Volvo Cars – The sound of safety
How we created a drum machine with sounds from Volvo Cars
We were surprised but thrilled when Volvo Cars and Martin Åberg reached out to collaborate with us. We were asked to create a fun, playable instrument based on sounds captured at the Torslanda Factory in Gothenburg. In other words – they asked us to do our thing. This resulted in RULLA – Percussion Plant, a web instrument that allow the users to easily create beats directly on the web.
Feel free to try it out here: RULLA. Please also enjoy the film with the music made by Martin Åberg using this unique tool and sounds.
P.S. There are over 80 percussion instruments, 40 tonal, and 8 ambient carefully selected sounds available for free download.
We got one of the strangest calls in Klevgrand history in August 2023, when Volvo Cars gave us a ring, proposing we do an instrument based on their distinctive sounds. After some consideration, we thought, why not? Especially since we were granted the opportunity to distribute all the played sounds for free.
How in the hell do one capture Sounds of Volvo Cars?
Martin Åberg and Lars Wignell were set out to solve it and stroll around Volvo Cars Torslanda with microphones and headphones. The mission was to record sounds that would later be edited into percussive and tonal sounds in a digital drum machine, developed by us.
The first stop for sound recording is Volvohallen, a dome-like building in the heart of Torslanda. Martin and Lars put on their tape recorders, their headphones, and hop into a brand-new Volvo EX30 on display.
Volvo 242DL from 1973
Martin found that the Volvo 24DL was the car he was interested in, in terms of sound: antennas, cassette players, cushioned seats, and knobs with a specific sound that modern cars don't have anymore. Additionally, the distinct sound of a firmly pulled handbrake in an old Volvo is, for many, associated with the car being securely parked after pulling the handbrake in the car tight.
It's a cool contrast to the futuristic sound in the new Volvo EX30, where you only hear a soft tone of hydraulics.
The result – RULLA and a free sample pack to download
The end result? RULLA – Percussion Plant, a web instrument enabling users to effortlessly create beats online. Give it a spin here: RULLA.
And don't forget, you can download all the captured sounds from the website to use freely in your own music projects. There are over 80 percussion instruments, 40 tonal, and 8 ambient carefully selected sounds available for download.
