How I Created the Iconic iPhone Sound: The History of the "Boo-Dah-Ling"
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Back some time in 1998, a friend I used to work with named Jeff Robbin approached me about a project he and Bill Kincaid were working on, which was called DAS at the time... but would eventually become SoundJam (and then SoundJam MP), and would then eventually become iTunes (once Apple bought it). At the time, in my usual myopia, I thought "who the hell would want a Mac version of WinAmp?!?", silly me.... At some point, Jeff and I were chatting about his disc burning feature, and he said he needed some way to inform the user that the burn was done. DAS being a sound-making app, he wanted a sound to alert the user, something simple. Since I'm a hobbiest musician, and had a recording setup, I told him I'd tinker around and see if I could some up with something.
I'll be honest fellas, it was sounding great. But... I could've used a little more marimba.