This episode was written & produced by Marissa Flaxbart and Andrew Anderson.

Not long ago, our home appliances made nothing but abrasive beeps and harsh buzzes. In recent years though, these devices have started to chirp and sing with carefully designed tones and melodies. But crafting the "perfect" device sound takes skill, patience, and a lot of trial and error. Featuring Audiobrain Founder/Executive Producer Audrey Arbeeny, and Quiet Mark Founder Poppy Szkiler.

MUSIC FEATURED IN THIS EPISODE

Off My Radar by Jerry Lacey
Smoothin' It by Jerry Lacey
It's Not That Serious by Arthur Benson
Have You Tried The Key by Arthur Benson
Mood Swings by Arthur Benson
Miika's Journey by Lama House
The Ramble by Sound of Picture
Frosted Glass by Sound of Picture
Remember When by Watermark High
Flatlands 2nd by Flatlands

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To learn more about Poppy Szkiler’s work, visit Quietmark.com.

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View Transcript ▶︎

You’re listening to Twenty Thousand Hertz.

[music in]

When we shop for a new home appliance (let’s say a new washing machine, or a dryer, or a dishwasher) we ask ourselves a lot of questions. Things like: How much does it cost? Does it come in different colors? What features does it have? What do the reviews say? Does a refrigerator crisper actually DO anything?

With so much to think about, it could be easy to overlook what the product sounds like.

[sfx: sudden music stop with classic bad sounding dryer buzz]

[music continues]

For decades, thoughtful sound design & music was limited to the world of entertainment: specifically, movies, TV, and games. Over in the world of manufacturing, sound design was almost non-existent. As long as the product worked, and looked okay, that was good enough. Sound was an afterthought, if it was even considered at all.

[music out]

Recently though, that’s all started to change. In the last twenty years, as smartphones, laptops and tablets became more common, our homes started chirping with carefully designed sounds.

[sfx: montage of notification tones and ringtones]

But for the most part, our home appliances still just made… noise.

[sfx: montage of appliances running and abrasive buzzes and beeps]

Audrey: In decades past devices were limite and it was a cacophony of noise.

That’s Audrey Arbeeny.

Audrey: I'm the CEO, founder, and executive producer of Audiobrain. We are a sonic branding firm.

[music in]

When Audrey first started working in sound design, nobody was thinking much about the sounds of household products.

Audrey: Nobody really paid too much attention to those alarms [sfx: oven beep], and those buzzers [sfx: dryer buzzer]. That's what that world was about. There was really not much intention to the sounds which were heard within your home.

But these days, appliance makers are paying a lot more attention to how their products sound. And they’re asking sound designers to help them make new sounds.

Audrey: We're looking for sounds that add value, not sounds that add noise, but that enrich that experience, and make people feel really good.

[music out]

Today, all kinds of products are getting the sound design treatment. Even in my own home, I’m kinda shocked at how many of my appliances play catchy little jingles. I can sing you my dryer song right now, off the top of my head.

[sfx: singing crossfade into LG end of cycle song]

Obviously, we’ve come a long way from those harsh beeps and buzzes. So what changed?

[music in]

There are three main reasons why companies have started caring about the sound of their products. The first is technology.

Over the years, it’s gotten a lot easier, and a lot cheaper, to program sounds into these devices.

Audrey: The technologies that we have now enable us to go far beyond the capabilities we could many years ago.

The second reason is that customers now want products that feel handcrafted. Artisanal. Unique. It’s not just about whether it works. It’s more like, “What does your coffee maker say about you?”

Audrey: It's becoming very important, because the customer is in the driver seat. So, if your sonic experience doesn't sound authentic, doesn't sound connected, it doesn't align with their perceived experience, they'll move on to something else.

Finally, we interact with our devices in a much more personal way than we used to.

Audrey: With all these emerging technologies… and all the devices that we have that are voice and sound driven people want to have that emotional connection, and sound is a great emotional connector.

Virtual assistants like Siri and Alexa are getting more personal all the time.

Alexa, tell me a joke.

[SFX Clip: Alexa: What did the cat on the smartphone say? Can you hear meow?]

[music out]

When Audrey starts working with a new manufacturer, she has to figure out what they want their products to communicate.

Audrey: We'll work with the brand to understand, “What does this brand stand for? What makes it different than any other brand? What is it communicating? If this appliance could talk, what would it be saying?”

She also has to think about how the product will fit into its physical place in the home.

