REFERENCES
Meet the Active Sound Champions
Looking for the world-class Active Sound Design tool? See where the neosonic Sound Designer can take your vehicle sound. Give it a spin today, join the ranks tomorrow.
Hyundai Ioniq 6 N. Upping the Ioniq 5 N. Unveiled at the Goodwood Festival of Speed 2025
Hyundai Ioniq 5 N. World Performance Car of the Year 2024, Top Gear Car of the Year 2023
KIA EV 6 GT. World Performance Car 2023
Dodge Charger Daytona. Unveiled in 2024
Fiat Abarth 500e. Unveiled in 2023
Maserati Gran Tourismo Folgore BEV. Unveiled in 2023
Maserati Gran Cabrio ICE. Unveiled in 2022
Mercedes AMG SLS Electric Drive. World’s first EV featuring ground-breaking interior sound, unveiled in 2013
Background
neosonic’s ASD software Sound Designer elvis³ is currently deployed in mass production in 35 vehicle models of 14 OEMs – passenger cars, trucks, and busses, growing to 50 vehicle models of 16 OEMs within the next 24 months.
The neosonic ASD software suite is powering embedded devices such as DSP amplifiers, head units, dedicated Active Sound ECUs, stand-alone AVAS systems, and Android devices of 7 Tier1 suppliers.
Take a look at the in-depth Hyundai KIA Genesis story. The South Korean OEM widely employs neosonic’s ASD software elvis³ for the sound designs in their award-winning world-class EVs. In addition to the above deployed in vehicles such as the Hyundai Ioniq 5 / 6 / 7, KONA II EV, Genesis GV 60, GV 70, KIA EV 4 / 5 / 6 and EV 9 GT.
neosonic’s Sound Designer system is also employed for the creation of HKMC’s unique Audio Brand. The story is presented by neosonic’s distributor Siemens DISW Digital Industry Software.
Check out other cutting-edge vehicles such as the Maserati Grecale Folgore, Fiat Abarth 600e, as well as the pioneering Mercedes AMG SLS Electric Drive super-sports car which hit the market in 2013 and was the first series EV world-wide to feature interior sound – created and delivered by neosonic.
Hyundai Ioniq 6 N World Premiere
In 2025 unveiled the Ioniq 6 N at the Goodwood Festival of Speed.
The vehicle sports massive improvements on every level, from motor, to battery, to sound design, to name just a few, setting it at the top of the performance EV bunch.
The vehicle features three highly dynamic and refined sound profiles to choose from, combustion race car, classic EV, futuristic EV.
The Active sound profiles were created and implemented with neosonic’s Sound Designer elvis³ ASD software.
Hyundai N Day 2024 – RN24 World Premiere
In 2024 Hyundai supports the Pikes Peak Hill Climbing, the eN1 cup car, and the new RN24 concept car.
The video features the driving sounds starting from the Ioniq 5 N’s groundbreaking sports car sound DNA, then pushing Active Sound Design to the next level for modern racing.
Active sound created and implemented in the vehicles with neosonic’s Sound Designer elvis³ ASD software.
Maserati Grecale Folgore 2024
First things first: Maserati has managed the topic of “sound” excellently. Of course, the software-generated hoarse hums, pulses and hisses, that depend on driving style and speed, cannot keep up with the sound of the Nettuno-V6 in the Trofeo, but among all electric cars, the new Maserati Grecale Folgore (2024) sounds the most automotive, recognizable synthetic and yet remarkably credible. Well done, Maserati!
Hyundai Ioniq 5 N
High Performance electric race car with full combustion engine sound performance
This active sound development project was both a welcome challenge and a lot of fun, as high performance electric vehicles allow us to once again push the envelope to deploy and at the same time extend the capabilities and impact of automotive Active Sound Design.
The 650 PS Hyundai Ioniq 5 N has already redefined the state of the art in Active Sound, introducing a wealth of industry-first sound features that create the amazingly realistic sound scape of a combustion racing car, pushing EV performance driving to an entirely new level.
Eifelmeister Award 2024: Ioniq 5 N vs Tesla Model S Plaid vs Lucid Air Dream Performance vs BMW i5 M60 vs Lotus Electr R vs Pininfarina Battista vs Porsche Taycan Turbo GT.
And the winner is: Ioniq 5 N!
“With doubts I get into the Hyundai 5 N, with damp trousers from the tears of joy in the bucket seat I fall out again later.
Biggest surprise: How the N Active Sound+ simulates the sonorous hum of a hot driving machine, depending on the accelerator pedal position or speed, plus the minimal shift stroke of a transmission. And how seriously this comes across.
On paper you think: Dispensible gimmick. In reality you think: cool!”
“We drive off: Directly in N-Mode, switching to manual mode and injection sound. Hardcore: Because of the generated engine sounds you really think you’re sitting in an i30 N. The sonorous sound of the combustion engine and the flap exhaust, the gear shift warning flashing at 8000 rpm, the babbling, the engine sputtering when quickly downshifting with double-declutching – mind-boggling in an Electric Vehicle, acoustically very convincing.”
