The sound of an all-electric car accelerating doesn’t have to sound like a standard combustion engine, It could sound like anything.

全电动汽车加速的声音不必听起来像是标准的内燃机，它可以听起来像任何东西。

These were the words that Richard Devine used in a post on his Facebook page, as part of a description of a challenge to design the sound that an electric car should make when accelerating 0–100 miles per hour (that’s 160 km/h).

这些是Richard Devine在其Facebook页面上的帖子中所使用的词，作为对设计挑战的一部分，该挑战是设计电动汽车在每小时0至100英里(即160 km / h)加速时应发出的声音。

As it happened I had very recently read Donald A. Norman’s book ‘The Design of Everyday Things’, in which he devotes a whole section to the sound of EVs (electric vehicles) and the design of it. As a product designer, mainly working on user interfaces, but also a sound designer and musician (mostly as a hobby) this part of the book really captured the sweet spot between these interests for me, and therefore was one of the parts of the book that got me the most revved up (pun intended). When this challenge presented itself on my Facebook timeline, I could not help myself but to think about the philosophy of what it should sound like from the book, and what it could sound like from my imagination.

碰巧的是，我最近读了唐纳德·A·诺曼 ( Donald A. Norman )的书《 日常事物的设计 》，其中他将整节内容都放在EV(电动汽车)的声音及其设计上。 作为产品设计师，主要负责用户界面，同时还是声音设计师和音乐家(主要是业余爱好)，本书的这一部分对我而言确实抓住了这些兴趣之间的甜蜜点，因此是本书的一部分。那让我最振奋(双关语)。 当这个挑战出现在我的Facebook时间轴上时，我不禁要思考一下从书中听起来应该是什么，以及从我的想象中看起来可能是什么样的哲学。

基本原理 (The Rationale)

Norman’s book raises the following criteria that the sound of EVs should meet:

诺曼的书提出了电动汽车的声音应满足的以下标准：

• AlertingThe sound will indicate the presence of an electric vehicle.

  警报声音将指示存在电动车辆。

• OrientationThe sound will make it possible to determine where the vehicle is located, a rough idea of its speed, and whether it is moving toward or away from the listener.

  方向声音将使您可以确定车辆的位置，对速度的大致了解，以及它是朝着听者还是向着听者移动。

• Lack of AnnoyanceBecause these sounds will be heard frequently even in light traffic and continually in heavy traffic, they must not be annoying. Note the contrast with sirens, horns, and backups signals, all of which are intended to be aggressive warnings. Such sounds are deliberately unpleasant, but because they are infrequent and for relatively short duration, they are acceptable. The challenge faced by electric vehicle sounds is to alert and orient, not annoy.

  缺乏烦恼因为即使在交通繁忙时也会经常听到这些声音，而在交通繁忙时也会不断听到这些声音，因此它们一定不要烦人。 注意警报器，警报器和备用信号的对比，所有这些均旨在作为攻击性警告。 这些声音是故意令人不愉快的，但是由于它们不常见且持续时间相对较短，因此可以接受。 电动汽车声音面临的挑战是警觉和定向，而不是烦人。

• Standardization versus individualizationStandardization is necessary to ensure that all electric vehicle sounds can readily be interpreted. If they vary too much, novel sounds might confuse the listener. Individualization has two functions: safety and marketing. From a safety point of view, if there were many vehicles present on the street, individualization would allow vehicles to be tracked. This is especially important at crowded intersections. From marketing point of view, individualization can ensure that each brand of electric vehicle has its own unique characteristic, perhaps matching the quality of the sound to the brand image.

  标准化与个性化的对比标准化对于确保所有电动汽车的声音都能被轻松地解读是必不可少的。 如果它们变化太大，新颖的声音可能会使听众感到困惑。 个性化具有两个功能：安全和销售。 从安全的角度来看，如果街道上有很多车辆，个性化将允许对车辆进行跟踪。 这在拥挤的十字路口尤其重要。 从营销的角度来看，个性化可以确保每个电动汽车品牌都具有自己独特的特征，也许使声音的质量与品牌形象相匹配。

Other than that he raises the point of skeuomorphism, the trend that often designs for new (often digital) things mimic that of it’s classic, analogue counterpart, mostly because those are familiar and consistent with the existing mental model of the users. Also does he mention that, as the car speeds up, at a certain moment there is no point to having additional sound coming from the vehicle, as the sound from air resistance and tires on the asphalt is sufficiently loud as to hear the car, and any extra noise would only be an annoyance to the driver.

