[HN Gopher] The Kia Instrument
___________________________________________________________________
The Kia Instrument
Author : rgbrgb
Score : 94 points
Date : 2022-04-27 19:57 UTC (3 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.kia.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.kia.com)
| agluszak wrote:
| Initially I thought it was something which allows you to choose
| the fake engine sound your electric car makes
| rootusrootus wrote:
| I would support that, as long as I get to choose Jetsons
| sounds.
|
| But really I'd rather just make the sound go away entirely.
| asdff wrote:
| Honestly its the road noise thats even louder than the engine
| in new ICE cars. All I hear when cars pass is the rushing
| wind sound from a 4000lb chunk of steel rolling on cement,
| maybe a small hum. Old beater cars, dudebro trucks, and
| ricer/sports cars are the exceptions of course, but EVs
| aren't going to quiet the freeways like people expect imo.
| i80and wrote:
| I agree that the sound difference is likely overstated, but
| there are two additional factors:
|
| * Drag coefficients are significantly lower in EVs,
| partially because you smooth out the undercarriage and
| generally get more freedom in aerodynamic design.
|
| * Due to range concerns, EV tires tend to be more focused
| on low rolling resistance.
|
| Both of these should gently reduce road noise, if I were to
| speculate?
| reidjs wrote:
| Do you live next to the freeway? EVs will reduce car noise
| in low speed neighborhoods
| josephcsible wrote:
| Wind noise is highly correlated with speed. EVs might not
| quiet the freeways much, but they'll definitely quiet the
| neighborhood streets.
| evo_9 wrote:
| For those that are wondering, this is actually a soft-synth. You
| can download it and run it on Windows or Mac, and it's actually
| pretty nice, they included a VST version so you can use it in
| your DAW of choice. I just loaded it into Live 11 without issue,
| and it sounds pretty nice.
|
| I'm a sucker for these kinds of self-contained synths (think
| OP-1, I owned 2 at one point), and it would be neat if Kia
| actually made this. Doesn't look like the plan(?) but maybe i
| missed it?
| CharlesW wrote:
| The supposed "story behind its creation" strikes me as
| unsatisfactory, pseudo-scientific marketing bullshit. That said,
| I'd love to know the real story of how such a random project got
| this far. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w4egz2QiKzE
| [deleted]
| systemvoltage wrote:
| Oh god, if there is anything I despise in marketing, it is
| bullshit like this. It is just insulting.
| tootie wrote:
| Probably a digital creative agency pitched it
| sparrish wrote:
| What? Why is Kia (a car company) releasing software (Windows/Mac)
| to create loop music featuring nature samples? I'm clearly
| missing something.
| dopa42365 wrote:
| Kia is Hyundai which produces a ton of things other than cars.
| rootusrootus wrote:
| Kia is not Hyundai. Hyundai is the single largest shareholder
| in Kia, however, holding just under 34%.
| AYBABTME wrote:
| And it just so happens that Kia cars are basically Hyundai
| cars under a different skin.
| next_xibalba wrote:
| Why not?
|
| Maybe it sucks. Maybe it's great. Whatever the case, it's cool
| that they're trying something weird.
| [deleted]
| [deleted]
| seanp2k2 wrote:
| Why does Tesla sell surfboards and The Boring Company
| flamethrowers? I'm guessing this R&D will show up in vehicles
| eventually as some sort of selectable custom soundscape.
| ocdtrekkie wrote:
| I almost wonder if someone was making the background sound
| for a car commercial and ended up building this, and of
| course, that would make it Kia IP to release.
| all2 wrote:
| This sounds like the Portal Company selling shower curtains
| and... portal guns.
| croddin wrote:
| They do what they must because they can.
| BHSPitMonkey wrote:
| Incidentally, Tesla cars come with a music production app
| called Trax [1] pre-installed, which is actually just a re-
| skinned fork of LMMS [2]. Perhaps Kia might port this to
| their in-car infotainment systems in a similar way?
|
| [1] https://cleantechnica.com/2020/01/16/the-hyphenate-makes-
| a-b...
|
| [2] https://github.com/teslamotors/lmms/tree/Trax/0.1
| harel wrote:
| Great. Now if only they managed to produce enough (electric) cars
| so that a delivery date is not years ahead, that would be
| terrific.
| goatcode wrote:
| "...particularly connecting the occipital and frontal parts of
| the brain, where our emotional control center is situated, and
| the areas connected to increased creativity and flow states."
|
| Just.. just stick to making cheap cars? This is the kind of thing
| that makes cars not cheap: things that have nothing to do with
| cars. Why are there people being paid to do this? Just make cheap
| cars.
| cush wrote:
| What a strange product. Is it software or hardware or both? And
| it features... Sine! Wow.
| sho_hn wrote:
| Don't knock Sine!
| smoldesu wrote:
| The real killer upgrade is going to be Sawtooth. Mark my
| words, this will put Steve Duda out of a job once they get
| those waveforms in order.
| davidthewatson wrote:
| This is what happens when you hire a German designer from Audi
| and promote him to CEO when the design thinking he brings along
| with him actually generates remarkable results without the soul
| killing side effects of the business people before him.
