For decades, nearly every microwave has sounded the same. We’ve all grown accustomed to the loud, piercing, alarm-like beep that plays whenever you press a button or the timer hits zero. But it doesn’t have to be that way. Starling, a new sonic-branding studio founded by sound designers Joel Corelitz and Colin Coogan, is working on a way to upgrade microwave sounds without replacing the cheap hardware already inside them. The studio helps companies develop sonic strategies, interface sounds, branded music and audio logos. Collectivley, Corelitz and Coogan have previously worked with clients like Netflix, Sony and Microsoft. The company’s Instagram page is also filled with demos of how the pair would redesign the startup sounds for different devices and apps, and this month, they turned their attention to microwaves. Why microwave beeps sound annoying In a series of Instagram videos, Corelitz explained why microwaves and many other home appliances rely on the same annoying beep. It largely comes down to cost.
“It’s because microwaves are designed around a really simple limitation, which is they rely on these things called passive piezo buzzers to make their sounds, which are kind of limited to beeps and tones,” Corelitz says in one video.