除此之外，他提出了拟态论的观点，经常为新事物(通常是数字事物)设计的趋势模仿了它的经典，类似物，这主要是因为它们熟悉并与用户的现有心理模型相一致。 他还提到，随着汽车的加速行驶，在某个时刻没有必要再从汽车发出声音，因为来自空气阻力和沥青上轮胎的声音足够大，足以听到汽车的声音，并且任何额外的噪音只会让驾驶员感到烦恼。

开始工作 (Getting to work)

To actually start designing the sound, for this project I used one of my favorite software synthesizers: Xfer Records Serum. I wanted to create a sound that captures the modern (and somewhat futuristic) nature that many would associate with EVs, while keeping in touch with the analogue nature of traditional engines in that the sound is never static and consistent over time, a property that is often inherent to electronic or digital sounds.

为了真正开始设计声音，对于这个项目，我使用了我最喜欢的软件合成器之一： Xfer Records Serum 。 我想创造一种声音，捕捉许多人将与电动汽车联系在一起的现代(且有些未来主义)的性质，同时与传统引擎的模拟性质保持联系，因为声音不会随时间变化而保持静态和一致，这是一种通常是电子或数字声音固有的。

版本1 (Version 1)

This was my first attempt. I wanted to simulate the revving of starting up an engine, having a low and crunchy ‘growl’ that comes up to speed. To get this effect I played around with a couple different wavetable presets that come with Serum, and automated the coarse pitch parameter of both the oscillators to go up over time. I added the ‘whiny’ sound from another, noise, oscillator to add to the ‘electric’ feeling. I used Fabfilter’s Pro-Q equalizer for high-passing the sound as it evolves, to gradually decrease the overall volume as it is no longer needed, and would only be an annoyance to the driver, when the car gets to a speed where the sound from i.e. the tires is sufficient.

这是我的第一次尝试。 我想模拟启动发动机的过程，以低速且松脆的“咆哮”加快速度。 为了获得这种效果，我使用了Serum随附的几个不同的波表预设，并自动使两个振荡器的粗调参数随时间增加。 我从另一个噪音，振荡器中添加了“ whi”声，以增加“电”感。 我使用Fabfilter的Pro-Q均衡器在声音不断演变时使声音高通，从而逐渐减小了整体音量，因为不再需要它，并且只会在汽车达到声音所能达到的速度时让驾驶员感到烦恼从轮胎是足够的。

版本2 (Version 2)

For the second version I tried to give a bit more of an evolving character to the sound by automating the wavetable position in both oscillators. By automating this, the sound basically cycles through the different sub-tables in the wavetable, for both oscillators, giving it a unique wave shape at any given point.

对于第二个版本，我试图通过使两个振荡器中的波表位置自动化来给声音提供一些不断变化的特征。 通过自动执行此操作，对于两个振荡器，声音基本上在波表中的不同子表之间循环，从而在任意给定点赋予其独特的波形。

版本3 (Version 3)

To create a bit more randomness and variability to the sound I played around with the RandPhase parameter (short for Random Phase), which dictates the amount of randomness of the start of the wave (phase). Each cycle of the wave would therefore start at a different point the more you turn this up, which makes for an ever evolving sound.

为了给我使用RandPhase参数(随机相位的缩写)播放的声音带来更多的随机性和可变性，该参数决定了波形起点(相位)的随机性。 因此，您将波调得越多，波的每个周期就会从不同的点开始，从而使声音不断发展。

For this third version I also wanted the sound to make better use of the stereo spectrum. By setting the unison to 2 voices, essentially creating two of the same instances of the sound, and detuning them against each other using the detune parameter the sound feels more ‘spacious’, without using processing like adding a reverb or delay.

对于第三个版本，我还希望声音能更好地利用立体声频谱。 通过将统一声调设置为2种声音，本质上创建声音的两个相同实例，并使用detune参数使它们彼此失谐，则声音感觉更加“宽敞”，而无需使用添加混响或延迟之类的处理。

版本4 (Version 4)

Upon the realization that a lot of the low-frequency sound from a vehicle is often generated by natural causes like the tires on the asphalt or the physical moving parts of a combustion engine, I started to tailor the sound towards a higher frequency main sound and dropped much of the ‘growl’ that I initially wanted to simulate. The sound became more ‘magnetic’, more futuristic in an instant by removing much of the low-frequency growl from the second oscillator.

