In Part 2 of our deep dive into Apple’s iconic sound design, the Apple Design Team unpacks the iPhone’s trio of default ringtones, the evolution of their alarm sounds, the UX sounds of the AirPods Pro, and much more. Along the way, legendary beatmaker Flying Lotus breaks down his collaboration with Apple, and the Design Team reveals how they use haptics as a standalone “instrument.” Featuring Billy Sorrentino, Hugo Verweij and Flying Lotus. Sign up for Twenty Thousand Hertz+ to get our entire catalog ad-free. If you know what this week's mystery sound is, tell us at mystery.20k.org. Follow Dallas on Instagram, TikTok and LinkedIn. Watch our video shorts on YouTube, and join the discussion on Facebook. Get a free Netsuite KPI Checklist at netsuite.com/20k. This episode is brought to you by BetterHelp. Get 10% off your first month at betterhelp.com/20k. Subscribe to What It’s Like to Be at whatitsliketobe.com RSVP to meet Dallas at the informal audio hangout at All Season in LA, on Thursday, September 26th. Join Dallas at the Sound for Film & TV event at Sony Pictures Studios on Saturday, September 28th. Episode transcript, music, and credits can be found here: www.20k.org/episodes/the-sound-of-apple-2 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
You're listening to 20,000 hz.
I'm Dallas Taylor.
In our last episode, we explored how Apple uses sound design to give their devices a distinct voice.
Instead of futuristic hyper digital tones, Apple tends to choose sounds that are tactile and organic.
This makes these high tech devices sound familiar, so people feel more comfortable using them.
You can hear this approach in sounds like the note alert for messages, which is a c on a glockenspiel.
There's also the the chord alert for calendar, which is composed of three notes on a kalimba.
We do have a throughline of how we approach the design discipline.
That's Billy Sorrentino from the Apple design team.
Making sure that it is human centered is first and foremost.
There's oftentimes an analog quality to it, a purity to that sound, which is why we do that so often.
Find an instrument and record an analog instrument in a really beautiful way and lead with that tonality.
Apple has taken this approach for quite a while now.
For instance, when they made the default ringtone for the original iPhone, they could have chosen something dense and futuristic, but instead they chose an upbeat melody played on a single instrument, an instrument that's been around in some form or another for thousands of years.
Here's Steve Jobs introducing the iPhone in 2007.
So this is what it looks like when you get a call.
This is what it sounds like.
It's one of our ringtones you can pick.
Of course.
That ringtone was called Marimba.