Transcript

Conor 00:00:00 For the Pixel camera sound, I originally recorded scissors closing and opening, and that was used as the basis for manipulating the final sound that you hear today.

Voiceover 00:00:14 Welcome to the Made by Google podcast, where we meet the people who work on the Google products you love. Here's your host Rachid Finge.

Rachid 00:00:22 Today we're talking to someone whose team's work you're hearing right now. That's right. We're meeting our sound design lead, Connor O'Sullivan.

Voiceover 00:00:31 This is a Made by Google podcast.

Rachid 00:00:33 That sounds great, Connor and Sounds Great, is also your mission on your internal profile at Google. So tell me about your job. What is sound design and why is it important for a phone?

Conor 00:00:44 Well, sound design essentially is the art of creating intentional sound and doing it in the context of a product or a brand experience. So there are many different types of sound design. We think of more traditional types in terms of designing sound for theater or for film or for gaming. You know, there's a big industry around sound design for gaming. But more recently as kind of electronic products have developed and progress and their capabilities have grown, there's become an increasing need for the use of sound as a means of providing feedback to people who are engaging with those products. So if you think about a phone, for example, screens in phones have really developed and, and come on in the past 15, 20 years, there's a lot of information that we can get onto that screen. At the same time, we don't wanna overburden any one of the senses for how we convey information to users.

Conor 00:01:48 So we're putting a lot of emphasis on the visuals that come to people and on the way that we're channeling information visually to people. But we have the opportunity through sound design to kind of offset the burden of information that we're putting on the visual domain onto other senses too. So we can cue things to people and give information to people even if they're not actually looking at their device. We can give information when they're maybe stepped away from their device. We can also kind of reinforce information that we're giving through sound because sound is great at providing contextual feedback or providing a sense of emotion or maybe giving like positive inflection or a negative inflection or a sense of urgency. Sound is great at conveying emotion. So if we as designers want to emotionally connect people with their devices, sound provides a great means of doing that.

Rachid 00:02:49 So what drew you to sound design initially and how did that bring you to Google, which I think is nine years ago?

Conor 00:02:55 So my background in terms of academics is music and mathematics. I have a master's degree in music technology and after that program I got into working with an EU project where I worked on exploring sound design as part of the product design process. So I learned essentially how thinking about music, understanding technology, how those things can come together and like I said, convey information to people in a way that wasn't necessarily traditionally done at the time.

Rachid 00:03:32 Connor, just to make this a little bit more practical, you get to sort of design and decide what my ringtone sounds like on Pixel. Maybe you design what my alarm sounds like when I wake up in the morning. Is that right?

Conor 00:03:44 Exactly. So yes, if you think about the sounds that you hear as you interact with your phone or your Pixel device, there's many different sounds that people might come across, throughout their day to day. Some of the classics being what a ringtone sounds like, what a notification sounds like, like you said, the sound that wakes me up in the morning

Conor 00:04:13 And also other types of sounds which we call like interaction sound. So if I'm locking or unlocking my phone, those are the sounds that you hear as you interact and engage with your device. So part of the philosophy that we have around creating sounds, especially as we think about sounds like ringtones, notifications, alarms, is that we have a set of sounds that we feel represent Pixel really well. At the same time, part of the Pixel experience is providing people an opportunity to customize and personalize their experience, their phone so that it feels like a reflection of them and feels like something that they identify with. So we want to, through the sounds that we provide to people, we want to provide them an opportunity to really explore and audition a range of sounds that feel like they can find something that matches them and their identity and feels right for who they are.

Conor 00:05:15 So we wanna provide ideally a broad range of sounds that people can audition, preview, maybe try out for a while and see if they find something that feels like it fits for them. Kind of similar to how you know, they might choose a certain color for their phone or a certain uh, wallpaper style for their phone. We really want to have the sound experience represent the ethos of the Pixel brand. Both as I said in terms of how we provide default sounds that people hear kind of outta the box, but also how we give people options to um, find sounds that reflect them.

Rachid 00:05:56 So how do you decide then what kind of sound fits Pixel? Like how would you describe a Pixel sound? Like when is it a match with Pixel?

