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

全電動汽車加速的聲音不必聽起來像是標準的內燃機，它可以聽起來像任何東西。

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).

這些是Richard Devine在其Facebook頁面上的帖子中所使用的詞，作為對設計挑戰的一部分，該挑戰是設計電動汽車在每小時0至100英里(即160 km / h)加速時應發出的聲音。

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，我最近讀了唐納德·A·諾曼 ( Donald A. Norman )的書《 日常事物的設計 》，其中他將整節內容都放在EV(電動汽車)的聲音及其設計上。 作為產品設計師，主要負責用戶界面，同時還是聲音設計師和音樂家(主要是業余愛好)，本書的這一部分對我而言確實抓住了這些興趣之間的甜蜜點，因此是本書的一部分。那讓我最振奮(雙關語)。 當這個挑戰出現在我的Facebook時間軸上時，我不禁要思考一下從書中聽起來應該是什么，以及從我的想象中看起來可能是什么樣的哲學。

基本原理 (The Rationale)

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

諾曼的書提出了電動汽車的聲音應滿足的以下標準：

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

  警報聲音將指示存在電動車輛。

• 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.

  方向聲音將使您可以確定車輛的位置，對速度的大致了解，以及它是朝著聽者還是向著聽者移動。

• 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.

  缺乏煩惱因為即使在交通繁忙時也會經常聽到這些聲音，而在交通繁忙時也會不斷聽到這些聲音，因此它們一定不要煩人。 注意警報器，警報器和備用信號的對比，所有這些均旨在作為攻擊性警告。 這些聲音是故意令人不愉快的，但是由于它們不常見且持續時間相對較短，因此可以接受。 電動汽車聲音面臨的挑戰是警覺和定向，而不是煩人。

• 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.

  標準化與個性化的對比標準化對于確保所有電動汽車的聲音都能被輕松地解讀是必不可少的。 如果它們變化太大，新穎的聲音可能會使聽眾感到困惑。 個性化具有兩個功能：安全和銷售。 從安全的角度來看，如果街道上有很多車輛，個性化將允許對車輛進行跟蹤。 這在擁擠的十字路口尤其重要。 從營銷的角度來看，個性化可以確保每個電動汽車品牌都具有自己獨特的特征，也許使聲音的質量與品牌形象相匹配。

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，他提出了擬態論的觀點，經常為新事物(通常是數字事物)設計的趨勢模仿了它的經典，類似物，這主要是因為它們熟悉并與用戶的現有心理模型相一致。 他還提到，隨著汽車的加速行駛，在某個時刻沒有必要再從汽車發出聲音，因為來自空氣阻力和瀝青上輪胎的聲音足夠大，足以聽到汽車的聲音，并且任何額外的噪音只會讓駕駛員感到煩惱。

開始工作 (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.

為了真正開始設計聲音，對于這個項目，我使用了我最喜歡的軟件合成器之一： Xfer Records Serum 。 我想創造一種聲音，捕捉許多人將與電動汽車聯系在一起的現代(且有些未來主義)的性質，同時與傳統引擎的模擬性質保持聯系，因為聲音不會隨時間變化而保持靜態和一致，這是一種通常是電子或數字聲音固有的。

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.

這是我的第一次嘗試。 我想模擬啟動發動機的過程，以低速且松脆的“咆哮”加快速度。 為了獲得這種效果，我使用了Serum隨附的幾個不同的波表預設，并自動使兩個振蕩器的粗調參數隨時間增加。 我從另一個噪音，振蕩器中添加了“ whi”聲，以增加“電”感。 我使用Fabfilter的Pro-Q均衡器在聲音不斷演變時使聲音高通，從而逐漸減小了整體音量，因為不再需要它，并且只會在汽車達到聲音所能達到的速度時讓駕駛員感到煩惱從輪胎是足夠的。

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.

對于第二個版本，我試圖通過使兩個振蕩器中的波表位置自動化來給聲音提供一些不斷變化的特征。 通過自動執行此操作，對于兩個振蕩器，聲音基本上在波表中的不同子表之間循環，從而在任意給定點賦予其獨特的波形。

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.

為了給我使用RandPhase參數(隨機相位的縮寫)播放的聲音帶來更多的隨機性和可變性，該參數決定了波形起點(相位)的隨機性。 因此，您將波調得越多，波的每個周期就會從不同的點開始，從而使聲音不斷發展。

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.

對于第三個版本，我還希望聲音能更好地利用立體聲頻譜。 通過將統一聲調設置為2種聲音，本質上創建聲音的兩個相同實例，并使用detune參數使它們彼此失諧，則聲音感覺更加“寬敞”，而無需使用添加混響或延遲之類的處理。

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.

意識到來自車輛的許多低頻聲音通常是由自然原因產生的，例如瀝青上的輪胎或內燃機的物理運動部件，因此我開始針對高頻主聲音調整聲音，刪除了我最初想要模擬的許多“咆哮”。 通過消除第二個振蕩器的許多低頻咆哮聲，聲音在瞬間變得更具“磁性”和未來感。

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.

在某個時間點，高通濾波器掃頻進入以濾除大部分聲音，我自動使A振蕩器的音量逐漸降低，使聲音隨著汽車的速度逐漸消失會增加。

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.

為了在聲音開始時獲得啟動效果，除了向上自動執行粗調之外，我使用了一種稱為頻率調制 (或FM)合成的技術，其中，我從第三個子振蕩器獲得了聲波(調制信號)并用于調制第一個振蕩器的頻率。 調制信號設置為低頻正弦波，我自動執行了干/濕參數，以便它僅在很短的時間內以較低的百分比調制第一個振蕩器。

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.

通過Serum的濾波器模塊運行聲音，我可以使用預設創建更“驅動”，失真的聲音，并更改驅動器，共鳴和截止參數。

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:

在嘗試4時，我對聲音感到滿意，它接近我的想象，我覺得它符合Norman所說的標準。 當然，在實踐中，下一步將是測試和驗證這種聲音，在現實生活中與現實生活中的用戶(旁觀者，駕駛員，有聽力障礙的人)一起對其進行測試，然后根據發現和結果進行迭代。 就目前而言，下一個最好的方法是將它拍到一個光滑的視頻下面：

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:

感謝您的閱讀！ 如果您想進一步研究電動汽車的聲音設計或本文中提到的其他內容，請考慮以下在撰寫時發現有趣的鏈接：

• This is the sound of an electric car

  這是電動車的聲音

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

  這是電動汽車的聲音 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HGfIfwzVIrM

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

  “馬克·曼尼尼(Mark Mangini)的汽車音響設計大師班” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mIbzpyXEoEg

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

  “完整的血清精華指南| 1＃振蕩器” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=62MybyWU398

• ‘The most human RICHARD DEVINE Interview on machines’

  “最人類的RICHARD DEVINE機器訪談”

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

  ``機器上最人性化的RICHARD DEVINE訪談'' 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 希爾弗瑟姆 Videoland 的UX / UI設計師 。 以前在 Triple 。 學士學位。 在 阿姆斯特丹CMD 。

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