Maui Update

Morning: Plugging back in briefly to lighten the load of re-entry next week. Wow – some significant signal buried within giagundius noise in my inbox.

Still ignoring most of it until next week.

Looks like my PopTech pal, Linda T, now has the Fast Company story up online. Amazing to see another hour-long interview condensed down to a few paragraphs. Also, interesting (again) to witness how a telephone interview is guaranteed to drop and or twist some of the intended meaning. The telephone game rings true again. But nice job capturing the spirit of this process, Linda!

Also, famous Windows teammate and Volume Mixer infrastructure developer LarryO sent heads up about a thread brewing at I Started Something.

Some semi-interesting speculation and comparison between Windows Vista and Ubuntu sounds. From Long's blog:

"Projects like Firefox and Ubuntu can deliver quality software for fractions of the development time, cost and resources compared with what companies like Microsoft spend. Thousands of people work on Windows, but it takes only somewhat 250 Ubuntu freelance contributors to come up with a solution I would consider as an alternative (if it is a sin in your religion to use Windows).

So I went on a hunt to find out exactly how many people work on the Ubuntu startup sound, and to my surprise, there was only one. User Pete Savage is the sole contributor and composer to the “UbuntuSounds” project which is currently deciding on the new sound scheme for the next release of Ubuntu.

So far, it took just under a month for Pete to come up with 11 different samples which other users are providing feedback on what they like and don’t like about each sample. Most of them are unique and pretty good, however a bit long for my likings."

How deceptively misleading to assume the task to creating a unique global brand sound for something like Windows could ever be 'simple.' The final four-note glassy melodies may seem simple, but the process to get to the final sound was non-trivial and complex for very good reasons.

On the other hand, it’s equally misleading to describe the Windows Vista sound project as ‘huge’ or some sort of over-blown, committee-driven process a few have suggested in various blogs.

Yes, the process included contributions from ~ten world-class musicians and sound designers who collectively delivered over two thousand candidates, orchestrations, and iterations. And yes, there was a diverse team involved in the process as should be expected when working to develop a brand for a global product like Windows.

Perhaps later this year, CharlesT will come visit again and we can share the rest of the fascinating story behind this allegedly 'simple' process.

BTW, the second Fripp Channel 9 video captured last May at MS Studios should be going live any day now. This second video is almost an hour long, includes some interview material as well as live studio improvisations – it also fills in some considerable details about the process while making the first Ch9 video seem like a short, dark teaser.

But now, back to complete my regularly scheduled bliss-out vacation.

Back next week!

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Comments

[Long Zheng]

Hey Steve, I'm glad you commented on the topic. It's always good to see an inside opinion. But shame about your hour-long interview cut down to nothing. :(

Anyway, I wanted to clarify what I meant. By "fundamentally simple", I didn't mean in any way "oh how easy it is to create a brand sound". What I meant was, "four notes". I understand how much you guys had to go through for picking those four notes, but in the end, it was as "simple" as four notes. I hope you catch my drift.

Although that wasn't what I wanted to focus on. It was a long and hard process to pick what I think is a great melody, but is it "worth it"? Everyone's time and efforts don't come cheap, so how much did it 'cost' not only in terms of monetary value, but also opportunity cost. What could have been done better instead?

Enjoy your vacation :)