- At Ford’s Advanced Engineering Center, sound quality engineers analyze a variety of vehicle sounds – from the exhaust note of a Mustang to the click of a defogger switch.
- Sophisticated audio equipment in a one-of-a-kind testing lab gives a large pool of jurors identical auditory experiences – for repeatable, scientific study.
- Research builds specific guidelines for a particular sound on future vehicles.
Ford Motor Company has been a pioneer in the scientific study of vehicle sounds. It was one of the first automakers to build a dedicated audio listening laboratory to conduct true “blind studies” with engineers and customers. The sound-proof room at Ford’s Research and Engineering campus in Dearborn is completely isolated from its surrounds – down to its silent ventilation and lighting systems and the steel springs that support its floor. The listening lab has 14 pairs of ultra-high-fidelity headsets and keypads to allow participants to respond to sounds as they are played. “We don’t just ask people which sound they like better,” says Kelly Vandenbrink, the lab’s lead engineer. “Instead, we target particular attributes to determine what elements of a sound are perceived as good or bad.” In a typical listening study, for example, she might play a series of sounds and ask participants to rank them on a certain semantic scale from “extremely smooth” to “extremely rough.” “We’re not just copying good sounds,” Vandenbrink says, “but we determine what makes a sound good in our customer’s ears.” The advantages of a dedicated listening lab as opposed to field evaluations are numerous. First, all jurors in a sound study have an identical experience, since the recorded sound is perfectly repeatable. More importantly, the lab eliminates the “halo effect” or bias jurors might have toward a particular product.
The listening lab has been very busy recently. In 2001, for example, a total of 14 studies were conducted. Last year, Vandenbrink and her team ran more than 35, with topics ranging from target-setting for tire noise limits to improving the sounds of seat motors, window switches, door closures and power steering. “We even fabricated a sound from scratch, studied it, refined it and readied it for production,” Vandenbrink says, referring to the digital “door open” chime to be used on future Lincolns.
Because each study focuses on distinct attributes of a sound, the results can be used to help design future products to meet established sound criteria. The all-new 2005 Ford Mustang is one of many future Fords that will benefit from years of listening lab work. What’s the formula for Mustang’s signature sound? “That,” Vandenbrink says, “is a closely guarded secret.”
