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Fake Engine Noise Is the Auto Industry's Dirty Little Secret
HughPickens.com writes Stomp on the gas in a new Ford Mustang or F-150 and you'll hear a meaty, throaty rumble — the same style of roar that Americans have associated with auto power and performance for decades. Now Drew Harwell reports at the Washington Post that the auto industry's dirty little secret is that the engine growl in some of America's best-selling cars and trucks is actually a finely tuned bit of lip-syncing, boosted through special pipes or digitally faked altogether. "Fake engine noise has become one of the auto industry's dirty little secrets, with automakers from BMW to Volkswagen turning to a sound-boosting bag of tricks," writes Harwell. "Without them, today's more fuel-efficient engines would sound far quieter and, automakers worry, seemingly less powerful, potentially pushing buyers away." For example Ford sound engineers and developers worked on an "Active Noise Control" system on the 2015 Mustang EcoBoost that amplifies the engine's purr through the car speakers. Afterward, the automaker surveyed members of Mustang fan clubs on which processed "sound concepts" they most enjoyed.
Among purists, the trickery has inspired an identity crisis and cut to the heart of American auto legend. The "aural experience" of a car, they argue, is an intangible that's just as priceless as what's revving under the hood. "For a car guy, it's literally music to hear that thing rumble," says Mike Rhynard, "It's a mind-trick. It's something it's not. And no one wants to be deceived." Other drivers ask if it really matters if the sound is fake? A driver who didn't know the difference might enjoy the thrum and thunder of it nonetheless. Is taking the best part of an eight-cylinder rev and cloaking a better engine with it really, for carmakers, so wrong? "It may be a necessary evil in the eyes of Ford," says Andrew Hard, "but it's sad to think that an iconic muscle car like the Mustang, a car famous for its bellowing, guttural soundtrack, has to fake its engine noise in 2015. Welcome to the future."
Among purists, the trickery has inspired an identity crisis and cut to the heart of American auto legend. The "aural experience" of a car, they argue, is an intangible that's just as priceless as what's revving under the hood. "For a car guy, it's literally music to hear that thing rumble," says Mike Rhynard, "It's a mind-trick. It's something it's not. And no one wants to be deceived." Other drivers ask if it really matters if the sound is fake? A driver who didn't know the difference might enjoy the thrum and thunder of it nonetheless. Is taking the best part of an eight-cylinder rev and cloaking a better engine with it really, for carmakers, so wrong? "It may be a necessary evil in the eyes of Ford," says Andrew Hard, "but it's sad to think that an iconic muscle car like the Mustang, a car famous for its bellowing, guttural soundtrack, has to fake its engine noise in 2015. Welcome to the future."
The young idiots with too much money buy them. They stomp on the gas at a green light and it sounds like they're drag racing. I gently touch the gas on my car and easily out-accelerated them without making any significant noise. I'll bet they figure it out about two or three days after they buy the trucks that they really have no acceleration or speed to speak of but rather simply noise.
I agree. Acoustic aesthetics are important and worthwhile of engineering attention.
Quiet (or as quiet as possible) is one aesthetic that may be desirable. For other people (or perhaps cars), a good rumble (as long as it not excessively load and obnoxious) is equally a desirable aesthetic. It's not so different, as you note, than choice of paint job.
For a company to put attention into this aspect of the user experience is a positive thing.
There was just a podcast on this very topic, namely the lack of attention that many companies put into the aural experience of their products and how very important that experience is to consumers. http://99percentinvisible.org/...
Here is an excerpt:
'Car companies also consider sound in the design of their product. A Ford Mustang, for instance, will intentionally not sound the same as a Ford Taurus, even if their engines are similar.
In 2008, Ford decided to put out a remake of a Mustang that appeared in the 1968 film, Bullitt. The car sounded like this: [video].
Ford wanted to make the 2008 Bullitt sound akin to the 1968 Bullitt. They were trying, essentially, to make a new car sound old.
This proved especially challenging, because cars made in 1968 were built completely differently; the 1968 Bullitt had a carburetor, for instance, and the new model had a fuel injection system. Plus, the Mustang in the movie was enhanced with sounds recorded from a race car—and it’s actually illegal in most places to drive around in a car as loud as the car from the movie would be if it were real.
With all those factors in mind, Ford identified the key characteristics of the Mustang sounds in the movie. They then figured out how to reverse-engineer those notes as best as they could by tweaking the shapes of the tubes in the car’s exhaust system.
Brands that don’t pay attention to sound may get punished by consumers.'
There are plenty of videos now of people doing comparitve drive with the fuse in or out. With fuse out, it sounds much more like one would expect a 4-cylinder turbo to sound. It's not exactly terrible, but it is markedly different than the sound of the V6. The manipulation brings it more in line with a larger engine for people too insecure to be reminded they are driving a 4 cylinder.
XML is like violence. If it doesn't solve the problem, use more.
Than what?
If I hear your engine noise, with you trying to rev louder? I think "You're a cock".
You might even have a nice car, but chances are you have some horrible shit modification to something quite mainstream. Either way, to have to rev it so I can hear? You're a cock.
If you have to have the sound inside to convince yourself it's fast? You're a cock.
Cars today are faster and more powerful than the Formula One vehicles of my father's days. You have no need to show off, you cock. Any fucking idiot can get to 120/130 mph in their car these days. Hell, I've seen a Fiat Panda 1000S get to 100mph. My 20-year-old, nothing-special, cheap-shit car did 130mph before I chickened out on an Autobahn.
