While acoustic noise reduction is a general aim for MRI examinations to enhance patient comfort or to avoid disturbance in functional MRI (fMRI) studies, it is of particular importance for successful fetal examinations. The vulnerability of the unborn infant to excessive acoustic noise, leading in the extreme cases (so far not reported in MRI) to hearing loss and shortened gestation [L], puts a particular emphasis on adequate protection levels. As external noise protection with ear-plugs/headphones is not available in-utero, safety of this vulnerable subject group can only be guaranteed by reducing the acoustic noise output of the scanner to increase the natural protection provided by maternal habitus. Single-shot echo-planar-imaging (ssEPI) sequences, which are widely used for fMRI and diffusion MRI (dMRI), can be extremely  noisy and may cause PNS in the mother. Noise reduction tends to prolong the read-out, potentially limiting resolution as well as increasing distortion. Building on previous work [S,Sm,He] we developed a ssEPI acquisition platform both for GE and SE, called QuEPI, which allows a significant noise reduction by reshaping all gradient waveforms and tuning these to the scanner acoustic response function, while keeping the acquisition efficient. It is implemented for all ssEPI based sequences, but here we have focused on fetal dMRI and fMRI studies.The acoustic noise output for axis $$i=\in \{x,y,z\}$$ is calculated [E] as the convolution of the gradient impulse response function $$$IRF_i(t)$$$ (fixed property of the hardware) and the gradient waveform $$g_i(t): r_i(t)=IRF_i(t)*g_i(t),$$ equivalent to $$R_i(f)=FT\{IRF\}_i(f)*FT\{g\}_i(t).$$ The greatest noise reduction is achieved by modifying the frequency content of the gradient waveforms on all three axis with respect to the IRF, in particular exploiting local minima. Therefore, the read-out was modified from conventional trapezoids to sinusoids [S] with controlled amplitude ramp up/down (Fig.1, bottom). This results in a single dominant frequency, which can be optimized to coincide with a low IRF value (Fig.2a, red arrow). The phase-encoding (PE) blips, contributing to frequency content at double the EPI frequency, were modified to a constant low-amplitude gradient (Fig.2a, arrow), shifted to keep the k-space centres in the read-direction at the same PE locations. The slice-refocusing gradient was modified to a single half-sinusoid with a period that can be matched to a multiple of the read-out period. Finally, specifically for dMRI, acoustic contributions arise from the butterfly crushers around the refocusing pulse. These were combined with the slice excitation-refocusing gradient and stretched out in parallel to the diffusion encoding gradients. The reduction of the available maximal strength for diffusion encoding was minimal, and in part compensated by the freed up time (Fig2a, arrow). QuEPI was implemented together with the required modified gridding strategy on a Phillips Archieva 3T scanner, including in-house implemented Multiband [P], and modified diffusion acquisitions [H]. Fetal GE and SE acquisitions with a FOV of 320x320mm, transverse were acquired on 10 fetuses, GA 24+0-34+2 weeks. Further parameters for dSE-QuEPI include resolution=2.5mm3, partial Fourier=0.87, no SENSE, TE=118ms, TR=2000s, frequency 500 Hz and GE-QuEPI include resolution=2.7mm3, no partial Fourier, no SENSE, TE=59ms, TR=1000ms, TE=50ms. QuEPI Frequency=550 Hz (higher, as the general noise output was lower in GE). The dSE-QuEPI protocol was tested with different variants to evaluate the noise reduction of each QuEPI element: the sinusoidal read-out, constant PE humped re/pre-winders with (i) combined and (ii) standard crushers, the trapezoid-cartesian acquisition at (iii) the same frequency and (iv) as defined with low PNS, gradient slew restriction to 120msT/m for fetal use.The results of the sound measurements for dSE experiments (Table 1), reveal a reduction of 9dB(A) compared to the standard trapezoidal-cartesian settings. If compared to a trapezoidal-cartesian acquisition at the same frequency (500Hz), noise levels were reduced by 5.3dB(A) for the same scan time. The non-compromised image quality for QuEPI and EPI with matched frequency is shown in Fig.3, acquired fetal volumes from a dSE-QuEPI scan and a GE-QuEPI scan in Fig.4. While previous methods are either not available for EPI, influence the applied acceleration factors or increase acquisition time, the proposed QuEPI framework is available for all ssEPI based scans, fully compatible with further acceleration techniques such as partial Fourier, SENSE and multiband. The QuEPI approach provides a flexible platform for comprehensive fetal connectome examinations where high data rate with acceptable acoustic performance is needed as well as other examinations where reduced sound is important. Furthermore, it provides flexibility to optimize and synergistically tune the read-out frequency, diffusion gradients and multiband-blips to the scanner specific transfer function depending on the target acoustic output to achieve optimal combinations of acoustic performance and efficiency.