I think a key to the whole 'what kind (or category) of sound is this thing going to make' part is probably gonna be by material. Metals vs woods... or plastics vs. stone or rock...

:lol: I think you might even be able to get right down into chemistry almost for this... but I don't know if that is too extreme for what you want.

They even did this with smell though. I think there was 11 different elements? ...and light is obviously broken down into 3 so...