6 ms·

As a motor vehicle enthusiast, I think it's important to distinguish "real noises intentionally amplified by physical audio routing" and "electronic recordings

As a motor vehicle enthusiast, I think it's important to distinguish "real noises intentionally amplified by physical audio routing" and "electronic recordings or audio processing played through speakers." I don't object to routing engine noises to the cabin to allow for a loud-feeling vehicle (without necessarily being loud to people outside the car). To me, this isn't fake. The driver experiences real engine noise, with efforts to circumvent sound-deadening that comes in modern cars. Playing recorded engine noises and/or digitally transforming sound is fake to me. It's a lie. I haven't driven a car that does this, but my guess is that it's noticeably simulated.

witten 12y ago
What if real engine noise is recorded in one part of the car, and then played back in the cabin?
- JetSpiegel 12y ago
  The Coconut Effect will come into play.
revisionzero 12y ago
"I haven't driven a car that does this, but my guess is that it's noticeably simulated." According to the article, BMW does this, and I can say from first-hand experience in a newer model that it's not noticeably simulated.
- thedaniel 12y ago
  And folks are apparently already hacking their in-cabin sounds to sound like higher-performance models! (cf. http://jalopnik.com/someone-hacked-their-bmw-m135i-to-sound-like-an-m4-1680812516 http://jalopnik.com/someone-hacked-their-bmw-m135i-to-sound-... )
  - cc438 12y ago
    As neat as that sounds, I wonder what will happen when the amplifier and/or speakers start to give up the ghost in 5-10 years. I associate the word "BMW" with "wiring issues" so I'm skeptical of any system that requires unflinching reliability for the life of the car. The 2015 Mustang with the turbo 4 cylinder has a similar system but the functionality can't be deactivated or tweaked in any way. Can you imagine the frustration of listening to the acoustic meddling through a blown speaker that you can't disable? I had a Lincoln Mark VIII where the stock amplifier fried itself when I was on the highway. It blasted static with wildly varying pitch at full volume for 5 minutes before I could safely pull over and pull the fuse. It was literally maddening.
baddox 12y ago
Perhaps it's because I have no interest whatsoever in cars, but I have trouble seeing the distinction. If the idea is that certain sounds are merely the side effect of attributes which are themselves desired for reasons other than their sound, like a powerful engine, then it seems like any intentional design to produce or amplify those sounds are completely useless. What the driver wants is the actual attributes which produce the sound as a side effect, and if those attributes are achievable and verifiable without hearing those certain sounds, then the driver should still be satisfied. If, on the other hand, certain sounds are desirable on their own, because of aesthetics or whatever, then the driver should be satisfied if those sounds are produced, regardless of how they're produced.
- lloeki 12y ago
  Playback recordings are a facsimile. Even in my '08 1.6L Swift Sport I can very well hear and feel the exhaust pipe through the floor as it responds to various throttle inputs. Haptic feedback is just as important to me as the sound, and is part of what makes a car feel alive, playful, and eager. IOW, fun. I'm totally not against electric cars, but it just seems wrong to me to make them appear like what they're not (i.e IC engines). I'd rather enjoy a Tesla Roadster in its brisk silence than with any added artefact, especially one trying to mimic an ancient, physically unrelated technology.
  - JetSpiegel 12y ago
    > is part of what makes a car feel alive, playful, and eager. IOW, fun. Car porn, literally.
    - nmeofthestate 12y ago
      Jings. In what world does anything being fun become 'literally pornography'...
      - smcl 12y ago
        It's becoming annoyingly common ("earth porn" for pictures of nature, etc). Your use of "Jings" however has brightened up my day. Crivvens!
declan 12y ago
As a fellow driving enthusiast, I agree. When shopping for my last car, the manufacturer's outgoing model had a sport exhaust setting but did not pipe exhaust noise into the cabin. The incoming model did. (Note this is an actual mechanical opening or tube, not BMW-style synthesized noise.) I ended up with the special-edition outgoing model for other reasons, including greater horsepower, but wouldn't necessarily object to piping in exhaust noise. Playing back recorded engine noise, on the other hand, seems just wrong to me. Tangentially, a neighbor one street over has a pair of Ferraris that he and his wife track at Laguna Seca. I can always hear when they drive by (rarely, they have other cars they use on a daily basis) and it's a splendid exhaust note.
- joshu 12y ago
  Say goodbye to that note; the newer cars will be turboed which muffles the noise significantly.
TillE 12y ago
This reminds me of the trams in Manchester, which play the recorded sound of a horn through some little tinny speaker. I'm sure it's cheaper than having an actual noise-making device (I think other trams use bells?), but it sounds ridiculous. If you're going to fake it, you should at least do a good job of it.
- bede 12y ago
  Living in Manchester, this amuses me too. This discussion is very reminiscent of the debate over skeuomorphic user interfaces. As with the transition from physical interfaces to virtual ones, which has drawn interface designers towards the use of skeuomorphic elements to varying extents over the years, we are in another period of technological transition away from normally aspirated internal combustion towards quieter, more efficient means of making motion. To ease the transition for the conservative masses, some degree of skeuomorphism will be needed at first (although I personally think that creating synthetic engine noise is a horrible, horrible idea!).
morganvachon 12y ago
I feel the same way. I have a 1982 Chevy C10 pickup, and the original owner had put "Flowmaster" pipes on it for a louder, but still natural, sound. With the original engine, it sounded impressive, perhaps more so than the engine actually was. Not long after I got the truck, the original 305ci engine gave up the ghost (it had over 400,000 miles so it had had a great run) and I had a 350ci engine built for it and installed. None of the pipes were changed, and the exhaust manifold was a factory fit version for that new engine, not custom headers. Still, the sound difference was night and day. Now the truck positively thunders, where it merely growled before. While a lot of its sound can be attributed to the custom pipes and muffler, a lot of it is in the engine too. To me, it's similar to the difference between a miked acoustic guitar and an acoustic-electric. Either way it's amplification, but the former sounds pure and natural, whereas the latter sounds forced and way too bright, and loses out on the nuances of left-hand technique and right-hand flourishes, as it only picks up the string vibrations themselves instead of the entire ambiance.