Conor 00:06:04 Yeah, so when we consider what sound would work best for Pixel, we really need to go back and look at what we call the design principles around Pixel and also the brand and how we think about Pixel as a product. So we think about things like design principles such as simple, human, playful. Those are things that we think represent the Pixel brand well and the pixel design experience well. So we think about, okay, when it comes to sound, how are those principles teased out through sound? So if you listen to maybe the default ringtone or the default alarm on the pixel, there's kind of like a gentle introduction to the sound and then it becomes a little bit more playful. It picks up

Conor 00:07:03 And performs its duty as a ringtone or as an alarm, which it should do of course by either letting you know that you have a phone call coming in, uh, or hey it's time to wake up. Now that's something that we really do consider when we design sounds on Pixel, especially when it comes to what the default sound is. So it has to be a good representation of the Pixel brand and the Pixel overall design philosophy. But it also because it's a product sound, it needs to work well and perform its function. So designers often talk about form and function. The form of the sound is the aesthetic quality and that's how we believe the sound represents the Pixel brand and the Pixel ethos. But the function of the sound of course is that in one case it's a ringtone so it needs to alert you that your phone is ringing and you have about usually like 20 seconds or so to let someone know that their phone is ringing before it goes to voicemail. Similarly, for an alarm sound, of course we like the idea of a gentle sound, but at the same time it needs to wake you up. So for the Pixel default it starts off gently, gently and it kind of builds and um, introduces more elements that are in, you know, more effective for waking, maybe heavier sleepers. That's how we kind of create the sound. We think about the form, we think about the function and then we try and find something that blends well together.

Rachid 00:08:29 So what does the process look like? Maybe we can even throw it back to Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro. Are you shown the device and you come up with a fitting ringtone? Is that sort of how it works?

Conor 00:08:40 For each of the Pixel products that come out, we try and provide something that is interesting or engaging for people that are going to invest their time and energy into checking out this new product. So for Pixel 8, for example, Google has been all in on AI since I think 2017, where they went from mobile first world to an AI first world. We really thought, you know, for Pixel 8 it's one of the most advanced AI optimized devices, uh, out there. So we wanted to explore how we could use generative AI as a collaborative partner in the process for how we would create sounds and do it in a way that only Google could deliver. So that's what we did for Pixel 8, but we wanted to not replace the human creative process but actually to extend it. So we looked at some of Google's in-house tools so that we could unlock new ways of inspiring the creative process and of expressing new sounds and think about what the future of sound design would look like. So that's why for Pixel 8 we created the new Gems collection, which is a collection of sound which leverages Google AI technology to create sounds that we could only do using these new tools

Rachid 00:10:03 And these tools, uh, used by your team. Also the opening jingle of the Made by Google podcast...

Conor 00:10:08 That sound was actually created by one of the designers on the team Harrison, maybe I'll have him just say a few words about it too.

Harrison 00:10:14 Thanks Connor. The intro and outro music is a ringtone titled Amber Beats, which is exclusive to the Pixel phone and part of the sound collection titled Gems. The Gem Sound Collection launched alongside the Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro. All of the sounds in this collection were produced using Google MusicFX, a generative AI model that converts text input into music. Our goal with the Gem Sound Collection was to explore how Google's in-house tools can unlock creative inspiration and expression and provide an optimistic glimpse into that future. To give you a glimpse into our creative process, we would start with the text prompt for Amber Beats. The prompt was behind the groovy baseline there's an atmospheric pad synth, which adds depth to the track. Bouncy drums are featured with a clear glass hit, predominant sound. There are layers of synth sounds from the 30 seconds of output that MusicFX created. There was a two second snippet that caught my attention. I took that audio clip and began to rhythmically and melodically alter it, building an original idea that felt authentic to me. Here's what that sounded like, see if you can hear it within the context of the final piece.

Harrison 00:11:44 If you're a Pixel user, I highly recommend exploring Pixel sounds accessible through your phone sound and vibration settings. Pixel sounds offers a wide range of ringtones and hopefully you can find something to match your unique personality and style.

