GM Creates Individual Soundtracks For Each Of Its EVs
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GM has created unique soundtracks for each of its electric vehicles, using sound design to find the perfect tone for each model.
Jay Kapadia is GM’s Creative Sound Director. He is a classically trained musician and electronics engineer that uses his expertise to develop advanced sound design for the automaker, becoming GM’s first-ever lead sound designer in 2017. He was tapped to create soundtracks for each of GM’s existing and forthcoming EVs, and finds his muse in the personality of each vehicle.
For example, the GMC Hummer EV has a unique soundtrack when Watts To Freedom (WTF) mode is activated, playing a deep drone that swells with power in time with the speed and power of the electric pickup and SUV. This sound is choreographed with a visual LED display on the dash, giving the driver a sense of building torque and power as it accelerates in the absence of the traditional ICE sound. Kapadia worked alongside noise and vibration engineers to find the perfect note.
The Cadillac Lyriq, on the other hand, has a soundtrack that creates less of a visceral feeling of speed, and instead focuses on creating an ambience of luxury and comfort. These sounds are relayed through the Lyriq’s speakers, enhancing the futuristic and luxurious feel of the EV’s interior.
Additionally, sound and vibration engineers were tasked with creating safety sounds. Electric vehicles are mostly silent at lower speeds, prompting government agencies to implement acoustic vehicle alert systems (AVAS), which play a sound through the vehicle’s external speakers to help pedestrians identify where an EV is at low speeds. The Hummer EV emits a synthesized chord at low speeds, while the Lyriq plays an ethereal drone to alert pedestrians to its location.
“Sound design and sound engineering is really a fusion of regulatory needs and artistic design,” said Doug Moore, a Global Regulatory Sound and Vibration Engineer for GM. “We want purposeful and pleasing exterior sound and a relaxing experience for customers in the interior. It all comes down to making our EVs safe and enjoyable.”
You can preview these sounds at GM’s Soundtrack Your Drive website, which can be found here.
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they are worried about audio sounds in vehicles that aren’t available and yet in a Buick Envision, assuming you can find one the frigged heated seats are missing chips to make them work…like the priorities
Well duh…a hummer should sound different from a Cadillac. It is undermined a bit however when you open the door and they have the exact same GM chime!
this one goes vroom vroom
but this one goes buubububububububububububububub
Another answer to a question few were asking. If anyone.
Watched some goofy show called “All Girls Garage” ( mostly the two girl “mechanics” just giggle a lot ) and was LMAO because good old BORLA, that has made excellent aftermarket, cat-back exhausts for decades, has now developed an aftermarket system for BEV !!!! Huh, you ask ?? ……They actually are making an electronic add-on that makes sounds like a normal ICE vehicle’s exhaust for the BEV market for those who miss the sounds of a performance engine in their BEV toy. The show featured the installation and wiring of this nonsense. Can’t recall if the sounds are only audible inside the car or outside too because I was laughing so hard.
I enjoyed the article about the sounds the various GM EVs make.
Our 2022 Bolt EUB makes one backing and at low speed which I really like. The closest I can come to describing it is to say that it sounds like the approaching alien flying saucers did in the science fiction movies of years past.
A nice, fun touch there, GM!
are the sounds going to become an option like different sounds for high performance motor…like “can I get the sound of a lumpy cam?”…I will never let go of my !CE vehicle. EVO cars are built for fuegos. I am no fan of Trump but when it comes to EV I agree with him 100%…You want to sit and wait at a station for the hydro to charge up your vehicle?…i think I’ll get me a tow truck..and expect to be busier than a one legged man at an a$$ kicking contest
How about concentrate on getting cars and trucks built and out the door.
Woohoo!
Back in my day we called this exhaust.
Maybe the Gen Z’s can upload the latest mumble Rap to be the low speed audio.
What a bright future we are driving into.
Right now with all the issues manufacturers are having in providing us the options want when spending our hard earned money, does anyone really care about a fake sound that your car is NOT making? My preference would be listening to music of my liking instead of some fake engine sound. I’m sure the manufacturers will be more than happy to offer you any fake sound that you would want for a nominal fee! We can’t even get heated seats but they can provide you with fake gas engine sounds of your liking. What a joke!
IF you had actually bothered to read and comprehend my comment, you would have figured out that it is NOT a car manufacturer offering this AFTERMARKET nonsense. Try harder next time and stop skimming over comments that you feel you must reply to.
Maybe you need to read and comprehend. My comment is my opinion and could care less rather you like it or not. I never stated that it was a manufacturer offering, I said will be more than happy to offer. Key word for you would be will be! Never said that they are offering. If there is money to be made in doing so in the future they WILL be.
Are you really and truly going to keep avoiding the content of my comment and trying to sidestep and spin your original, incorrect and argumentative comment like most lefty’s do ? Yes, yes you obviously are. Not everyone is as reading-comprehension-challenged as you. Whoooosh….right over your head….again ! Re-read your first sentence again which is still out there for everyone to see.
Can we stop referring to these frauds as “Electric” and start truthfully calling them BATTERY-POWERED ?
1st question is: what drives the wheels?
If it is an electric motor, its an electric car.
Now, the electric current powering the electric motor can come from batteries or a generator or a fuel cell.
Question….where does the electricity come from, initially, that runs those electric motors ? Chiefly from a polluting, fossil-fueled generating plant originally, thence to those Energy Hog, Lithium-Ion batteries that are the results of horrific impacts on the environment along with the scarce Cobalt that Putin’s Russia has the World’s biggest deposits of and including the scarce Copper that is used in the electric motors. You don’t have a leg to stand on ! “internal Combustion Engines” are powered by Gas and Diesel so why aren’t all you BEV fan-boys calling them gas cars ? They are BATTERY POWERED but you fan-boys don’t want to admit it do you ? After all, it’s a negatively loaded term that doesn’t fit your extreme leftoid agenda.
@billj598:
What makes you think that the term “BATTERY POWERED” is “negatively loaded”?
Very strange