SonicTexting > sound.

The first versions of the SonicTexting sound had a number of overlapping sound layers represent ing different information elements. The most significant realization in working on the sound was that the real design challenge is to edit out sound layers and achieve the most elegant and economical information representation. At the end of the process, Beginner mode contains only one sound layer (letter phonemes) in which loudness, degree of overlap and pitch are used to represent the information elements. Expert mode’s discrete percussive sounds are an even more minimal sound representation of the information.

Here is a history of the sound design process of SonicTexting, arranged chronologically. Each sound sample is the word “s-o-n-i-c” written with SonicTexting at one stage of the design process.
Click on the icons to hear the sounds.

Physical 1
An attempt to sonify The ‘physicality’ of the Quikwriting template.
Contains two elements: a ‘border’ sound, invoked when the controller moves over a border between the regions and a ‘friction’ sound, whose loudness and tempo correspond to the keybong speed.

 
Vocal 1
A letter phoneme is played when the controller enters a region (e.g. the sound “bh”).
Upon return to the center, the letter name is played (e.g the sound “bee”).
 
  Musical 1
A note is played while the control is within a region. The note remains on until the user returns to the center. In this way ‘legal’ letter paths create harmonic chords, while sequences of letters create note sequences – little tunes.
 
 
Musical 2
Ascending note order that corresponded to the new, alphabetical letter order. The notes ascend when moving through a-b-c. The musical versions build on peoples proficiency in memorizing and recognizing musical tunes. Errors are identified by noticing the tune is wrong.
 
  Vocal 2
Breath sounds added: inhale on exiting the center and exhale on returning to it. This strengthens the physical aspect of the gesture map by enhancing the transition between interior and exterior regions and relating it to the start and finish of the character input.
 
  Vocal 3
The ‘Daniele’ vocal version – continuous, looped phoneme sounds with the amplitude determined by distance. Uses an Italian male voice.
 
  Vocal 4
The ‘Silvia’ version – continuous, looped phoneme sounds using an Italian female voice. Phonemes are sung in different pitches according to their location in the circle circumference.
 
  Vocal 4b
The ‘Silvia’ version with extra character sounds added: space, backspace, period, comma, question and exclamation marks.
 
  Vocal 4c
The ‘Silvia’ version with ‘Readback’ feature added – when a whole word is written the inputted letters are read back in succession. This is the current SonicTexting ‘Beginner mode’.
 
Musical 3
Percussive sound elements with a the same pitches as in beginner mode. This is the current SonicTexting ‘Expert mode’.
 
 
Thanks to Silvia Rollino and Daniele Mancini for their help.