Audrey: Where is it going? How many times is someone going to hear it? What's the proximity to other devices?

Audrey: Surfaces that sound is bouncing off of, for example. Things like that.

Audrey recently worked with two different appliance makers: Kitchenaid and Whirlpool. Both brands are actually owned by the same company, which is the Whirlpool Corporation. You might think the sound design would be pretty similar between the two brands, but Audrey’s process actually led to two different approaches.

Audrey: We were doing Whirlpool and Kitchenaid simultaneously. It's an interesting thing to do it that way because it's a tremendous amount of work and research.

Audrey: We don't just want to create sound, we want to create the right sound.

The Whirlpool sounds were going to be used in a variety of products, including washers, dryers and microwaves. When Audrey and her team created these sounds, they wanted them to feel warm and comforting.

Audrey: Whirlpool is all about the caregiver. Whirlpool is about comfort, and calm, non-intrusive, making things feel better.

So, they used instruments that would evoke a soft, caring vibe.

Audrey: For example, on the power on, power off, sound there's human hand percussion and strings plucking, blended with warm pads. We also used a harp. Because it felt like somebody was playing that for you, and that there was a human touch to it.

Here’s the Power On sound.

[sfx: whirlpool startup sound]

And here’s the Power Off.

[sfx: whirlpool power off]

Audrey: The sounds are also there to give feedback that certain actions have happened. So, you have a toggle sound.

[sfx: Whirlpool toggle]

Audrey: Your product is ready.

[sfx: Whirlpool product ready]

Audrey: Your cycle is complete.

[sfx: Whirlpool cycle complete]

Audrey: And in there, you hear that gentleness, and the warmth, and that care.

[music in]

The KitchenAid sounds required a different approach. These tones were mostly going to be used in smart ovens. When Audrey and her team created them, they wanted these sounds to evoke the energy and excitement of cooking.

Audrey: We wanted this to have a feeling of personal expression and an art of making things. So, these are people that are very active. We wanted the sounds to be more tactile, because they're doing more things physically. We also wanted to build in a lot of instrumentation that had skeuomorphism in it.

Skeuomorphism is where something digital looks or sounds like something in the real world. For example, the icon for your email app might look like an envelope. When you take a photo with your phone, it might play a shutter sound [sfx: iPhone shutter].

For the Kitchenaid brand, that meant using percussive sounds to conjure images of a busy kitchen.

Audrey: We call this a little bit of “Found Sounds.” Things that you would hear as somebody was making things, chopping things [sfx].

[music out]

Audrey: Things like, when our Power On sound comes on, it's a customized kalimba.

[sfx: Kitchenaid Power On]

Audrey: It's a tactile percussive melody. And this really captures that essence of doing something.

The Power On and the Power Off are basically a melodic call and response. Here they are back to back.

[sfx: Kitchenaid power on + Kitchenaid power off]

The Toggle On and the Toggle Off do the same thing.

[sfx: Kitchenaid toggle on + Kitchenaid toggle off]

The Cycle Complete sound is a variation of the Power On.

[sfx: Kitchenaid Cycle Complete]

Audrey and her team make original sounds for the products they work on, but not everyone does it this way. Some companies use melodies from existing songs.

For example, Samsung makes a dryer that plays this jingle when the cycle is done.

[sfx: Samsung dryer finishes]

Yep, it’s still going.

That melody comes from the The Trout Quintet, by the German composer Franz Schubert.

[music clip: Die Forelle]

LG dryers like mine play this tune at the end of their cycle.

[music clip: LG dryer]

There’s some internet debate about this, but That melody seems to be loosely based on an English folk song called The Lincolnshire Poacher. The song has a sea shanty work song feel to it. Here’s a version by Matt Williams.

[music clip: Lincolnshire poacher]

The benefit of using traditional music is that it taps into our memories and associations, especially if the song is well known. So if you hear a device play Twinkle Twinkle Little Star (which by the way, is the same melody as the ABC song), it might immediately take you back to your childhood. Here’s what a rice cooker made by Zojirushi sounds like when you start a batch of rice.

[music clip: Zojirushi Twinkle Twinkle]

As nice as that sounds, it’s possible to take this idea too far. A happy-sounding earworm can get really annoying if you hear it all the time. For example, how terrible would it be if your toaster played Pop Goes the Weasel every time you made toast?

