Friday Fun: Wind Chimes

Syntrillium Software was a company formed in the early 1990s by former Microsoft employees Robert Ellison and David Johnston. Their most popular product was Cool Edit, a sound editing program. The company was purchased by Adobe in May 2003, and Cool Edit henceforth became known as Adobe Audition.

Sadly, it seems that Adobe has killed off Syntrillium’s other products, which included the popular Snoqualmie screen saver and Wind Chimes, a silly (but much loved) program that imitated wind chimes on your computer. Wind Chimes not only imitated traditional wind chimes, it could also do piano improvisations and imitate several Asian types of wind chimes. You could even “roll your own” chimes by choosing the number of chimes, the base note, the music scale… even the wind speed!

Many people loved Wind Chimes… so much, in fact, that it developed its own little cult following. Since I seem to be the “last hope” for certain software programs, I decided to add Wind Chimes to my collection of ancient downloadable apps:

Wind Chimes (163kb)

The program will run without installation (just unzip and run the chimes.exe file). You cannot register the program any more, and you’ll get an occasional “nag screen” that stops the chimes and reminds you to register (although you can find ways around this if you know where to look… wink-wink!).

If you are the owner of this software and you’d like for me to remove it from this site, please check out the Contact Me page to get in touch with me!

58 Replies to “Friday Fun: Wind Chimes”

  1. Pingback: Wind Chimes
  2. Oh, thank you for posting. Not many of us remember this and what I thought was backed up on my floppy was corrupt. Thank you for posting this!!

  3. Just out of curiousity do you know where one might find that old kalediscope screen saver and that snoqualmie saver too?

    Lisa

  4. Sadly, I don’t not know where to get Kaleidescope or Snoqualmie. I *think* I have Snoqualmie burned to CD-DVD *somewhere* in my archives, but I have no idea where it might be.

    I *do* know that I installed it a couple of years ago and looked high and low for my registration code (it was the first piece of software I ever bought online), but I couldn’t find it anywhere.

    If I get a chance, I’ll look for them both.

  5. Thanks Jim,
    Works fine now (probably worked fine on the eleventh but my pc is so protected that I can’t download anything).

  6. Hi, many thanks for the snoqualmie link. I love this program and was about to hunt through my floppy disk backups from many years ago for this! But, can you give any more hints as to how to get round the “nag screen” ?

  7. Hi Jim,

    Found your site whilst looking for Snoqualmie. The version you’ve uploaded doesn’t have a virus, but it does contain Adware (picked up by Avast! virus scanner), so you should probably remove it.

    Sarah

  8. No, it doesn’t.

    At least, not according to Kaspersky 6.0.3.837.

    Honestly, I tried using the free version of Avast! and gave up on it due to the incredible number of false positives it generated.

    I had been using Active Virus Shield (an AOL-branded version of Kaspersky) and the license expired. Since AOL didn’t renew its contract with Kaspersky, I needed a new AV program. I tried Avast! but decided that it was better to pay $35.99 for a standalone version of Kaspersky than Avast!, which was constantly reporting OUTLOOK.EXE and IEXPRESS.EXE as viruses on my system.

  9. Well, OK. Although I should add that it doesn’t show up in Avast! when you scan the .exe but is picked up during actual installation by the resident portion of the virus checker.

    More importantly, the file size of your version is 624kb, whilst all the others on the web seem to be 503kb, including the one which I just installed: I bought a licence years ago so don’t have any (sno)qualms about that. (Also, your version also seems to have a very non-standard icon for the installer.)

    I’m not trying to be argumentative, I assure you. I would have been more questioning of Avast! myself had it not been for the file size issue.

    (Avast! seems to be working well for me so far. I changed to it because I read that it ‘plays well’ with Comodo firewall.)

    Sarah

  10. THANK YOU !! I loved this lil prog I wish I could register to it . Iam so glad you still have this. Booo To Adobe for trashing Snoqualmie and kaleid95

  11. Hey, for those of you who liked my earlier programs, I have just finished a revamped version of ‘Snoqualmie’, which I’m now calling ‘Zen Light’, which you can get at http://zendogsoftware.com . I also have been working on updating Wind Chimes as well, but it’s not quite ready yet (but when it is, I’ll make it available at the same web site).

    When Adobe purchased my company, they purchased all the products we had, but I have since gotten the rights back to all the non-Cool-Edit code. Since Zen Light has so many kaleidoscopic effects, it didn’t make much sense to re-do Kaleidoscope 95. Zen Light does not respond to music (yet), but I’m hoping to put that into the next major version if I get a good response from this release.

