Grand Central Recording Studios' Interactive ‘Chladni Plate’ Communicates Emotional Impact of Sound

In a quest to showcase the impact that sound design plays in amplifying visuals, world leading sound design and audio post production facility, GCRS has taken inspiration from a 200-year old globally-renowned acoustics experiment and given it a digital home. 

GCRS (coded by developer Alex Browning) created a digital simulation of the famous Chladni plates and commissioned Framestore to design a unique animation, amplified by a selection of original compositions created by GCRS’ sound designers.

Ernst Chladni (1756 –1827) is regarded by many historians as the 'father of experimental acoustics' for his seminal experimental work on vibrations, which served as a basis of scientific understanding of sound that later emerged in the 19th century. One of his inventions is a technique that studies the motions of vibrations on plates using sand or salt, creating beautiful patterns – coined the Chladni plates.

Framestore animated little marbles to represent Chladni’s sand and they dance around as the frequency changes. Visitors to GCRS.com can interact with the Chladni plate, adapting their experience by selecting different sound designs that may invoke a range of emotions including emergence, transcendence, acceptance, disturbance and ascension. 

Ivor Taylor, technical director and co-founder of GCRS says: “Chlandi’s Plates are the closest we can get to actually visualising a thin slice of what sound might look if we could see it in the air all around us. It’s a mini history lesson wrapped up in a bit of a fun experiment, which we’ve enjoyed creating with Framestore - the animation is beautiful and emotionally agnostic, allowing us to showcase how the power of sound design can change the emotion of a visual. 

Stephen Goalby, head of design at Framestore comments: "We have been partners with GCRS for many years and they have always overdelivered on sound design for our projects – sound and picture are of course integral to each other, the butter to our bread so to speak. It’s been nice to return the favour and create an animation that tells a story of sound, visualising the science and art that takes place in their studios each day.” 

View GCRS’ Chladni plate here.