Vibratory motors are used to generate a haptic language for music or other sound that is integrated into wearable technology. The disclosed system enables the creation of a family of devices that allow people with hearing impairments to experience sounds such as music or other auditory input to the system. For example, a “sound vest” transforms musical input to haptic signals so that users can experience their favorite music in a unique way, and can also recognize auditory cues in the user's everyday environment and convey this information to the user using haptic signals.