Rocker Todd Rundgren Created Smart Phone Sounds In 1993. Watch Him At Work
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- Опубликовано: 20 дек 2022
- Back in 1993, I was on the management team of an incredible silicon valley startup called General Magic that was inventing the first smart phone. Among the execs were Bill Atkinson and Andy Herzfeld, the two guys who built the Mac. They had left Apple to lead this new company to success. Based in Mountain View, California, the company developed precursors to "USB, software modems, small touch screens, touchscreen controller ICs, ASICs, multimedia email, networked games, streaming TV, and early e-commerce notions."
One of my jobs was to record stories of what was happening as we all felt that our company would become the Google or Apple of the mid 1990s.
As I walked the halls, I saw singer-songwriter Todd Rundgren working with magician (as they called the engineers) Dan Winkler to create the first cell phone sound effects, which is what he is doing in this scene. You can search many videos on my RUclips channel regarding General Magic. Although the company failed (another story) some of the sounds Todd Rundgren created are still in use today.
If you find this video of Todd worth watching, I would appreciate your clicking the Super Thanks button below the video screen to the right. Your support gives me the freedom to keep on presenting clips from my archive.
Todd Rundgren is an American multi-instrumentalist, singer, songwriter, and record producer who has performed a diverse range of styles as a solo artist and as a member of the band Utopia. He is known for his sophisticated and often unorthodox music, his occasionally lavish stage shows, and his later experiments with interactive entertainment. He also produced music videos and was an early adopter and promoter of various computer technologies, such as using the Internet as a means of music distribution in the late 1990s.
A native of Philadelphia, Rundgren began his professional career in the mid 1960s, forming the psychedelic band Nazz in 1967. After departing Nazz, the 21-year-old Rundgren briefly considered working as a computer programmer, and then decided that his calling was as a producer. Two years later, he also pursued a solo career and immediately scored his first US top 40 hit with "We Gotta Get You a Woman" (1970). His best-known songs include "Hello It's Me" and "I Saw the Light" from Something/Anything? (1972), which get frequent air time on classic rock radio stations, and the 1983 single "Bang the Drum All Day", which is featured in many sports arenas, commercials, and movie trailers. Although lesser known, "Couldn't I Just Tell You" (1972) was influential to many artists in the power pop genre. His 1973 album A Wizard, a True Star remains an influence on later generations of bedroom musicians.
Rundgren is considered a pioneer in the fields of electronic music, progressive rock, music videos, computer software, and Internet music delivery.[4] He organized the first interactive television concert in 1978, designed the first color graphics tablet in 1980, and created the first interactive album, No World Order, in 1994. Additionally, he was one of the first acts to be prominent as both an artist and producer.[3] His notable production credits include Badfinger's Straight Up (1971), Grand Funk Railroad's We're an American Band (1973), the New York Dolls' New York Dolls (1973), Meat Loaf's Bat Out of Hell (1977), and XTC's Skylarking (1986). He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2021, though he declined to attend the ceremony.
Space Force, Todd Rundgren’s latest album, is yet another example of creative contrariness: a cross-genre, cross-generational collaborative record that sees him tackling abandoned tracks from the careers of such artists as the Roots and the Lemon Twigs as well as new collaborations with the likes of Sparks.
Todd Rundgren recently said: “For a musician, things haven’t changed too much: Make music on your laptop and distribute it on the net, and build up and audience that will show up live or pay for a stream. It’s hard to monetize the recordings themselves, unless you land a commercial, which is why you have to design your own shoes or smell.” 
Развлечения
Here is what happened when early adopters began to use this technology - ruclips.net/video/zYmROxNjBTY/видео.html
One fascinating thing is that Todd's band _Utopia,_ could have doubled as a technology startup. Todd was doing this sort of stuff, but his keyboard player Roger Powell created one of the first MIDI sequencers, _Texture,_ and went on to become a software developer for _SGI_ and _Waveframe_ and was one of the principal developers of _Final Cut Pro._ Utopia's drummer, Willie Wilcox, is also a developer, creating software for _Bally._
thats because of todds musical background.
he had a different band before that kinda flopped, but he was very tech savy, which is why Warner Music picked him up.
He made one solo Album on their label, yet produced over 20, including some very well known rock songs.
he was a frontrunner on all that stuff, but as with most frontrunners, nobody remembers them.
I listened to “a wizard, a true star” forever ago and it became one of my favorite albums. Had no idea todd rundgren was so interesting!
Todd, was one of those guys who understood music as a listening experience as much as creative and he points that out here, you can have fun jamming along, but if no one wants to hear it, the potential to be heard is lost.