KIA EV 6 GT / EV 6
World Performance Car 2023 (EV 6 GT)
World Car of the Year 2023 (EV 6)
The KIA E V6 GT has received the prestigious World Performance Car of the Year 2023 Award. The acclaimed Active Sound Design has been conceived, realized, and put into mass production with neosonic elvis³.
The KIA EV 6 has received the prestigious World Car of the Year 2023 Award. The acclaimed Active Sound Design has also been conceived, realized, and put into mass production with neosonic elvis³.
Hyundai Ioniq 5 N
World Performance Car of the Year 2024
Raising EV performance to a new level while redefining the high performance EV class of vehicles along the way, the Hyundai Ioniq 5 N has received the prestigious Top Gear Car of the Year 2023 Award. The acclaimed Active Sound Design has been conceived, realized, and put into mass production with neosonic elvis³.
From the award: “The separately switchable N Active Sound simulates an engine noise. Sound generators are usually rubbishy out-of-phase gimmicks that you switch off after a mile. This is brilliant, utterly in sync with your foot position and ‘gear’. The ‘engine’ goes the gamut, changing tone with your foot position and pitch with ‘revs’, using all the speakers to simulate induction noise in front and exhaust behind.
“Compared with any other EV, these sound and shifting effects give you critical extra dimensions in control of, and perception of, your speed and acceleration. It isn’t only super-involving, it helps you drive better.”
Maserati GranTurismo Folgore
Transferring an acoustic brand heritage to the new electric domain
Brands like Maserati have cultivated and established their renowned, combustion engine Brand Sound over decades. Given the beginning new era of greener vehicles how can they possibly transfer their considerable sound heritage to the electric domain without simply copying it?
Start with the best, most flexible ASD tools like the Sound Designer, add a corresponding hardware device implementation for mass production, throw in some active sound design consulting to get up to speed finding the target sounds, and you are all set for ASD success.
KIA EV 9
World Electric Vehicle of the Year 2024
Top Gear Family Car of the Year 2023
The KIA EV 9 has received the prestigious Top Gear Family Car of the Year 2023 Award. Its Active Sound Design has been conceived, realized, and put into mass production with neosonic elvis³ as well.
Fiat 500e Abarth / Fiat 600e Abarth
Active Sound arriving in smaller high-power EVs
Until recently, Active Sound for BEVs was mainly implemented in the premium vehicle segment – reflecting the way new technologies are usually introduced to the market. As the technology has well established itself it started to spread and has now arrived in a compact car and with the 600e in a high-power crossover SUV.
Click the image to learn more about the new racy Fiat 500e Abarth and the background story about its sound’s development.
The neosonic ASD in the KIA EV 6
Sound design is an integral part of the driving experience in electrified vehicles. It offers many options to create a consistent acoustic feedback for the driver, reflecting the vehicle’s dynamic behavior.
Hyundai-KIA Motor Group is deploying neosonic’s Active Sound Design (ASD) solution to align the acoustic experience with its brand strategy and style.
In developing their electric vehicle brands and creating the driving experience, Hyundai-KIA acknowledges the importance of acoustics. The OEM also sees new possibilities for using sound to enhance the customer experience and distinguish the brand. To pursue this opportunity, Hyundai aims to create acoustic signatures that allow for personalization by the customer while at the same time underscoring the emotional and technical aspects of each brand.
With the personalization options Hyundai-KIA also considers that acoustic perception and expectations can vary considerably across the world’s cultures. To harness this challenge Hyundai-KIA’s engineers created an identifiable Sound Design strategy for each brand, where within each sound signature drivers can make adjustments to customize their vehicle‘s sounds based on preference as shown in the head unit editing screen.
Mercedes AMG SLS Electric Drive
World’s first EV with interior sound ASD, delivered by neosonic in 2013.
The Press on neosonic’s sound design and elvis³ software in the 2013 Mercedes AMG SLS ED:
The acousticians composed a sound that was supposed to make the enormous power and torque of the AMG SLS ED acoustically perceptible and at the same time switch off the singing and humming typical of the electric drive. You can tell how successful this is when you switch off the background sports noise. Until then, the respective noise matched exactly what vehicle technology had just given up. It sounds dynamic when accelerating and cautious when driving steadily. Auto.de
Now you could have used the sound of a V8, but it sounds like a ruthless monster from the past. And so the Mercedes AMG SLS Electric Drive has the sounds of the future on it, the deep bass of a bowed string is modulated, serves as the basis for starting, for acceleration and top speed and for the action of the brakes. faz.de
Even without a V8 engine underneath the bonnet, the AMG SLS ED still sounds like a high-performance car with its eSound module. The occupants can enjoy a tailored sound pattern to suit each driving situation: incredibly dynamic when accelerating, subdued and restrained when cruising and intuitively comprehensible during recuperation phases – i.e. when the driver decelerates using the steering-wheel shift paddles and energy is being recovered. Using, in the main, authentic yet denaturalized real noises that cause the driver to make a subconscious association is of great benefit here as they do not sound artificial, as is usually the case with synthetic noises. This form of sound generation is thus far unprecedented in the field of production car development, and gives the driver emotive, instantly comprehensible feedback on the vehicle’s current behavior. sportscarillustrated.com