[music clip: Pop Goes the Weasel + toast pop]

[music in]

Now sometimes, people just want the quietest product they can buy. But of course, it’s almost impossible to know how much noise a product makes until you bring it home. It’s not like there’s an official label on the side of the box that tells you how loud that appliance is going to be... Or is there?

That’s coming up, after the break.

[music out]

MIDROLL

[music in]

For a long time, the companies that made home appliances didn’t really worry about what they sounded like. Slowly but surely, our homes started filling up with more and more noises, from the harsh buzz of an old school alarm clock [sfx], to the grinding of a blender [sfx], to the beep of an oven when it’s done preheating [sfx].

[music out]

These types of sounds can be divided into two categories. When the sound is meant to tell you something, it’s called an Intentional Sound. Here are the three long beeps of a newer model Frigidaire microwave.

[sfx: frigidaire beep]

On the other hand, when the noise comes from the physical machinery, it’s called a Consequential Sound. In the 90s, there was a device called the Popeil Automatic Pasta Maker. It promised to make fresh pasta in less than 3 minutes. But when you turned it on, iiiitt sounded like a cement mixer. Here’s the inventor on an infomercial, listing alllll the kinds of pasta you can make with it:

[SFX Clip: Popiel infomercial]: You can make Indian Curry Pasta, you can make Lemon Pepper Pasta, you can make Southwest Chili Pasta, Wild Mushroom Pasta, Corn Pasta, Sour Cream and Onion Pasta. How about Artichoke and Butter Pasta? Italian Ricotta Pasta? Summer Fruit Pasta?]

Noises like that used to be pretty common in our kitchens, but that’s starting to change. These days, lots of companies are trying to make their devices operate with less noise.

Poppy: There is a big shift happening, which is really positive, but there's still an awful long way to go.

[music in]

Poppy: I'm Poppy Szkiler, and I'm the founder of Quiet Mark.

Quiet Mark is a company that tests appliances to measure how much noise they make.

Poppy: We assess them all with our expert teams of acousticians all over the world, in different global locations, and the very quietest then gets to use the Quiet Mark to shout about their technical achievement.

Earning the Quiet Mark is like an acoustic badge of honor. It lets people know that you spent extra time and money to make your product as quiet as possible.

Poppy: I started Quiet Mark with my mother about nine years ago, and it's now grown into a trusted stamp of approval.

Poppy: Often it's very, very difficult, until you get a machine home, to really understand or experience yourself, the sound of a product. That's really why we wanted to target this specific area.

[music out]

Even today, many appliances are just a lot louder than they need to be.

Poppy: A lot of domestic appliances are so loud you have to shout over the top of them. Let's take a vacuum cleaner for example [sfx: vacuum]. My cats and dogs, when you put it on it's like a hurricane's hit the house, everyone scrambles underneath the sofas [sfx: cat and dog scrambling to get away].

Until recently, the volume of the average vacuum cleaner was about seventy five decibels, which is about as loud as a coffee grinder [sfx].

But thanks to better technology, some newer models only produce sixty five decibels. That might not seem like a big difference, but remember, decibels increase logarithmically. Meaning, a 75-decibel noise sounds roughly twice as loud as one that’s 65 decibels.

Poppy: You can still get the same turbo power, but without earsplitting or sound challenges, which could be really stressful and just unnecessary when the engineering's actually there to make things a lot quieter now.

[music in]

Since their formation, Quiet Mark has become very influential in getting brands to make quieter products.

Poppy: Now, we have hundreds and hundreds of brands literally every day, "How do we get the Quiet Mark? How do we make our machines quieter?"

As more and more companies start thinking this way, their competitors will be forced to get on board, too.

Poppy: Competitors who are selling a much noisier machine will go, "Oh shucks, we also need to jolly well make sure we have a quiet version." And before you know it, the old, nasty, noisy ones will be phased out. And hooray, we'll have quiet Sundays, instead of battling leaf blower noises [sfx: leaf blower] and power jet washers [sfx: power washer] when you're trying to relax.

[music out]

So to recap: If you want to make a product sound better, you have a few options. Option 1, make it run more quietly. Option 2, design some pleasing melodies for it. But there is a third option: Remove the sounds that you don’t really need.

[music in]

Audrey: The idea is to add as much value as you can, and also sometimes to cancel out sound, or to improve the conditions by not adding sound in certain places.

When manufacturers work with a sound design firm, they often want tons of sounds.