He's always been ahead of his time. An ex girlfriend of his said he told her in the 70's that one day computers would run our entire homes.
I read your comment and saw “was” and thought he passed away or something 😩 glad that isn’t the case
@@plaidpanda Todd predicted music streaming in 1978. This is a guy who was so far ahead of the curve that no one else could even see it: ruclips.net/video/nFql0eoIuZQ/видео.html
@@plaidpanda
A friend of mine when I was about 20 or so was Tom Verlaine’s twin brothrer, John. I knew Tom and John’s parents for decades. They really loved their kids. Miss both of them and my friend John, he turned me on to some really obscure bands.
Most of them now you can hear now.
Still is!!!
I found my love for Rundgren's music through That 70's Show, unknowingly though I already had a love for his music from the Dumb and Dumber soundtrack which I had watched previously as a child! The thought never occurred to me until I was watching my favorite show that I just had to know who did that song (Hello It's Me) which incidentally is my favorite song now, once I found the artist I went down a big rabbit hole and my love for his music has been growing ever since! I'm a youngin' so don't be so quick to judge me for my lack of knowledge in musical history!
You have, hands down the coolest collection of videos.
Good example, onomatopoeia... Todd's a wizard!
“People don’t like when the box talks back to you”
If only Amazon, Apple, and Google paid attention to the history of their products.
ruclips.net/video/lugeruSbnAE/видео.html
yeah but thats different tec he's talking about.
back then it was annoying, because you HAD TO let the electronic voice finish every painfully slow sentence, and then input super precise vocals during a very limited timeframe, like some very bad phone hotlines still have you do today.
an alexa, who i can interrupt whenever, and who understands even heavy dialect, disabled or drunk people - different story.
dont get me wrong, i dont have one and never will do. but the comparison is off.
He definitely saw into the future.
I've been a huge fan all of my life, since the early seventies when I would listen to my older sister's albums. I had the glorious fortune of meeting him at a show in the 1990's. Very cool and gracious guy. I believe he is legend. A great American artist.
Pretty much everywhere you look in the recent history of technology, you're going to find Todd popping up. The man is the Zelig of technology. He was involved in computer graphics right at the very beginning at the _New York Institute of Technology_ with Alvy Ray Smith who co-founded _Pixar,_ and created the first paint program (the _Utopia Graphics System_ in _Apple's_ first catalog) for a personal computer. He used his Meatloaf money to build a video studio, and among those things he had one of the first frame buffers to capture video stills. He tried to build the first music streaming service with Time Warner's _Qube_ test, but none of the giant record companies would allow their music to be put on a server - and a couple of years later _Napster_ ate their lunch.
Heck, he predicted streaming back in 1978!
ruclips.net/video/nFql0eoIuZQ/видео.html
I remember being delighted with a screen saver on the Mac (a deluxe Macintosh II with a color monitor) back in 1990 that he had a role in developing - flowfazer by Utopia Grokware 🙂
Great content here. Todd was a man ahead of his time. IMHO sounds are more important today than in 1993. Thank You Todd for your vision.
As a Todd fan, it's really interesting to see his other work that's not musical performance.
Something Anything is a timeless classic. This is fascinating. Visionary at work.
Major Todd Rundgren fan, never seen this before. Thanks for posting David, love the channel.
I low-key miss how computers used to sound in the early 90s
Why don't you emulate that sound? Everything is possible!
Fascinating. Todd was always at the cutting edge.
Wow, the quality of the footage looks really good. It's hard to believe this was filmed almost 30 years ago!
video equipment made a huge jump during the early internet times, together with the rise of memory space.
VHS sports footage from the 70s and the 2000s looks basically the same, but since roughly 2010, everything was recorded (and stored!) in HD.
It's film
I ADORE Todd Rundgren!! Very talented man❣️❤️🥰❤️❤️
This is a treasure. So are David!
He produced my favorite Tubes album, "Remote Control"
"Hello it's Me" 😎🎤 Todd was a smart dude even his music 🎶 says it all. Thanks for sharing this video of Todd, awesome he was back then.👍
Great song!
Wow. You were there for so many important events. This is something that changed our world forever!
I’m a longtime Todd and Utopia fan. Also, I am a User Experience Researcher (Human-Computer Interaction) by trade. What a delight of mixed pleasures and interests. Thank you!!!
So cool to see this. Very cool of you to bring this to us. Had no idea. Thank you
How cool. Sounds like the soundtrack to Onomatopoeia!
*David Hoffman Rocker Todd Rundgren (Magic sounds) appreciate your videos Listening 🌟 from Mass USA TYVM 💙 David*
He’s a VR pioneer too-around this time he had some sort of VR musical exhibit.
