Listen to the new Steam Controller buzz to the tune of Doom

听听新款 Steam 控制器如何震动出《毁灭战士》的旋律

You may have heard that Valve’s new Steam Controller can ring like a telephone or do the Wilhelm scream. But did you know it can sing songs, too? Let me show you. 你可能听说过 Valve 的新款 Steam 控制器可以像电话一样响铃，或者发出“威廉尖叫”。但你知道它还能唱歌吗？让我来展示一下。

Here’s the new Steam Controller performing the “Ground Theme” from Super Mario Bros. 2: 这是新款 Steam 控制器演奏《超级马力欧兄弟 2》的“地面主题曲”：

Here is “Still Alive” from Portal — fitting for Valve hardware: 这是来自《传送门》的《Still Alive》——非常适合 Valve 的硬件：

I even made it play Doom: 我甚至让它演奏了《毁灭战士》（Doom）的音乐：

Are you wondering how the controller, which does not have a speaker, is able to make audio at all? Valve’s first Steam Controller, even though it was discontinued, was a great gadget for tinkerers — someone even wrote an open-source program to make it “sing.” Fast forward to now, less than a month after the launch of the second-generation Steam Controller, and some enterprising people have used that program to make it “sing” as well. 你可能在好奇，这款没有扬声器的控制器究竟是如何发出声音的？Valve 的第一代 Steam 控制器虽然已经停产，但它一直是极客们手中的绝佳玩物——甚至有人编写过开源程序让它“唱歌”。快进到今天，在第二代 Steam 控制器发布不到一个月后，一些富有进取心的玩家已经利用该程序让它也“唱”了起来。

“The way the controller makes noise is through the haptic motors in the trackpads,” CrazyCritic89, the person behind the “Still Alive” and Super Mario Bros. 2 videos, tells The Verge. Those motors usually provide feedback as your thumb glides over the trackpads, or let you “press” them like a button, even though they don’t actually click down. But the haptic motors can also vibrate at “specific frequencies, essentially like a speaker,” CrazyCritic explains. Valve uses that to make the controller play sounds, and if you want to make your controller sing, you can now do that too. “控制器发出声音的方式是通过触控板里的触觉反馈马达，”《Still Alive》和《超级马力欧兄弟 2》视频的制作者 CrazyCritic89 告诉 The Verge。这些马达通常在你用拇指滑过触控板时提供反馈，或者让你感觉像按下了按钮一样，尽管它们实际上并没有物理按压感。但 CrazyCritic 解释说，触觉马达也可以以“特定频率”振动，本质上就像一个扬声器。Valve 利用这一点让控制器发出声音，如果你也想让你的控制器唱歌，现在你也可以做到了。

With CrazyCritic89’s “Steam Haptics Singer,” which is available on GitHub in Windows and Linux versions, you can have your Steam Controller (either generation) or your Steam Deck play MIDI tracks — simple digital music files that contain notes rather than actual recorded audio. To make my personal Steam Controller play some music, I found some MIDI files online and followed CrazyCritic89’s instructions. It took a bit of tinkering — I had to spend some time with the terminal in desktop mode on my Steam Deck to actually make my Steam Controller sing. But when I heard the first notes from my controller, I was grinning from ear to ear. 通过 CrazyCritic89 开发的“Steam Haptics Singer”（可在 GitHub 上获取 Windows 和 Linux 版本），你可以让你的 Steam 控制器（任意一代）或 Steam Deck 播放 MIDI 曲目——这是一种包含音符而非实际录制音频的简单数字音乐文件。为了让我的 Steam 控制器播放音乐，我在网上找了一些 MIDI 文件，并按照 CrazyCritic89 的说明进行了操作。这需要一点折腾——我必须在 Steam Deck 的桌面模式下花些时间使用终端，才能真正让我的 Steam 控制器唱出声来。但当我听到控制器传出的第一个音符时，我笑得合不拢嘴。

Valve currently doesn’t offer a way to customize the Steam Controller’s sounds natively through Steam. We actually asked the company about it in April, and Valve’s Pierre-Loup Griffais told The Verge that while “it’s possible that there’s going to be more both configurability and customization for that in the future,” the team isn’t focused on that right now. If Valve does make a sound customization tool, Griffais suggested it would be some sort of SDK or a tool that everyone could use, and Valve might consider making one if the team sees enough demand. Valve 目前尚未提供通过 Steam 原生自定义 Steam 控制器声音的方法。我们曾在四月份向该公司询问过此事，Valve 的 Pierre-Loup Griffais 告诉 The Verge，虽然“未来可能会有更多的配置和自定义选项”，但团队目前并未将重心放在这上面。如果 Valve 确实开发了声音自定义工具，Griffais 表示它可能会是一种 SDK 或人人可用的工具，如果团队看到足够的需求，Valve 可能会考虑开发一个。

There is precedent: After seeing Steam Deck users sideload their own custom boot videos that appear when you power on the handheld, Valve made it an official Steam Deck feature so anyone can join in. It even offers a special spot in the Steam store to get additional boot videos from Valve. For now, the Steam Haptics Singer will do. 这并非没有先例：在看到 Steam Deck 用户侧载自定义开机动画后，Valve 将其变成了一项官方功能，让所有人都能参与其中。它甚至在 Steam 商店中开辟了一个专门区域，供用户获取 Valve 提供的额外开机动画。目前，Steam Haptics Singer 已经足够好用了。