The subtle sound effects of the Switch's HD Rumble (with audio examples)

Have you notice your Switch controllers, be they Joy-Con or Pro Controller, making some noises when you play games? You might have thought these were nothing more than rumble noises. The sound of a rumbling controller we've been hearing for years now. Turns out Switch's HD Rumble is capable of much more. The haptic motors inside can be used to recreate various sound effects, which we've recorded below.

First up, we have the sounds of being thrown through the air and landing in ARMS.

Second, we have the noise coins make when you pick them up in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe.

These clips were recorded off of my own Switch. The in-game sound was completely turned off, the the HD Rumble sound effects were recorded off of my own Switch Pro Controller.

There's no doubt about it, the Switch's HD Rumble feature also produces sound effects. It seems this is something haptic motors are capable of doing. The Steam controller can produce similar sounds, with some hackers using the ability to play actual songs through the controller with nothing more than the haptic rumble feature.

from GoNintendo