perfecting, including the dings you hear when you get a new e-mail, receive an error message, or log off your computer. Generally, these are more muted, less jarring variations of the prompts familiar to Windows XP users.