Audrey: Most of the time, it's coming from the client themselves. So they will come and they will have a lot of sounds that they need.

But sometimes, less is more.

Audrey: It's one of those things like, just because we can doesn't mean that we should.

Audrey: That's why it's very important to understand that it's more than just making sounds for products, but making the right sounds and the right experiences.

For Audrey, the sound-cutting process usually happens at the very end.

Audrey: When we start to put them all in, it becomes apparent really quickly, “Do we really need that sound there?” We'll listen to a sound a thousand times. And after a while, you can really start to understand which sounds are necessary.

Audrey: I've heard a lot of sounds and a lot of brands go way too far.

[music out]

As an example of a company taking things just a little too far, here’s someone on Youtube demonstrating the sound of her new LG microwave.

[SFX clip: Melissa DeGroff: [jingle] Is that not the most ridiculous thing you’ve ever heard in your life? Ok, we’re gonna wait like 30 seconds and pretend like we forgot about it, and see what happens next [jingle + laughs] It’s so stupid!]

On its own, I kinda like the melody. But I’m not sure I want to hear it every time I reheat my coffee [sfx].

Crafting the perfect device sound isn’t just a matter of gut instinct. Sound design companies can use scientific data to help make sure their sounds will have the intended effect. There are two related fields that come into play here, and they both have awesome names: psychoacoustics and biomusicology.

Audrey: Psychoacoustics, it’s a branch of psychology. It's concerned with the perception of sound and its physiological effects.

You see, people have personal associations with different sounds. Psychoacoustics deals with the unique factors that influence how people relate to sound.

Audrey: There are certain sounds that we'll hear that will have certain effects on us.

Audrey: As people that create sound, it's so important to understand that certain sound will not provoke a positive response in certain conditions, such as autism, such as PTSD.

On the other hand, biomusicology studies responses that are hardwired into all of us. For instance, there’s a biological reason why loud sounds tend to stress us out.

Poppy: Sound directly affects our hearts, and that's because our cortisol levels, which were designed originally as part of our fight-or-flight mechanism, if we hear a loud noise, we immediately brace ourselves and a little shoot of cortisol, in the body, happens, to put us into that fight-or-flight mode, to protect ourselves, to be aware of an oncoming danger.

Sound affects our minds and bodies in so many different ways. And new discoveries are being made all the time. The more we learn, the better we’ll get at designing products that make us feel better.

[music in]

Audrey: People are finding really intelligent ways to bring about wellness, and to bring about calming states for people.

There's a way, if we pick certain frequencies and types of sounds, that actually, it can be supportive, healing and pleasant, just generally pleasant, rather than unpleasant intrusions.

A good sounding product can bring a smile to your face. A bad one can unconsciously raise your stress level every time you hear it. We use our appliances every day. So it only makes sense that we try to make them sound as good as they possibly can.

Audrey: We're going to have sounds in our homes no matter what. There's a difference between noise and quality.

Audrey: Why not take the extra step and create the right sound, that creates the right experience and brings that emotional connection?

Audrey: Technology is so advanced now, that we can do really wonderful things when we create the sound with intent, with authenticity, with empathy, and with consideration for the environments that it's going into.

Poppy: I think also it's a journey of understanding sound quality.

Poppy: And there needs to be a movement, I think, of understanding so that we kind of go on that journey together.

[music out]

[music in]

Twenty Thousand Hertz is hosted by me, Dallas Taylor, and produced out of the sound design studios of Defacto Sound. To hear some of the best sounding ads and trailers out there, visit defacto sound dot com.

This episode was written and produced by Marissa Flaxbart, Andrew Anderson, and Casey Emmerling. With help from Sam Rinebold. It was sound edited by Soren Begin. It was sound designed and mixed by Joel Boyter.

Thanks to our guests, Audrey Arbeeny and Poppy Szkiler. To hear more of Audrey’s work, visit audiobrain dot com. And to learn more about what Poppy does, check out Quietmark dot com. And thanks to Melissa DeGroff for letting us use a clip of her Youtube video. You can find a link to her channel in the show notes.

If you have a hard time waiting 14 whole days until the next Twenty Thousand Hertz episode drops, there are a few other ways to get your 20K fix. You can follow us on Facebook and Twitter, or you can subscribe to our subreddit. You can even throw out all of your T shirts, and replace them with Twenty Thousand Hertz swag, which you can find at shop dot twenty kay dot org.

Thanks for listening.

[music out]