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Schreyer
|
| I'm OK with a car company doing things that are not aimed
| expressly at making cars. I happen to like what they've done with
| the last ten years of cars leading up to:
|
| https://www.kia.com/us/en/ev6
|
| despite the fact that I prefer biking, motorcycling, or trains.
| My dog doesn't fit into those other modes very well.
| [deleted]
| user_7832 wrote:
| I just wanted to add on to your comment - if someone's looking
| for a high-quality design house/organization (though not in the
| typical sense), I'd highly recommend looking at Type7. They're
| based off Porsche from what I understand, and while most of
| their content appears to be on Instagram (and in some ways
| they're more a collaborator rather than a design studio),
| they've got an absolutely _amazing_ aesthetic.
| smoldesu wrote:
| It's not a particularly great instrument, but it does work on
| Linux if that's your bag. Just need to install it into a Wine
| prefix simulating Windows 8 or later.
| mikae1 wrote:
| So, for anyone asking the "why" question...
|
| It's called _marketing_ and this is an attempt to make Kia look
| like they care about "the nature". It's obviously trying to
| appeal to a younger demographic that does no longer care about
| cars and are worried about the future of our planet.
| [deleted]
| asdff wrote:
| I can't wait for the cognitively dissonant marketing campaigns
| for EVs in the next 10 years telling me to buy more new
| globally produced things that are marginal upgrades to what I
| already have here locally.
|
| OTOH when is the last time you've ever seen an ad for a Trek or
| a Schwinn? This is the time when bike marketers can come and
| eat everyones lunch with simple facts and logic. Much better to
| only need 15 pounds of metal and your own power to move around
| than 4000lbs of metal and power from a natural gas plant to
| move yourself around. Hopefully we see more ads for bikes in
| the coming decades.
| dendrite9 wrote:
| I thought Trek was remarkably upfront for a big (for bikes at
| least) company deciding to talk about sustainability and
| where they stand with it. https://road.cc/content/tech-
| news/trek-releases-its-sustaina...
|
| I've heard recently that instead of getting electric
| motorcycles, the market is much more focused on e-bikes
| because there is less regulation around them.
| bombcar wrote:
| And it worked; it got onto Hacker News, though that may not be
| the target demographic.
|
| Kia has done some nice things, I like the styling on their
| minivan.
| goatcode wrote:
| It's making me want to buy a Kia even less. Though, I'm
| likely not the target demographic; being an aging curmudgeon
| who usually buys used, repairs himself, and runs into the
| ground before buying again.
| HPsquared wrote:
| The more (other) people buy new cars, the cheaper they
| become in the used market.
| rcpt wrote:
| Huh yeah those minivans sure look nice. I bet they have
| attractive financing available at my local Kia dealership.
| I'll check it out today!
| mikae1 wrote:
| _> And it worked; it got onto Hacker News, though that may
| not be the target demographic._
|
| Exactly.
|
| _> though that may not be the target demographic._
|
| I'm thinking this is exactly one of their target demographics
| for a campaign like this. Aware, forward-thinking and often
| young to mid-life consumers. To Kia, every car buyer is a
| good car buyer. To the planet, it's quite the opposite.
| sho_hn wrote:
| > I'm thinking this is exactly one of their target
| demographics for a campaign like this.
|
| Showing you're doing fun/exciting things with software is a
| good move in the competition for scarce sweng talent.
| qorrect wrote:
| I read that as Shweng.
| drewda wrote:
| I bought a Subaru car a few years ago and am now treated to
| their magazine in the mail every few months. It's pure
| "greenwashing": lots about hiking, camping, dogs, beer, arts
| and crafts... nothing about carbon emissions, exurban sprawl,
| or traffic safety.
| dannyphantom wrote:
| Oh, wow; this was certainly unexpected. How neat. Hopefully
| something similar makes it into their vehicles. Imagine how
| interesting it would be to play around with making music
| (safely!) while you drive.
| kube-system wrote:
| Works great with MIDI input too... but... why?
|
| Edit: too bad it's not polyphonic.
| xbar wrote:
| A good monosynth is a lovely thing.