witten 12y ago

What if real engine noise is recorded in one part of the car, and then played back in the cabin?

JetSpiegel 12y ago
The Coconut Effect will come into play.

revisionzero 12y ago

"I haven't driven a car that does this, but my guess is that it's noticeably simulated." According to the article, BMW does this, and I can say from first-hand experience in a newer model that it's not noticeably simulated.

thedaniel 12y ago
And folks are apparently already hacking their in-cabin sounds to sound like higher-performance models! (cf. http://jalopnik.com/someone-hacked-their-bmw-m135i-to-sound-like-an-m4-1680812516 http://jalopnik.com/someone-hacked-their-bmw-m135i-to-sound-... )
- cc438 12y ago
  As neat as that sounds, I wonder what will happen when the amplifier and/or speakers start to give up the ghost in 5-10 years. I associate the word "BMW" with "wiring issues" so I'm skeptical of any system that requires unflinching reliability for the life of the car. The 2015 Mustang with the turbo 4 cylinder has a similar system but the functionality can't be deactivated or tweaked in any way. Can you imagine the frustration of listening to the acoustic meddling through a blown speaker that you can't disable? I had a Lincoln Mark VIII where the stock amplifier fried itself when I was on the highway. It blasted static with wildly varying pitch at full volume for 5 minutes before I could safely pull over and pull the fuse. It was literally maddening.

