FUTURE SOUNDS – The tonality of tomorrow

Klaus Bischoff, Head of Design for Volkswagen Passenger Cars, opened the evening with a keynote on the sound of the new all-electric Volkswagen ID.3*. The exterior sound of the ID.3 was heard for the first time in public – a confident and likeable, futuristic sound.

Together with the safety aspects at low speeds, the sound of an electric car is especially important. “The sound gives the electric vehicle its own voice, which is something we can design independently of mechanical noises,” explained Klaus Bischoff. “The ID.3 communicates a sense of security and the promise of effortless mobility: this car will take us anywhere.”

Radio moderator Anja Caspary welcomed guests from the fields of acoustics, sound art, audio technology and sound design: Prof. Dr. Brigitte Schulte-Fortkamp (Professor of Psychoacoustics and Noise Effects), Dr. Matthias Röder (Director of the Karajan Institute), William Russell (Monom Berlin Center for Spatial Sound) and Sarah Voice (Mimi Hearing Technologies).

The creation and processing of sounds – in music, in a car or in an urban environment – is shaped more and more by digitalization. For example, Matthias Röder offered insights into how Beethoven’s unfinished 10th symphony could be completed with artificial intelligence. Sarah Voice from the Berlin-based start-up Mimi Hearing Technologies presented a new type of hearing test that identifies problems that cannot be detected with conventional methods. In this test, a special software uses intelligent sound adaptation to compensate for hearing impairments.

* Concept car