success
directionrisinglength80–250 mstailshortreads asresolved
blip
a sound for
every state change.
A single generic click cannot signal success or failure on its own. Each state your interface enters — success, error, a toggle flipping, a notification arriving — reads more clearly with a sound shaped for that specific moment, not one borrowed from somewhere else.
16interaction types
<300ms per cue
1shared voice
what makes a sound feel like success?
A short, rising pitch reads as resolution — two or three notes moving upward, done within a quarter second, land as complete without needing to be loud. Keep the tail short so it does not linger after the user has already moved on.
error
directionfalling or flatlength120–300 mstoneduller, filteredreads asstop
what makes a sound feel like an error?
The opposite shape works: a short downward or flat pitch, a touch more filtered or duller in tone than a success sound, communicates a stop without being alarming. Two quick low taps read as a clear no more distinctly than one long tone.
how should a toggle sound differ on from off?
Give the on state a brighter, slightly higher-pitched click than the off state — the ear tracks pitch direction easily, so a rising toggle-on and a falling toggle-off feel connected as a pair rather than two unrelated sounds.
toggle on / off
directionup on, down offlength80–150 mstailclippedreads asa pair
notification
directiontwo-note intervallength200–400 msspacemore reverbreads aslook over
what about notifications?
A notification competes with whatever the user is already doing, so it needs to be distinct from your click and toggle sounds without being jarring — a two-note interval with a touch more reverb or space than your other cues usually reads as an invitation to look over, rather than an alarm.
the whole setfive cues,
five cues,
one voice.
Read down the column: everything varies except the character. That is what makes a set sound like one interface rather than five downloads.
statelengthwhat the shape doespitch
click80–120 msThe baseline. Every other cue in the set is a variation on this one's character.
toggle80–150 msRising for on, falling for off, so the pair is legible without looking at the screen.
success150–250 msTwo or three notes climbing to a resolution, with a short tail so it does not linger.
error120–300 msLower and duller, two quick taps rather than one long tone. A stop, not an alarm.
notification200–400 msA two-note interval with more space around it, since it has to cut through whatever is already happening.
keeping the set consistent
The easiest way to make four different state sounds still feel like one interface is to shape them from the same underlying voice — same oscillator character and filter family, varied mainly in pitch direction, length, variation, and loudness. Blip Blip’s Simple mode exposes exactly those four controls, so a whole state-sound set can share one recognizable voice. Browse the preset library for existing state sounds shaped the same way, or read about writing this shape in code once a sound is ready to leave the studio.
the four controls a whole set varies across
roomywarmsharpdry
faq
the useful details.
Should a notification sound loop?
Generally no — a single one-shot cue that plays once per event is easier to tune out when it is not needed, and easier to notice when it is. Reserve looping or repeating cues for states that genuinely need ongoing attention, like an active recording.
How long should a state sound be?
Most UI feedback sits under 300 milliseconds. Success and toggle cues can be as short as 80 to 150 milliseconds; a notification can run slightly longer, closer to 200 to 400 milliseconds, since it is meant to be noticed rather than confirm something already visible on screen.
Can I export a matching set of state sounds at once?
Design each one in the studio and export it individually as Web Audio, Swift, or Kotlin code — there is no bundled pack export, but keeping the same base voice across sounds keeps a hand-built set feeling coherent.
ready to make
some noise?
Open Blip Blip and give it a voice.