Rachid 00:11:59 You bet. Thanks Harrison. And also thanks for making our podcast sound great. Now Connor, back to you. So far we've talked about ringtones and alarms, but what about the other sounds like maybe the sounds you hear when you lock your phone, do you have someone like run out to a store to buy a lock and then record the sound it makes?

Conor 00:12:16 Yeah, I mean it can be for when it comes to sound design for products, you know, we're generally working with certain constraints in mind. So on any cell phone device, the speakers that you're working with, they tend to be smaller, you know, they're not like full studio style speakers, so you've got a limited kind of frequency range that you're working with. There's only certain number of sounds that sound really great on a small device like that. So often as designers we love to have constraints because it focuses in the problem and it makes you kind of get creative and that's what designers love to do. So when it comes to creating sounds for small devices, we want to still do it in a way that sounds aesthetically pleasing. And also, like I mentioned earlier, matches our overall design principles. So yes, it can come to actually recording real world sounds and maybe manipulating them and taking them and doing something digital with them.

Conor 00:13:20 It can also be sometimes starting from a digital place too. So it really just depends on what sounds good in the, on the device in the moment. But I will say, I think for the Pixel camera sound, I originally recorded scissors closing and opening and that was used as the basis for manipulating the final sound that you hear today. That's not like it's just straight up recording of that action, but that's the basis of that sound that we hear today. Part of the process then is once we have the sound and we think it maybe sounds good, we then have to of course hear it and audition it on the device and not just on the device but doing that in context. So if it's a camera sound, I wanna make sure that if I am outside I can hear that sound as I take a picture.

Conor 00:14:14 I wanna make sure maybe the shutter motion that you see on the screen fits really well with the sound that you're hearing. If it's a ringtone, I wanna make sure that that's gonna sound really good in my home, but it's also gonna sound really good on the street. And then we optimize the sound for the hardware so we make any orchestration or you know, EQ or whatever it is, any types of changes that need to be made to get the sound sounding as good as possible on the actual device. So it's a highly iterative process. It's not just about the input sound, but it's also about how that's being played back on the actual acoustics of the device. And in different environments too, there

Rachid 00:14:59 Are always challenges, right? So is there a particular sound or maybe a ringtone that for whatever reason was really hard to make

Conor 00:15:06 The original default uh, sound on Pixel? The default ringtone, um, was called the Big Adventure and it was a great sound. It was like fun and upbeat, energetic, it's still available for people to preview and to select.

Conor 00:15:35 But then a couple of cycles ago for Pixel we wanted to do a redesign to reflect some of the uh, newer kind of fun energy that was coming out of the Pixel devices. We decided to do a variation of the original default sound and this was called Your New Adventure. So it was about reflecting more of the customization capabilities that Pixel has on the device, but we went through a long iteration process with that sound just to get it right and to get it sounding like it was really new expression of the sound that sounded as good as possible on the Pixel. So I would say with the Your New Adventure sound, that was one where we found it challenging to get the transition that we have from this like slow gentle state to a more faster upbeat, um, lively tempo and sound. We worked on that a lot and that was one where there was a long iterative process of trying to get that one right.

Rachid 00:16:51 So I guess most of your work is actually to be found on any Pixel phone. On the Pixel Sounds app. Can you tell us a little bit more about how it came to be and how people can use it?

Conor 00:17:00 Yeah, so the Pixel Sounds app is what people use to customize their sound experience on uh, their Pixel. So they go into settings and sounds and then you either go to look at your ringtone, your notification or your alarm. And what we wanted to do with the Pixel sounds experience was to categorize sounds into different buckets so people could like see at a high level what type of sound they might like to hear. So for example, you have uh, our kind of default Pixel collection, but then you also have uh, a really loud collection for some people who believe it or not really love loud sounds on their phones all the time. you have like retro sounds, you have classical sounds. So we have like different collections. I mentioned the Gem sounds earlier, which were designed using AI tools in a collaboration that we did. We provide these different styles, different experiences for people so that they can customize their sound experience and find a sound that matches who they are and reflects their identity. So that's what we do using the Pixel Sounds app.

Rachid 00:18:13 Connor, there are many members of the Pixel family. We of course got the phones, the watch, the buds, should all members of the Pixel family sound the same?