    If anyone has any questions, comments, or program suggestions for me, you can reach me through the web site.

    -David.

  12. Wow! Thanks for letting us know about that, David!

    In light of the “non-abandonware” status of the software, I’ve deleted “that post” above!

  13. Hey Jim I have Kaleid95 from Syntrillium (unregistered copy ) the cool screen saver that compliments windchimes if you want it I’ll pass it on to you just let me know!! Thanks for WindChimes you are my Hero !!!

  14. I had wind chimes a long time ago and I just installed it after finding it on your site.

    I can’t hear it, and can’t figure out what the problem is. I’m running XP and tried compatibility mode for Win 95 and that didn’t help.

    I wonder if others experienced this and if there is a solution.

    Thanks for having kept up with David’s work, and thanks to David for chimes and his new work at Zendog. I have always dug fractals.

  15. I submitted a reply asking for kelaidoscop95 that will work with windows 7-the download i found wont work with it…..

    what happened to my reply does anyone know?
    Thanks ahead to all of you
    Suzi

  16. @Suzi: There isn’t a “Windows 7 version” of Kaleidoscope95. As the name suggests, it was written back in the Windows 95 era. The company that made the software also made a program called “CoolEdit”, which Adobe wanted. So Adobe bought the company. Since they were only interested in CoolEdit, they abandoned the other products, like Kaleidoscope95 and Snoqualmie.

    One of the guys who owned the original company has started a new software company called ZenDog software:

    http://www.zendogsoftware.com

    All of their Windows products are, AFAIK, compatible with Windows 7. And pretty darn cool, too!

  17. Jim
    Thanks so much for your kindness there still are great people out there… I have bought Kens it is just great i love it. But i just love it…I just did love al the Kaleidoscope and changes of fruits and heats it used i wish someone would remake it for windows 7 … I can use Snoqualmie they are both great Kaleidoscope95 and kens and i would love to have both can’t one of you guys do it??????????
    You are great jim as always suzi

  18. I found out Kaleidoscope95 is 32bit and my computer is 64bit awwww..Can ayone help?

    Guess i csnt use it..
    As Always Suzi

  19. Thank you so much for Snoqualmie! The tiny problem I have is that it won’t
    accept my registration letters. They worked when I bought it, probably just after it came out. Are they all caps with a space in between each?

  20. Well, I tried the sequence of letters I have with all caps, no spaces and every variation of Martha Sue Ramsey, Martha S Ramsey Martha Ramsey I could think of. I never used my nickname then (or now actually) because I use my banking name to buy stuff online. If I sent you the code I have, is there any record of me buying it? I do love Zen Light and I would love to go back to Snoqualmie, too.

  21. Try this: google the phrase “Snoqualmie serial”. Click the first result and follow the instructions there. Does that work?

  22. Oh yes, thank you so much. I do love Zen Light and I play with it to chill. But Sno was first and it still makes me feel calm and helps me change my focus. Your stuff is great for what ails ya! Thanks again and thanks for being on the planet right now. Marti

  23. Lisa Haase says:
    May 6, 2011 at 18:02
    “I have all 3 of these products along with serials if anyone wants them.”

    Lisa, Im interested plesase sendme a mail to somnous@yahoo.com.mx
    Thanks in advance!

  24. Ah, thank you so much! I never forgot “wind chimes” on my first PC (Win95), and was very happy to find your post – now with Win7 and 2011!! 🙂

  25. @Jim: a big thank you, I have been looking for those two programs for ages, and now I have them both working on my pc 🙂

    @David Johnston: I am really sorry for what happened, but in the end I am glad that you have gotten your rights back. And let me say: congratulations for such brilliant and fresh ideas, so ahead of their time. I’ll try ZenLight too, and I’ll let you know 🙂

  26. Lisa Haase says:
    May 6, 2011 at 18:02
    “I have all 3 of these products along with serials if anyone wants them.”

    Hi Lisa, I am interested! Please send me an email to kmcclean at hotmail dot co dot uk.

    Thank you !

  27. The web archive download is the same as the licensed copy of wc1setup I still have. Sadly, it’s been ‘grandfathered out’ as the setup programme won’t even start on a 64-bit Windows 7 system. Oh well…

  28. thank you for helping me with one of my favourite registered programs. the installs wouldn’t work anymore, but the bits here did (and they still register!). my ears and heart appreciate the help 🙂

    mr cofer, thank you!

