Post · bonfire.cafe

relatedly: in Brazil I had a Samsung washing machine that, when it was done washing, would beep with actually pleasant tones. first of all the beeps, while still clearly electronic, were not simply triangles or squares, but a crystaly timbre that reminded me of windchimes. and it wouldn't just beep the same note a few times, but play a happy little tune that made it feel like the machine was proud of a job well done.

ever since having that machine I still resent the harsh, dissonant loud beeps of my current washing machine, my microwave, my fax maschine, my tria laser 4x, and basically ever single machine that beeps. I often wonder what they do to designers that all machines have to be so aurally primitive. it seems to me that just having 1) clicky physical buttons, sturdy and reliable plus 2) pleasant auditory feedback would instantly make a machine enormously more enjoyable to use, at minimal cost, and in a market that seems oversaturated by models that would be a clear differential?

but what do I know, maybe nobody else cares about how the beeps of the machines sound

elilla&, summer enjoyer travesti

@elilla@transmom.love replied · 2 months ago

relatedly: this is the script I use when I want to make my computer beep a few times to tell me a task is completed or something:

#!/bin/bash
# usage: soxbeep [N] [duration]
# where N = number of beeps (default 1)
# and duration = duration in seconds (default 0.33)
# try e.g. soxbeep.sh 7

n=1
duration=0.33
wavetype=tri

if [ "$1" ]; then
 n="$1"
fi
if [ "$2" ]; then
 duration=$2
fi
if [ "$3" ]; then
 wavetype=$3
fi

# penta M
notes=( A3 C4 D4 E4 G4 A4 C5 D5 E5 G5 )
function getnote() {
 echo "${notes[$RANDOM % ${#notes[@]} ]}"
}

command=''
for blah in $(seq $n); do
 note="$(getnote)"
 command="$command synth $duration $wavetype $note :"
done
# remove last ':'
command="${command:0:-1}"

play -q -n $command 2>&-

I have used variations of this basic idea since 2001, when my NetBSD webserver (an old 486 in my dorm room) would beep to us every minute whenever the ADSL modem randomly stopped responding. NetBSD is cool because you can just pipe to /dev/speaker, in Linux you'll need sox(1) installed.

elilla&, summer enjoyer travesti

@elilla@transmom.love replied · 2 months ago

I wonder how far can you push a single piezo buzzer into interesting sounds or like, a small set of piezo buzzers. is there a piezo buzzer virtuoso? some sort of Tim Follin of piezo? @owl do you know anything?