Nobody can deny, Todd truly was a genius.
Thanks!
Thank you Tekto.
David Hoffman Filmmaker
How AWESOME is this!! What a fun fact to find out now... Thank you David!! 💕🌷💕
I have Todd Hello it's me as my ringtone and a clip of his band Utopia'a Initiation as my sound for messages LOL
AMAZING - Thank you for sharing these great videos with us Mr. Hoffman
For some reason this reminds me of The Tubes album Love Bomb with it's "sounds" which I believe was produced by Todd.
Very cool! Imagine having a desk next to this guy in the office when you're trying to code, haha.
Amazing to see this! Thank you so much for posting!
Only the guy that wrote “Piss Aaron” could be such a genius
Very interesting video. Thank you for uploading.
This is news to me! Thank you David. ❤
Absolutely wonderful!!
The audio side of user interface design and user experience. A snapshot in time of sound design for computing. Brian Eno's Windows 95 startup sound is much more known, but with luck many more people will watch (and hear) this clip. Thank you @DavidHoffmanFilmmaker
This is Brilliant !!!!
1993: nobody likes the idea of the box talking to you.
2023:👀
we still hate it when they talk to us but we chose convenience over being comfortable with how computers behave
Fascinating ...
whoa this is crazy weird i just downloaded one of his songs at 5:57 this morning i was watchn morning joe on msnbc they always have really groovy old tunes playing as they’re going to commercial and this song i heard as i was tryn to find tht good comfy spot and position to go my ass to sleep and this song was playing as mica was going to commercial it made my tummy tickle
(tht tends to happen when ever i hear a song and it does tht)
(tickle my tummy) and i know its a bop and if for some reason a song plays and someone would pop in my head be it an ex a crush what ever my tummy really tickles and im having fuzzy feelings on this one
and so and so just popped in my head plus tht good old love tickle id shazam it or listen for the lyrics and try to find it and half the time im better than shazam so i hunt down the song cuz now its a vendetta i have to find it and i cant get it out of my head nor that person they’re both living in my head rent free and i cant even evict them and they’re messing with my head
oh its on now so i hunt i search lyrics i try to search for the soundtrack of what i was watchn for the song and sometime i get nothing well this song played as im gettn comfy with my lil 3lb yorkie LuLu and i hear this song
I SAW THE LIGHT - TODD RUNDGREN
wheeeew and shazam did find it i got it on my iphone now and i love the whole song not just the part of the song that tickled my tummy and now this i get my ytube alert notification and its from your channel and its about this man well tht freaked me out so i had to come on your channel and tell u about it im also a major tech head and u say he created smart phone sounds this very cool sounds like my kinda guy tinkering creating music be it a different style of music or his genre
the man made hits even with just some sounds that made it to the future now how cool is tht and there was no such thing as a smart phone back then we were all tryn to get beepers
(i know yall remember that) if u did have one ur accused of being a drug dealer or u had to be a doctor or lawyer and it was called paging yeah u would have the office page u for something and they were the main drug dealers but legal so yall dont think im judgeing but thts how it was and the whole while this man is creating sounds for the future
who’d a thunk it
thnx mr rundgren
Can you imagine if you were a normal working stiff and your desk was next to Todd's
Nice vid David. Hope all is well with you
How cool!!!!!!
These sounds remind me so deeply in my brain of Pajama Sam
Hey that's me! :-)
Thank you for letting me know Dan. Back in those days, I did not meet you and did not know your name. Now I do and I have added it to the description. What a time it was.
David Hoffman filmmaker
Would love to hear any anecdotes you have from working there, Dan! I was using NeXT at the time, but I remember hearing the name General Magic a lot back in those days
Thank you for introducing yourself,
in the comment section, Dan❣
By the way,
what does Todd's t-shirt say,
and who is the dude upon it?
I'm fascinated with it, entirely,
and even slowed-down the video to screenshot it/enlarge it to figure it out by myself ~to no avail. 🙃
Do you recall it?
I only see the letters -STI-
on the first line,
and -JI- on the second line of the cool-colored, neon shirt.
Thank you.
Respectfully,
~Tamara
how clever they are never seen so clever people in my life.
Brilliant genius thinking.
WoaH COOL!
i like todd rundgren great artist.
Ooooooo...thank you for yet another enjoyable video! 🎄🧸🕎♥️🙏🏽
“Hello, it’s me”
My hero forever
Great
Reminds me of the sounds he used for his song Onomatopoeia (1978).
