The HapticWave is a haptic audio waveform display device that has been developed in collaboration with a group of audio engineers and producers with visual impairments for use in real world recording studio environments. This was not a project led by a designer or driven by a design brief: rather, the genesis of the HapticWave emerged from exchange and interaction between actors who brought to the table different practices, experiences, expertise and needs. By presenting the voices in- volved in this practice based research project, we offer a com- prehensive report to retrace step by step the development and deployment of a research prototype.