Emotional Audial Gestures

The sounds I was going for, in order, are:

1) Alarm: “Emergency!”
similar to a naval ships alarm, this has a linear rise in pitch, which is sustained at the end. It gives a sense of urgency.

 

2) Positive: “I’m happy”
a simple melody played one note at a time. Like our speech patterns when we want to convey something positive, the pitch and tone go up at the end.

3) Spooky: “Something Strange (in the neighborhood)”
a base frequence switches back and forth between 600Hz and 800Hz, with a vibrato for effect. It uses two for loops to control the panning sound, and to switch between the base tones.

4) Negative: “That’s not good.”
an oscillating pattern that is very dissonant. It consists of two atonal sounds being played in rapid succession.

5) Dying: “I’m dying… boo.”
a decelerating pattern that lowers the frequency and period of the sound over time, giving it the feel of a device that is quickly losing power.

6) Bye: “Signing off.”
a normal melody, played in linear order

 

And here is the code that made it all possible.