Solar System for iPad

Condiment Junkie have just completed the interface audio and background sound design for ‘Solar System for iPad’, our first partnership with Touch Press, the people behind ‘The Elements’.

Working with the great team at Touch Press, we have designed sounds that completely enhance the product and the user experience, and are proud to have been involved in such a fantastic project.

Our favorite feature is a deep rumble in the 3D orrery, that makes the screen vibrate as you zoom into a planet, evoking the gravity and mass of the celestial bodies. This is a great example of using sound to communicate through other senses - it adds a tactile, physical level to the experience too.

The new title includes an haunting and majestic track specially adapted by Björk from her forthcoming Biophilia project, and for the moment is available only in Solar System for iPad.

Action & Alert study

We teamed up with architectural firm Nightingale Associates on a research project to define the sensory design factors that contribute to optimal learning environments, looking at the key issues of transitions (after lunch, between moments of activity and concentration), communication and self-esteem.

We created a 5:1 soundscape that took on several key pieces of psychoacoustic research on the effects of music and sound in learning environments. 

It was designed to blend in to the background and not grab the pupil’s attention. To achieve this there is no repeating rhythm and no catchy melody. Natural sound effects such as recordings of rain, woods etc. were included in the soundscape, as they contain white noise which helps to minimise distraction from the world outside the classroom. There is also an argument for these types of sounds having a positive effect on our mental state, through an evolutionary link we have with the natural world.

The intervention has been running at All Saints primary school in Anfield, Liverpool.

Results should be in soon....

Sound of a City

Creating a sonic identity for a whole city, that permeates down from all marketing and branding, to the actual experience of being in the city and navigating around it.

Meydan is a new city being built in the desert outside Dubai. Themed around horses, the city is made up of 4 districts - Residential, Leisure, Financial, and the Racecourse.

We created a soundtrack for the city, with each district having it's own variation of a central theme - like the different movements of a film soundtrack.

We can then take the tone, melody and rhythm of each district's theme, and create mnemonics that can be used on all audio alerts and signals in that district, giving each area its own sonic identity and creating a musical harmony across the city.

Here as an example, we take the soundtrack for the Leisure district, and use it as a mnemonic for the tram system - signaling you've arrived in the area, without the need for voice announcements.

1. Leisure soundtrack

Leisure theme by Condiment Junkie

2. Leisure theme - mnemonic - mnemonic 2 - on the Tram

Tram mnemonic by Condiment Junkie