“There are a few perspectives from which you can see this. One would be you pay a premium price for a premium car or premium product in general. So basically, if you just look at the numbers, you pay for people like me at BMW, now doing this. But then also what you mentioned, you’re buying a premium product, you’re expecting a premium experience. And obviously sound, it can be, you can relate this to every field or to every part of the car. You want a premium experience. Means every part, every piece of the experience or of the car, so to say, somebody needs to put some brain into it.” – Johannes Luckemeier

My guest for this episode was born and raised in Germany, where he learned the guitar as a teenager and later took piano lessons. He received his Master’s in Music Technology from Ireland before going into the car industry in Germany as a sound designer, applying and developing sound designs and audio algorithms for premium car manufacturers. During that time he bought a Tesla, and he was unsatisfied with the nonexistent engine sound experience – so he developed a system from scratch to create personalized engine sound for electric vehicles. Now he’s selling the system directly to consumers from his company, based in Texas.

His name is Johannes Luckemeier and I’ve been waiting for the chance to talk with him about the sounds of cars inside and out, something that electric cars are going to have to master. Whether you’re a car or sound enthusiast, I think you’ll really enjoy this conversation. We still have so much to learn about sound’s influence in the places we spend the most time, including our cars.

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(0:00:00) - The Role of Sound in Cars

We start things off with Johannes’ earliest memories of sound, such as listening to Chuck Berry on the radio and dreaming of becoming a rock star. “I started with an acoustic guitar,” he recalls, “picked up an electric guitar later on, and I also had like a keyboard as a kid which, I’ll be honest, I mainly used for prank calls.” We discuss how the recession changed the direction of his studies and career path, and his work in the auto industry as he helped develop a unique sound for each brand. “There was a short time,” Johannes explains, “when you bought a Rolls-Royce – we’re talking half a million with all the extras, fully loaded – and you’d get the same sounds as a BMW. Obviously, that can’t be happening.”

(0:11:31) - The Influence of Sound in Cars

Our conversation focuses on a behind-the-scenes look at how luxury car manufacturers work to create a premium sound experience, and how surprisingly similar Johannes’ work with a high-end toy company turned out to be. “The kind of funny thing about this is the customers,” he says. “They’re even more crazy, more about the details, even more than about the people who bought the BMWs or Rolls Royce.” We discuss how engines, particularly in electric vehicles, have become quieter in recent years, and some of the surprising steps automakers are taking to retain their distinctive sound. “They’re still fast,” he tells us, “they still have the horsepower and the performance and everything, but you lose a lot of sound. So what they do is they play engine sound through the interior speakers.”

(0:16:49) - Electric Car Sound Modification Discussion

The first half of our discussion wraps up with a closer look at how electric vehicles have created an opportunity for a whole new sound platform, and the inspiration behind Johannes’ work on the Glydsphere system. “I started the prototyping on my laptop with some sound prototyping software and then I thought about ‘Hey, we need a speaker,’” he says. “And so I had the idea, ‘Let’s put like a guitar speaker type of speaker into this Tesla, basically into the front.’” We discuss the growing need for such a custom sound delivery system in electric vehicles, especially in countries like Germany that have passed new laws regarding exactly how much noise a car can and should make to be considered safe. “So for an electric vehicle,” Johannes says, “they didn’t have this law for all models, but for new models, they need to make a sound on the outside when they’re under a certain speed.”

Episode Summary

• Johannes talks about his work in creating personalized audio experiences for luxury cars.
• The role of sonic branding in shaping a vehicle’s distinctive interior sound.
• How the shift to electric vehicles is creating a new demand for custom auto sounds.

Stay tuned for next week’s episode as we talk about the variety of sounds electric cars can employ now, from the Millennium Falcon to the Jetsons’ flying cars, the prospect of users creating their own custom engine sounds, and Johannes’ work on his latest Glydsphere sound system prototype.

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