  29. I was browsing through old Documents and found a the CoolEdit User manual with your name at the end, did a few searches and found a few sites. 🙂 Yay!

    I know buyouts are part of business, but I was really sad to learn that Adobe bought out CE, then jacked up the prices and the sleek coding you did. I’m still using CE Pro 2.0 on a very regular basis because I haven’t found anything else out there that compares to it in functionality, useability and efficiency. I’ve tried Audition, and it doesn’t compare, and I doubt anything Adobe has would even run on a 300Mhz PII x2 system these days. Is there anyway I could get a registration and make sure that the payment and credit goes to the person listed in the “Buy now” link?

  30. Came across jim’d websit quite by chance and, a good thing I did too, otherwise I might not have read David Johnson’s remarks and gone to his website to download Zenlight. You can imagine my annonyance when I was compelled to “move up” to Windows 7 only to find out that Wind Chimes, Kalidescope and Snoqualmie didn’t function! Over the years and, with the improvements made with video cards and sound cards both Wind Chimes and Kalidescope have been stunning. So, thanks for Zen Light however, when will I be able to have a back ground sound similiar to or equal to Windchimes? Thanks. Steved

  31. Lisa, I’ve downloaded these programs about 10 years ago and purchased them from Syntrillium. I
    purchased a new pc in 2010, however I can’t find the backup disks nor the serials to these programs. I recently purchased a program called “MindChimes” but it’s not nearly as good as the old “WindChimes” was. I would really appreciate the serial numbers to these old programs, especially “WindChimes”. My email addy is: trips_thegame0720@yahoo.com.

    If anyone is interested in Mindchimes the link is: http://www.mindchimes.com/

  32. As a former customer of WindChimes i was glad to find this program again, works excellent on WIN7 64bit, for those who did not know this, you can open the program several times and so mix several moods together, this makes a beautiful sound generating machine out of this software. And if you run the mouse over the chimes logo top right, you can add a few notes to the running program.A real software treasure, thanks for posting.

  33. This is an addendum on how to open the program several times.When you start the program,it will start with the mood you once left it.Change the mood then and start the program again, this will open then again with the mood where you once left the program, then change the mood in the second opening and proceed for the third opening.and so forth, three openings for me are mostly enough to create very complex Eno-esqe results, which will run for hours if you want, very recommended for sound installations at exhibitions for example.but please do not ask me for copyright values if you use it that way. Have fun! This is the point where the really creative process starts with this software.

  34. Well, I too am in search of these programs and hope that I am not too late.
    Lisa Haase says:
    May 6, 2011 at 18:02
    “I have all 3 of these products along with serials if anyone wants them.”
    Lisa if your still out there or if anyone else can help me my email address is
    lisamay_ at hotmail dot com
    I see mindchimes link is dead also now…
    Ahh the oldies are sometimes the best gems.

  35. It looks like the author of windchimes is not going to release an updated version since it has now been six years since he left word in the comments above. Meanwhile, I have discovered that one can use Wind Chimes in a virtual machine. Download Windows Virtual PC and then install it. Then download and install the XP mode install. Then run the virtual xp session. Then copy and paste the install for wind chimes into the xp session. Once installed, it will run by default or at least it did on my lenovo t410 with Win7Pro.
    The other option I know of is to install under the windows emulater WINE in linux. Search google for wine wind chimes alsa and you will find a tutorial.

  36. http://67.170.156.125/apps/CHIMES/ is v1.01
    Grab the files individually. You only need Chimes.exe and Chimes.hlp. Skip the install, uninstall and wc1setup files since they don’t work on modern systems.

    Register with:
    name: kOUGER!
    s/n: HWWQK

    OR:
    name: ODIN 97
    s/n: VYGZH

    OR:
    name: Ron T. Bootyman
    s/n: PWWXV

    I’d feel bad sharing registrations, but the software is long abandoned.

  37. I also want to mention for anyone uninstalling Wind Chimes that it will leave behind “Win.INI” and “Chimes.INI” in your c:\Windows directory.
    There don’t seem to be any registry entries.

  38. I have been after a crack for this for years! Much obliged =D
    Wonderful little program from a simpler but more creative time….

  39. Jim, I can’t thank you enough. Being on my 5 laptop and having loaded and unloaded Ubuntu I lost my chimes. Finding them again is great, and calming. Beats the heck out of rap. Sue 9/27/15

  40. I finally had to replace my old tower with Windows XP. A friend and I were commiserating over the loss of the Chimes. I could not get it to copy or move. Found this page tonight. I have sent my friend your link. Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!!!

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