Check out some fun stories from the creator of Mac start sounds and iPhone camera

We understand that there is a very large team behind the success of Apple's products and services. But the company is so big that, perhaps, the geniuses who work hard daily end up being forgotten or not even noticed.

This is the case for Jim Reekes, the audio designer responsible for several sounds for Ma's systems, who CNBC curious and funny cases about the creation of some of these touches.

Jim Reekes, creator of early Mac sounds and iPhone camera

You may not know it, but Apple is the record label for Beatles which today is called Apple Records and started its activities in 1968, as a division of Apple Corps Ltd., founded by the band has had some legal battles for their names. It all turned upside down after Steve Jobs entered into an agreement stating that the company would not get involved with music but it ended up happening, and Apple was sued.

As part of the process, one of Reekes' tasks was to rename several sound effects that had musical names. One ringtone, for example, was originally called "Xylophone". He told in the interview for CNBC what I really wanted was to name him "Let it Beep" (“Let Play”, in free translation), which made a Beatles music reference "Let It Be". However, if he did that, surely the band's label would sue the company for genius and pity, Reekes named the ringtone "Sosumi", which purposely looks like just a random Japanese word (so it went unnoticed), but was actually a play on words with the phrase "So, sue me" (“So, sue me”) a very fun and smart solution.

Mac touch sosumi sound

But you've certainly heard other Reekes sounds without even knowing it. He created the macOS start sound, as well as the iPhone camera (the same as when you take a screenshot on macOS).

Regarding the opening sound, Reekes said it was just a major D chord and was accepted. However, he irritated him “immensely”, since it was always the noise that was heard when there was a problem (and at that time it happened constantly) and he needed to restart the computer.

Even without permission, Reekes managed to find a way with the help of some people on the team and changed the sound to what we know today, which is much more "zen" than the squeak of earlier. Believe it or not, he was also inspired by the Beatles, the last chord played in the song “A Day in the Life”. In the end, it was only the "silly" C-major chord that became famous worldwide, and today even registered.

Reekes, who is no longer in the business, commented that he has not heard many interesting audio from Apple today. Incidentally, on the latest Macs, the iconic start sound has been removed, much to Reekes' sadness. But one of his creations is still “alive” and he often hears it: as he said, the sound made when the iPhone camera fired was created from his Canon AE-1 camera, a device from the 1970s. He says it is still strange to hear this over and over again, as it always looks like the same old camera.

His history with Ma ended just before the dot-com bubble in the late 1990s. With a playful but clearly repentant tone, he says that “unfortunately, my time was very bad. I moved away from tens of thousands of Apple options, which would have earned me probably eight million dollars today, if I had kept them. ”

Check out the relaxed interview, in full, above.

via 9to5Mac