Wild Eep … Sosumi…Moof ... Chutoy … If these names conjure up happy harmonic memories, you’ve been a Mac user for a long time.

Start Up and Chimes of Death sounds over the years.

Apple’s computers weren’t always auditory delights. The very first Mac, the 128K released in January 1984, started up with a somewhat maddening beep reminiscent of the backing-up warning sound made by some big trucks. It took a few years for Apple to add interesting noises to their machines; the Mac SE/30, released in January 1989, booted with a cheery three note sound and included a wonderfully creepy noise -- The Chimes Of Death -- which the machine would emit when it was very upset. Accompanied by a black screen emblazoned with a picture of seriously sick looking Mac, it definitely was an attention-getter. The Chimes of Death got even more gothic in later versions, perfectly expressing the angst of a major technical problem. Over the years Apple’s other warning sounds included the Performa’s squealing-brakes-breaking-glass crescendo and the Quadra AV’s peculiar little bongo drum riff.

The Mac startup sound changed to a more impressive sustained C Major chord (the sound heard in the movie Jurassic Park when all the park’s computers were rebooted) on the 1991 Quadra 700, compliments of Jim Reekes, the engineer on Apple Sound Manager for System 7. In a May 2005 interview with MusicThing Reekes talked about how he created the sound on his home studio on a Korg Wavestation. “(It’s) played with both hands stretched out as wide as possible (with 3rd at the top, if I recall). This just sounded right to me. I wanted something really fat, heavy bass, high notes, and a sharp attack. The chiffy sound was from pan pipes and something like a stick hit (I'm testing my memory here). I wanted lots of evolving timbres, stereo phasing, and reverb for further richness."

Reekes also created “Sosumi,” a one-note alert sound that sounds like a piano plunk to some people and a xylophone to others. The story behind the name is way more interesting than the actual sound. Due to a trademark agreement with Apple Corps (owned by the Beatles), Apple Computers wasn’t allowed to enter the music business in any way, shape or form. Apple Corps was less than thrilled by System 7’s Sound Manager application, and concessions had to be made which included changing some of the included sounds’ names to less-musical monikers. Among the sounds slated for change was the Beep that became Sosumi. Reekes had wanted to name it “Chimes,” which was apparently too musical for legal comfort, so in a fit of pique brought on by long hours and too many last minute changes he suggested it be called “Let It Beep.” When that suggestion was taken seriously he responded “So sue me!” He then had an aha moment, changed the spelling to “Sosumi,” and it’s been a happy little inside (albeit widely known) joke for decades.

Some of Apple’s other earliest alert sounds also have cool background dossiers. “Moof,” for example, is the sound made by Clarus the Dogcow, a creation of Susan Kare who also designed many the Mac’s early user interface elements. Dogcow was originally a dingbat for the Cairo font, later the image was used as an icon in the printer page setup dialog box. Clarus the Dogcow became wildly popular among geeks (back in the day there were t-shirts, and buttons, and bumper stickers and even a Microsoft ad featuring the Dogcow image). And according to the infamous “Tech Note 31” Clarus even has two sidekicks; "Moofo, The Psychic Dogcow” and  'Lackey, The Obnoxious Talisman Dogcow.” The “Moof” sound made by these rare beasts was included in System 7.

Another legendry beast sound, the “Wild Eep,” was contributed by Apple developer group head C.K. Haun and was a sound made by his then-wife Lora Ray Medina, according to an entry in WikiMac. Haun commented for the WikiMac piece that “for years I was pestered by hearing her going "Eep!" at me from hundreds of computers on the Apple campus.”

If all of this has gotten you into an emo mood of longing for the sounds of Macs long gone, you can download a free collection of Apple’s greatest hits, all nicely formatted for OS X -- yes, your new Mac can quack, clink-clank, uh-oh, squeak, chainsaw and cheep just as happily as it did a decade ago. And if you want to hear every single one of the Mac startup and death chime sounds ever, download the obsessively wonderful MacTracker program, which offers detailed information on every Apple Macintosh computer ever made, including clips of their start up and death chime sounds.

If you miss the old System Sounds or you feel like rolling your own, check out our tutorial on adding new alerts to your OS X Leopard System.