---

6.4 Understand Why Something Sounded That Way ¶

Use this workflow when feedback is surprising, unclear, or especially useful:

1. Leave point on the object and press C-e E.
2. Read the explanation as a report of the object and occasion, matching presentation rules, selected actions, concrete voices and sounds, and any backend fallback or degradation.
3. Note the strongest rule that changed the part you care about. This tells you whether to inspect an option, an override, a voice route, a sound pack, or the Voice Lock compatibility layer.

When a retained presentation from that source is available, the explanation describes the exact output that was queued, including its source location and resolved resources. It does not reinterpret that old output using your latest settings. Without an exact record, Emacsvox labels the explanation as a simulation of what the current rules would produce at point.

To inspect something heard earlier, open Aural Home and choose Recent Aural Feedback, or press H there. Each row is a bounded frozen record. Useful commands in the feedback browser include:

RET or e

Explain the selected retained presentation.

P

Replay its complete ordered presentation.

c

Audition only its auditory cues.

r

Prepare a voice remap from the selected record.

R

Replace, suppress, or restore one exact earcon.

L

Change the bounded history limit for the current session.

Training Mode, available from Aural Home, speaks concise semantic explanations after normal presentations. It can help while learning the vocabulary used by an integration, but is intentionally more verbose than ordinary operation; turn it off when you no longer need the additional labels.