意识到来自车辆的许多低频声音通常是由自然原因产生的，例如沥青上的轮胎或内燃机的物理运动部件，因此我开始针对高频主声音调整声音，删除了我最初想要模拟的许多“咆哮”。 通过消除第二个振荡器的许多低频咆哮声，声音在瞬间变得更具“磁性”和未来感。

At a certain point in time, where the high-pass filter sweep came in to filter out most of the body of the sound, I automated the level of the A oscillator to gradually decrease, fading the sound into nothingness as the speed of the car would increase.

在某个时间点，高通滤波器扫频进入以滤除大部分声音，我自动使A振荡器的音量逐渐降低，使声音随着汽车的速度逐渐消失会增加。

To get the starting-up effect in the beginning of the sound, other than automating the coarse pitch upwards, I used a technique called frequency modulation (or FM) synthesis, where I took the wave from a third, sub, oscillator (the modulation signal) and used it to modulate the frequency of the first oscillator. The modulation signal was set to a low-frequency sine wave, and I automated the dry/wet parameter so that it only modulates the first oscillator for a low percentage for a very short amount of time.

为了在声音开始时获得启动效果，除了向上自动执行粗调之外，我使用了一种称为频率调制 (或FM)合成的技术，其中，我从第三个子振荡器获得了声波(调制信号)并用于调制第一个振荡器的频率。 调制信号设置为低频正弦波，我自动执行了干/湿参数，以便它仅在很短的时间内以较低的百分比调制第一个振荡器。

By running the sounds through the filter module of Serum I was able to create a more ‘driving’, distorted sound using a preset and altering the drive, resonance and cutoff parameters.

通过Serum的滤波器模块运行声音，我可以使用预设创建更“驱动”，失真的声音，并更改驱动器，共鸣和截止参数。

最后的想法 (Final thoughts)

At try 4 I was happy with the sound, it was close to what I had imagined and I felt that it conformed to the criteria stated by Norman. Of course, in practice, the next step would be to test and validate this sound, test it with real life users (bystanders, drivers, hearing-impaired) in real life situations, and iterate based on the findings and outcomes. For now though, the next best thing is to slap it underneath a slick video:

在尝试4时，我对声音感到满意，它接近我的想象，我觉得它符合Norman所说的标准。 当然，在实践中，下一步将是测试和验证这种声音，在现实生活中与现实生活中的用户(旁观者，驾驶员，有听力障碍的人)一起对其进行测试，然后根据发现和结果进行迭代。 就目前而言，下一个最好的方法是将它拍到一个光滑的视频下面：

Thank you for reading! If you would like to dive some more into sound design for EVs, or other things I mentioned in this article, consider the links below that I found interesting while writing:

感谢您的阅读！ 如果您想进一步研究电动汽车的声音设计或本文中提到的其他内容，请考虑以下在撰写时发现有趣的链接：

• This is the sound of an electric car

  这是电动车的声音

  This is the sound of an electric carhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HGfIfwzVIrM

  这是电动汽车的声音 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HGfIfwzVIrM

• ‘Car Sound Design Master Class with Mark Mangini’https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mIbzpyXEoEg

  “马克·曼尼尼(Mark Mangini)的汽车音响设计大师班” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mIbzpyXEoEg

• ‘The Complete Guide To Master Serum|1# Oscillators’https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=62MybyWU398

  “完整的血清精华指南| 1＃振荡器” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=62MybyWU398

• ‘The most human RICHARD DEVINE Interview on machines’

  “最人类的RICHARD DEVINE机器访谈”

  ‘The most human RICHARD DEVINE Interview on machines’https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X2ti57U7Jo8

  ``机器上最人性化的RICHARD DEVINE访谈'' https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X2ti57U7Jo8

My name is Joost Reus. I’m a UX/UI designer at Videoland in Hilversum. Previously at Triple. Graduated BSc. at CMD Amsterdam.

我叫Joost Reus。 我是 希尔弗瑟姆 Videoland 的UX / UI设计师 。 以前在 Triple 。 学士学位。 在 阿姆斯特丹CMD 。

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