There's nothing car-wise to show off about except how much money you've pissed away on it.
Loud music.
Loud exhaust sounds.
Revving the engine.
Removing badges.
Stupid fucking lighting systems to make your cheap shit car look like a Christmas ornament at great expense.
Adding crap like spoilers and twin exhausts to cars that aren't built with them.
Buying cars with crap like spoilers and twin exhausts and then driving them on a public road (fast or slow!).
You're a cock.
And, unfortunately for you, 99.9% of people on the road know it and think exactly the same.
If you want to quite literally BURN MONEY on shit like that, whether the car is genuinely "fast" or not, on a car that you have to drive behind old grannies, and slow down every mile for a speed camera, and wreck to shit on every speed bump, and still spend as much time sitting in traffic as I do, then feel free.
But really? If you buy a car BECAUSE it sounds meaty, then you're a cock.
I drive an electric car. At low speeds, say under 20mph, people NEVER hear or see my car coming. These are also the speeds I'm typically driving at when pedestrians are around. People always meander in front of my car or jump in surprise when the turn and see me cruising past them a few feet to the side of them. I sometimes honk. I sometimes pause extra long. There is definitely a need to account for it.
At higher speeds, sure there's tire noise.
My God can beat up your God. Just kidding...don't take offense. I know there's no God.
As a cyclist, I can attest a Prius is not a totally silent vehicle. Nor, I am sure, is a Tesla although I've never encountered one on the road. The reason is tire noise.
For a modern car traveling at 20+ MPH and not accelerating, tire noise is the dominant sound. You can easily hear a car traveling at speed from a hundred yards or more away, almost entirely from the tire noise. The engine of a well-maintained car traveling at a constant 30 MPH might as well be totally silent.
At low speeds such as would be encountered in a parking lot or congested city street the engine noise is dominant, particularly because the car is doing a lot of accelerating and decelerating. At those speeds I think a modest synthesized engine sound is a very good idea, especially when you consider blind people and even more especially service dogs, who would have to be re-trained for some other kind of noise. There would be no need for the artificial sound once the car is at cruising speed.
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Unless you're blind, or happen to be looking the other way when the drunk in a prius bears down on you.
My Nissan LEAF has a speaker mounted in the driver-side front wheel well which makes noise (a tone that sweeps across the frequency range, to cover people with frequency-limited hearing) whenever the vehicle is moving below 20 mph. It's not fake engine noise, it's better.
As to the article... I have learned to really enjoy the silence of an EV. Engine noise annoys me.
Note to ACs: I usually delete AC replies without reading them. If you want to talk to me, log in.
That mandated noise IS entirely a safety issue
It is a perceived safety issue and I don't buy the arguments in favor of mandating noise pollution. If it really were a problem we should expect to see cars that are quieter than average involved in proportionally more collisions that cars that are more noisy. I've not seen one speck of evidence that quiet cars get in more accidents due to their sound levels. It is to my mind a completely nonsensical argument with no evidence to support it.
Studies have been done and have confirmed that quiet cars get in more accidents at lower speeds due to their sound levels.
"Look both ways before crossing" is for streets.
"Transparent" is a shit show that trades on every stereotype going. A man in drag is NOT a transsexual.
Now if you drive a manual wrong and don't shift at the right times, MPG could be bad, but on the highway where shifting isn't done, you are going to literally drive away from an automatic efficiency wise.
This is BS. EPA mileage figures are now showing most cars getting better highway mileage for automatics than for manuals, and as you say, you don't need to do much shifting on the highway. The reason for this is that automatics these days have more gears, and most likely have a higher gear ratio on the highway. Automatics can get away with having a higher gear ratio for their highest gear because it takes them milliseconds to downshift when the driver accelerates at speed; manuals can't do that, since they have fewer gears and drivers tend to hold gears more because shifting takes time and effort.
Things have really changed a LOT in the last 10-15 years with regard to the whole manual vs. automatic debate. 15+ years ago, manuals were clearly the superior choice for a competent driver, far and away. Not any more. For many cars, they're about the same now; for many others, automatics are clearly superior. In another 5 years, manuals will be a clearly inferior choice across the board. (It's taking some time for the most-advanced automatics to get into all car models.)
Fun fact: studies have shown that hybrid and electric cars are 37% more likely to hit pedestrians and 66% more likely to hit cyclists than ICE cars at under 35MPH.
You may not THINK you are hearing engine noise, but you are, and it makes a difference.
There are two types of faking it that are currently used, as outlined in the summary.
Noise pipes, that take engine noise through a hollow pipe into the interior of the car are quite different to playing a synthetic soundtrack through the car's speakers. Modern cars have significantly more noise insulation than older vehicles, so cutting through some of this insulation so that the real engine noise can reach the cabin isn't necessarily cheating. You need an engine that sounds good to begin with here and you're hearing the actual sounds that the engine is making.
Having an engine that makes unpleasant sounds, or is too quiet, and supplementing this with a soundtrack played through the car's speakers - well, it may sound really good inside the car, but outside the car, you're not going to be hearing much of note...
Specialist Mac support for creative pros, Melbourne
As a pedestrian, you're supposed to be walking opposite traffic. If cars are coming up behind you instead of approaching in front of you, you're doing it wrong.
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