Augment Windows Vista's sounds

by Greg Shultz | Mar 14, 2007 5:59:00 PM

Tags: Microsoft Windows Vista (Longhorn), Operating systems, Greg Shultz, Microsoft Windows, Microsoft Windows Vista, Robert Fripp, WAV-file

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Takeaway: Some of the cooler Aero visual effects (most notably, those for minimizing and maximizing windows) are missing corresponding sound effects. Here's how to add them.

In the past couple of months, I've grown to really like the Windows Vista sound effects. In this blog entry, Jim Allchin says that Windows Vista's sound effects were overhauled to "complement and blend with the softer, cleaner Windows." The problem was that some of the cooler Aero visual effects (most notably, those for minimizing and maximizing windows) are missing corresponding sound effects. (Vista does include a minimize sound effect, but it's not set up by default.) It would also be nice to have sound effects associated with the movements of cycling through applications via Live Taskbar and Flip3D.

While I�ve discovered that there doesn�t appear to be a straightforward method of adding sound effects to Live Taskbar and Flip3D, I have discovered a way to create and add Fripp-based sound effects to the minimize, maximize, and other events in Windows Vista. Let�s take a look.

A little background

As you may know, Robert Fripp, from the 70's rock group King Crimson, recorded the music for the Windows Vista operating system soundtrack. In the late 70�s, Fripp developed a musical technique, dubbed Frippertronics. The technique involved playing an electric guitar, and recording the sound with a specially configured audio tape system consisting of two reel-to-reel tape recorders situated side-by-side. This created a very interesting delay sound effect. In the 90�s Fripp used digital technology to update this recording technique and rechristened it Soundscapes. You can actually see and listen to Fripp performing both Frippertronics (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=klnog_IKzTM) and Soundscapes (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WBm9gRYA1Ps) in separate videos on YouTube. And here's a cool media file from Long Zheng that compares XP and Vista sounds.

Getting Fripp-based sound effects

Robert Fripp has recorded a number of albums using his technique including Radiophonics, A Blessing of Tears, That Which Passes, November Suite, and The Gates of Paradise. Each one of these albums includes what I would consider a plethora of great choices for Windows Vista sound effects. You can listen to samples from some of these albums on MP3.com (http://www.mp3.com/robert-fripp/artists/61360/songs.html).

In any case, you can get you hands on the many of these CDs at Amazon or possibly Best Buy.

Ripping to WAV file

As you know, all the sound effects files in Windows Vista are in a WAV format. Unfortunately, Window Media Play doesn�t rip CDs to WAV file format, so I had to look elsewhere. Fortunately, I tracked down a nice program called Smart CD Ripper from SmartSoft that would indeed rip songs from CDs and save them in WAV file format.

Since Smart CD Ripper doesn�t include Windows Vista in its list of supported operating system, I installed it on one of my Windows XP systems. This was fine, because for the second part of this operation I would need to use Windows XP�s Sound Recorder anyway.

In any case, ripping the tracks with Smart CD Ripper was a quick and painless operation. I now had some of Robert Fripp�sSoundscape music in a file format that I could work with for creating sound effects for Windows Vista.

Editing the WAV file

As I mentioned, in order to complete the second part of this operation, you'll need to use Windows XP�s Sound Recorder. This is because Windows Vista�s Sound Recorder no longer provides you with the same type of sound-editing features that are found in Windows XP�s Sound Recorder. Let's take a look at how you go about editing the WAV files on Sound Recorder

Once you have a set of WAV files saved on your hard drive, you�re ready to begin isolating your sound effects that you want to use in Windows Vista. To begin, load one of your WAV files and play it back several times. As you do, listen for small segments that you think will make interesting sound effects. At the same time, keep an eye on the Position counter, shown in Figure A, and take note of the starting value of the interesting sound segment.

Figure A

To find the exact position of the beginning of the sound segment, keep an eye on the Position counter.

To help you isolate the sound you want, you can click the Play button and move the slider back and forth until you pinpoint the starting position. You can also click the Play button and move the slider back and forth with the arrow keys. When you do, you�ll move the slider in tenths of a second. If you hold down [Ctrl] and press the arrow keys, you�ll move the slider in hundredths of a second.

After you find the beginning position of the sound segment that you want, click the Stop button and move the slider to that position. Now, pull down the Edit menu and select the Delete Before Current Position command. Then, click the Play button and make sure that you have the beginning of the sound that you want. If you don�t, you can undo the deletion with the Revert command on the File menu.

Once you have the beginning of the sound segment, locate the end position, move the slider to that position, pull down the Edit menu, and select the Delete After Current Position command.

Then, click the Play button and make sure that you have the sound that you want. If you do, you can save your file by pulling down the File menu and clicking the Save button.

Keep in mind that you want the sound effect to be short for most events. For example, the sound effects that I created for the Minimize and Maximize as well as the Restore Up and Restore Down sound events were no longer than .50 seconds long.

If you want, you can use some of Sound Recorder�s Effects to alter the file. For example, on the Effects menu you'll find commands that allow you to increase and decrease the volume, increase and decrease the speed, add an echo, or even reverse the sound effect.

Once, you�re satisfied with the sound effect and save it, you can access the Sounds tool in the Control Panel and assign the sound effect to the event you want, such as minimize and maximize. As soon as you click OK, the new sound effect will be operational.

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