Conor 00:18:22 Yeah, so that's a very intentional way of us going about designing sounds for our family of products. So if you think about the aesthetics of the Pixel phone versus the Pixel Watch and Pixel Buds, you can look at those all together and see okay, they're different devices but they feel like they're part of the same family. So we very much try and do the same thing for sound design and for haptics design we think about it as what's our design language? So how does a sound over here on the pixel phone represent and show up on a Pixel Bud or Pixel Watch? And the way to do that is to get back to the design principles that I mentioned earlier. So our design principles should be the same regardless of which product they're on. But the actual sound might sound is going to sound a little bit different because it's being played back on a smaller device or on a different device with different capabilities. So the notification sound on Pixel phone should sound similar but not the exact same as the notification sound maybe on the Pixel Watch.

Rachid 00:19:34 Connor, you mentioned in the beginning you don't only work on sound, which you also mentioned to word haptics. Could you explain for people who don't know what that is, what it is and why is that important and why would the team that owns sound also work on the haptics?

Conor 00:19:46 Yeah, so haptics is about providing, like I said, information through the sense of touch. So typically people think about the vibrate function on their phone, but there's also other feedback that is played through what they call haptic actuators, which provides this touch feedback as people interact with their devices. So I mentioned the lock and unlock sound earlier, there's also a haptic version of that that just gives them that kind of vibe tactile feedback or that haptic feedback. Earlier I talked about how we can provide information and offset some of the burden that we place on the visual domain through sound. We can also do that through haptics too. So sometimes people are in environments where they'd prefer not to hear sound. So we provide a means through haptic feedback of alerting or notifying people that maybe there's something on their device that they would like to pay attention to. So we do that through providing vibration feedback or more subtle haptic cues. Uh, in terms of notifications as well. And really we think about sound and haptics in a similar way. They're all about providing information in the non-visual domain. So ideally sound and haptics will work well together. That's why as sound designers we try and think about sound and haptics together as a more unified multisensory experience.

Rachid 00:21:18 All the sounds on Pixel have a name like you mentioned Your New Adventure before. But I'm wondering how do you come up with those names? Is that your team's work as well?

Conor 00:21:27 It's collaborative but it's definitely mostly the UX content strategy team. What we try and do as sound designers is come up with a kind of musical or aesthetic description of the sound and then what they will do is they'll go through each one and actually like completely amplify and transform any words that we had into something that actually sounds really amazing and cool. I think of the one example that I mentioned in the past was the original default sound on pixel for a notification. It's this kind of little explosive sound in a kind of fun way. Mm-Hmm and it's called Popcorn. So we did a kind of an iteration of that again a couple of cycles ago on Pixel. The philosophy of the sound was the same but it just sounded like a modern version of the sound and they named that one Eureka 'cause it felt very expressive and instantaneous.

Rachid 00:22:24 Let's get back to the Pixel Sounds app. Imagine one of our listeners want to change their ringtone. How should they make that choice? What's the best way for them to customize the sound of their devices you think?

Conor 00:22:35 I really think about it in the same way as people think of changing their wallpaper on the device, for example. It's about going in and playing around with sounds, hearing sounds, hearing them maybe in different contexts, different environments, thinking about when they would like to use those sounds. You know, what we found from people is that some people will tell us when we ask them about using sounds on a phone, oh well I always leave my phone on silent or I always leave my phone on vibrate. What we find is the majority of people actually change their, uh, listening behaviors throughout the day. So sometimes the phone will be on silent, sometimes it will be on vibrate. Sometimes they will be using sounds. So, you know, I think I would encourage people to think about when they do on sound, what type of sound would they like, what type of sound maybe reflects them and is a good representation of their personality. And that's why we try to provide a range of options for people to hear and to use on the device.

Rachid 00:23:40 Connor, thank you so much for all the insights. It's just mesmerizing to understand how much worked risk behind our pixel devices sound. So thank you so much. And how about we just listened to our end jingle, the one your team created.

Voiceover 00:23:51 Thank you for listening to the Made by Google podcast. Don't miss out on new episodes. Subscribe now wherever you get your podcasts to be the first to listen.