His highlights 😂
They look so very cool on him
(perfect, actually)
~just like Todd. 😊
That was interesting for us who remember BASIC from the eighties, and a time when computers had programs (programmes), not "app's". I remember Todd best for his work with the much missed Jim Steinman, I had no idea that he "went techno"! And definitely no cocaine involved there...
Todd must have cleaned up on these sounds. They were so ubiquitous when Macs an PCs were new.
hello its me, being that guy to say it says 1993 in description and 1992 in text at beginning of video
It was filmed in 1992 for launch that took place in 1993. Probably I should've been clear about that.
David Hoffman filmmaker
HE DID THE AMAZING, BEAUTIFUL, DUMB & DUMBER SCORE
Very cool. Thanks.
TODDZILLA!
I disagree that this was related to Smart Phone Sounds. In this era Sound Packs for operating systems (Windows 3.x, 95, MacOS etc) were popular. It sounds like he’s working on those, especially when he mentions the Trash Can
PS David you’re a genius too !
I remember hearing an interview with Meat Loaf where he said Todd was always on the cutting edge of technology and was the first person he knew who owned a Microwave. Big Todd fan and one of my favourite song of his is "A Dream Goes On Forever" . Also the Bat Out of Hell Guitar Solo is a Facemelter! ruclips.net/video/YF9ZNo_ub-4/видео.html
Almost all those sounds were built into the Chamberlin keyboard of the 1950s. They are found on many sound effects records since then. Not new at all
The sounds might not be new Brian (I'm not sure of that) but their used on the smart phone was.
David Hoffman filmmaker
"Nobody likes the idea of the box talking back to you." Boy did he get that part wrong.
Ive enjoyed Todd's music for umpteen years but these goofy kind of sound bytes are why Ive also kept Windows system sounds turned off and mute anything similar on any devices. lol
david, are you in the doc?
pretty cool how you got screwed by scully and not jobs
one quarter of the documentary is my footage from that time and I am also interviewed.
David Hoffman filmmaker
@@DavidHoffmanFilmmaker cool. so now i know it is worth the watch. i love the stories about the people who shouldve been the steve jobs and bill gates, but werent.
Interesting marketing tactic, Reminds me of Brian Eno with Windows or even trent reznor with quake/doom. Not to say these guys aren't technically skilled or anything but that's certainly not all they bring to the table
I wonder how he actually created the sounds.
Todd was early into samplers, and actually got Fairlight to give him a discount on one in exchange for some demo work. So he might have captured stuff with one of those.
These are stock sound effects I’m pretty sure.
1:19 straight up Roblox jumping
This is at least a decade before smartphones. He was creating alert sounds for personal computers.
No, he wasn't. General Magic's main product was a PDA OS. One of the devices it ran on was a Sony Magic LInk. Back then you'd call that a PDA or PIC, but it's really a matter of nomenclature: it was a tiny, portable computer and phone network communication device. No one had called anything a "smartphone" by then, but it definitely was a smart phone and a "smartphone" in anything but name.
They certainly weren't working on alert sounds for personal computers, so it seems you pulled that right out of your ass.
Todd was much happier coding than making music. He was with his tribe.
MAC probably. Different world.
Anyone know what that tshirt is that Todd is wearing?
💟 If you scroll down to the
tail-end of the comment section,
under this documentary video,
I typed a reply to the dude Todd is sitting next to. 💕
Surely, he'll recall what that rocking-cool t-shirt says
~or maybe David Hoffman will reply to us...he filmed this. 💞
Was he using windows 3.1
No, that looks like a Mac OS.
Windows wasn’t really good at Multimedia yet. They caught up soon though
@@trashyraccoon2615 Todd's always been an _Apple guy,_ starting with the _Apple ][_ and moving to the _Macintosh._
He did have a side trip through the _Amiga_ when he animated every frame of his own music video to his song _Change Myself._
@@midwestconcertvideo Heh, yep. Looks like we were in similar clubs. I was a hardcore Amiga guy and they always talked up Todd’s video. I know a few of those guys. Even met Tim Jenison of NewTek and drank whiskey. At work I was using NeXT at the time. Around 1999 I went to Mac and never looked back. I just can’t do the Windows thing, never felt fun
@@trashyraccoon2615 I was doing animation on an _SGI_ when _Change Myself_ came out, and it was all over _SIGGRAPH_ that year, and nobody could believe that it was done by one person on a home computer.
Like you, I was an early _Amiga_ user, and was at the _Kansas City Amiga Users Group_ when Tim demoed the _Digiview_ back when there were no capture devices for the Mac, and saw the first demo of the _Video Toaster._
Todd is great but Frank Zappa did that decades before.
Did he put it on the smart phone too?
J ROC BABI