61–70 of 303 posts
I want the Jetsons' car sound. My bother wants a Star Wars TIE fighter and my father in law would like the sound of a B-17, please.
I've always wanted the hovercar sound from Blade Runner, but I think I've found a new favorite with the TIE fighter :)
I want the Jetsons' car sound. My bother wants a Star Wars TIE fighter and my father in law would like the sound of a B-17, please.
I want the Jetsons' car sound. My bother wants a Star Wars TIE fighter and my father in law would like the sound of a B-17, please.
In Amsterdam one of the bigger reasons given for the reduction of speeds on some roads is that it reduces the noise pollution. It would seem backwards to require cars to make more noise than they strictly have to. That said in mixed traffic situations it may save some lives, so essentially this proves all those guys that drove without dampers in their exhausts and bumper stickers saying 'loud pipes save lives' right…
Most of this noise is pumped into the car (to make the consumer happy), not out of the car. The two most common systems in use today are the car stereo (either amplifying the real engine's sound or by simply synchronizing a synthesis mechanism to the engine's load conditions) or a "sound pipe" which runs from the engine's air intake into the cabin ventilation system. This article strangely managed to conflate the two…
Am I the only one that associates loud noise with a weak engine? To me a powerful car just has an acceleration whine, and that's all. It's like a rocket exhaust: the "wilder" it is the weaker it is. A powerful, well tuned, rocket has a very sharp, and clean (i.e. not noisy) flame. Same with a car - if it's making a lot of noise, it's poorly tuned or designed.
It's not just you. It's also other people who don't have much experience with engine performance. Quieter mufflers restrict more airflow, something you don't want to do when you're trying to pass more fuel through a small engine.
Am I the only one that associates loud noise with a weak engine? To me a powerful car just has an acceleration whine, and that's all. It's like a rocket exhaust: the "wilder" it is the weaker it is. A powerful, well tuned, rocket has a very sharp, and clean (i.e. not noisy) flame. Same with a car - if it's making a lot of noise, it's poorly tuned or designed.
It's not just you. It's also other people who don't have much experience with engine performance. Quieter mufflers restrict more airflow, something you don't want to do when you're trying to pass more fuel through a small engine.
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.
This is hardly new. In college, we had a guest lecture from a mechanical engineer at $POPULAR_MOTORCYCLE_MANUFACTURER. He described how his team cooked up a new engine design that achieved some significant performance increase over the old design. Only problem? It didn't sound like a $POPULAR_MOTORCYCLE. The new engine was delayed for a year while they cooked up a mechanical noisemaker to adjust the sound.
Potato, potato, potato, potato, potato, ...
100 years from now cars will still make a vestigial sound that is simply taken for granted and not really considered until some wise-ass at a party starts in "Funny story..."
We will have to explain the origin of the sound coming out of our car speakers to our kids, like we have to explain the floppy disk icon for saving a file.
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,…