| pigtailgirl wrote:
| when thinking about attracting those you want to care for your
| products - for top of funnel - often smart to start by creating
| experiences that appeal to them - & helps you easily refine the
| messages in your product marketing -
| RajT88 wrote:
| I do not see any fine print about the samples being Creative
| Commons.
|
| Oversight? Or will they sue anyone who starts making good money
| using this software and loops?
| someweirdperson wrote:
| When I read "instrument" and "kia" in the same headline I was
| expecting something creating music of creaking, ratting,
| flapping, grinding, whistling, or scratching sounds.
| robbrown451 wrote:
| Disappointing that for all the work they did, they didn't look at
| an actual piano to get the key geometry right. Specifically,
| black keys aren't centered between the two adjacent white keys,
| they are offset to allow all keys (white and black) to be
| approximately equal width at the back of the keyboard.
|
| It looks weird and awkward the way they do it.
|
| See: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29941801#29943285
| djxfade wrote:
| I couldn't find any details on the website. Is this a VST/Audio
| Unit or a standalone application?
| Gaelan wrote:
| Looking at the contents of the macOS installer (I haven't tried
| to run it), it seems to be both. Looks like it's based on
| https://www.cabbageaudio.com?
| whycombinetor wrote:
| Just downloaded it, seems to be a standalone app for both
| windows and mac
| rektide wrote:
| I'd be in favor of letting mandatory vehicle noisemakers use
| something this. That'd be a nice selling point. "Our electric
| cars dont sound like shit!" Cool.for users, cool.for the world.
|
| A lot of electric vehicles sound like coil whine. Shrill high
| pitched whine. The new Amazon backup sound is, i think, chirps of
| pink noise; could be much worse I dont want arbitrary sound-
| because folks have no taste & would pick obnoxious garbage- but
| letting folks mix together some decent ambient sounds- that
| sounds acceptable, to fulfill mandatory minimum pedestrian
| notification requirements.
| motohagiography wrote:
| Very smart and admirable for taking a risk. When you look at what
| Kia has done with their cars in the last decade, they really are
| an ascendent company.
|
| I go on about Yamaha as a company a bit, but when I saw this, I
| saw a future Yamaha level of design. Cars are just rolling
| smartphones now anyway, and even if this instrument becomes a
| loss leader, it may move Kia from a car company to a lifestyle
| brand.
|
| The pink noise stuff is more interesting than the woo implied by
| it, since it's the basis for lofi beats, and ambient/minimalist
| music in general is arguably hitting a new crest probably not
| seen since the early 90s. I just paid an unreasonable amount of
| money for tickets to see Olafur Arnalds, and saw a symphony do a
| Philip Glass premire just the other week. The old musique
| concrete concept was full of pretentious silliness, but the core
| idea of 'music as an experience' seems to be blooming just now.
| If you listen to electronic music and DJs, a lot of it is
| ephemeral, and this Kia instrument for personal sound design
| seems like a tool for that same experiential music.
|
| Their appeal to science on this one is neither here nor there for
| me, but I've done some reading on the topic to support my own
| music experients. These were the papers that I used to justify
| buying more VCOs for my modular rig, and they may be on to
| something:
|
| meta analysis of effect of binaural beats on cognition, anxiety:
| https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00426-018-1066-8
|
| effect of binaural beats for asmr effects on sleep:
| https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6900908/
|
| Worst case, it's a spectacular flop, a bunch of them end up going
| for pennies on ebay, and a few years later some poor kids
| somewhere pick them up and use them the way they did the Roland
| 303.
| whycombinetor wrote:
| I think you're missing the point, it's freely downloadable as a
| standalone windows/mac executable and that's the entire
| product. There's no physical product.
| emptysongglass wrote:
| > The old musique concrete concept was full of pretentious
| silliness
|
| This is really cruel to the very smart, creative people and
| quite a lot of spirited women who led that movement. Eliane
| Radigue's works alone are a monumental achievement in music.
| The entire power electronics and noise genres owe a huge debt
| to the pioneers of musique concrete. They were playing with new
| media and giving voice to the industry of cities. I don't see
| anything pretentious or silly there.
| mrkramer wrote:
| So ambient mixer in Kia? Cool.
| agluszak wrote:
| That reminds me of this joke:
|
| Me: I would like to buy a piano
|
| Yamaha: Here you go
|
| Me: Hmm, but I'd also like to buy a motorcycle... Do you know
| perhaps where I can find a good one?
|
| Yamaha: You're not gonna believe this...
| [deleted]
___________________________________________________________________
(page generated 2022-04-27 23:00 UTC)