baddox 12y ago

Perhaps it's because I have no interest whatsoever in cars, but I have trouble seeing the distinction. If the idea is that certain sounds are merely the side effect of attributes which are themselves desired for reasons other than their sound, like a powerful engine, then it seems like any intentional design to produce or amplify those sounds are completely useless. What the driver wants is the actual attributes which produce the sound as a side effect, and if those attributes are achievable and verifiable without hearing those certain sounds, then the driver should still be satisfied. If, on the other hand, certain sounds are desirable on their own, because of aesthetics or whatever, then the driver should be satisfied if those sounds are produced, regardless of how they're produced.

lloeki 12y ago
Playback recordings are a facsimile. Even in my '08 1.6L Swift Sport I can very well hear and feel the exhaust pipe through the floor as it responds to various throttle inputs. Haptic feedback is just as important to me as the sound, and is part of what makes a car feel alive, playful, and eager. IOW, fun. I'm totally not against electric cars, but it just seems wrong to me to make them appear like what they're not (i.e IC engines). I'd rather enjoy a Tesla Roadster in its brisk silence than with any added artefact, especially one trying to mimic an ancient, physically unrelated technology.
- JetSpiegel 12y ago
  > is part of what makes a car feel alive, playful, and eager. IOW, fun. Car porn, literally.
  - nmeofthestate 12y ago
    Jings. In what world does anything being fun become 'literally pornography'...
    - smcl 12y ago
      It's becoming annoyingly common ("earth porn" for pictures of nature, etc). Your use of "Jings" however has brightened up my day. Crivvens!

declan 12y ago

As a fellow driving enthusiast, I agree. When shopping for my last car, the manufacturer's outgoing model had a sport exhaust setting but did not pipe exhaust noise into the cabin. The incoming model did. (Note this is an actual mechanical opening or tube, not BMW-style synthesized noise.) I ended up with the special-edition outgoing model for other reasons, including greater horsepower, but wouldn't necessarily object to piping in exhaust noise. Playing back recorded engine noise, on the other hand, seems just wrong to me. Tangentially, a neighbor one street over has a pair of Ferraris that he and his wife track at Laguna Seca. I can always hear when they drive by (rarely, they have other cars they use on a daily basis) and it's a splendid exhaust note.

joshu 12y ago
Say goodbye to that note; the newer cars will be turboed which muffles the noise significantly.

TillE 12y ago

This reminds me of the trams in Manchester, which play the recorded sound of a horn through some little tinny speaker. I'm sure it's cheaper than having an actual noise-making device (I think other trams use bells?), but it sounds ridiculous. If you're going to fake it, you should at least do a good job of it.

bede 12y ago
Living in Manchester, this amuses me too. This discussion is very reminiscent of the debate over skeuomorphic user interfaces. As with the transition from physical interfaces to virtual ones, which has drawn interface designers towards the use of skeuomorphic elements to varying extents over the years, we are in another period of technological transition away from normally aspirated internal combustion towards quieter, more efficient means of making motion. To ease the transition for the conservative masses, some degree of skeuomorphism will be needed at first (although I personally think that creating synthetic engine noise is a horrible, horrible idea!).

morganvachon 12y ago

I feel the same way. I have a 1982 Chevy C10 pickup, and the original owner had put "Flowmaster" pipes on it for a louder, but still natural, sound. With the original engine, it sounded impressive, perhaps more so than the engine actually was. Not long after I got the truck, the original 305ci engine gave up the ghost (it had over 400,000 miles so it had had a great run) and I had a 350ci engine built for it and installed. None of the pipes were changed, and the exhaust manifold was a factory fit version for that new engine, not custom headers. Still, the sound difference was night and day. Now the truck positively thunders, where it merely growled before. While a lot of its sound can be attributed to the custom pipes and muffler, a lot of it is in the engine too. To me, it's similar to the difference between a miked acoustic guitar and an acoustic-electric. Either way it's amplification, but the former sounds pure and natural, whereas the latter sounds forced and way too bright, and loses out on the nuances of left-hand technique and right-hand flourishes, as it only picks up the string vibrations themselves instead of the entire ambiance.