The Mac startup chime was created by Apple sound designer Jim Reekes for the Macintosh Quadra line in the early 1990s, voiced as a bright F major chord inspired by the final chord of The Beatles' A Day in the Life. Different Mac models used variants for years until newer machines quietened or dropped it, which only made recordings more nostalgic online. Editors now reuse it in memes and tech videos, sometimes layered after a ding sound effect, to signal a system, idea, or person coming back to life.
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The Mac startup chime that plays when an Apple computer boots up, used in videos and memes as a nostalgic sound effect for a system turning on or waking up.
This is the warm, resonant chord that has greeted Mac users at boot for decades, recreated here in a version that may differ slightly from the original hardware recording. It starts clean and bright, holds as a single major chime, then fades smoothly, giving it an instantly recognisable sense of arrival and readiness. Unlike a harsh beep or alarm, it feels calm and optimistic, which is why listeners associate it with a fresh start, a computer waking up, or a brain finally switching on after sleep.
