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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."
For some, having engine noise is fine. However, the '70s and '80s with the purring V8s are gone, and the vehicles that will be the norm will either be hybrids, diesels, or electric cars.
As someone who likes modern cars, we don't need any more noise added. In fact, there is something nice about a Tesla or Prius's silence at idle.
Some guys are in it for the power, and thus the engine noise is wasted energy.
Some guys are in it for the feel, and thus the engine noise is the most important thing about the car.
Can you make my car produce the sound of the Jetson's flying car? I would pay for that!
Can we turn it off? If not, they are spending a lot of money on something that would add negative value for guys like me. The reason I don't ride a motorcycle or even keep the convertible top open on the highway is that I can't stand the noise and have no interest in going deaf.
So, this is bee-sting lips, but for cars?
Pure artifice to match an arbitrary aesthetic, and nothing at all to do with reality?
LOL ... But, honey, the car doesn't make my penis bigger if it doesn't make that sound.
The idea of running the vroom vroom sounds through the car stereo to sound more manly is ... well, kinda funny.
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
from the outside, I don't care.
F that. Give me the quietest car possible. I'd much rather listen to my music or my companions speaking to me than the damn engine!
"Growing old is inevitable; growing up is optional."
The fartcans?
Your hair look like poop, Bob! - Wanker.
Years ago I saw a doc on Harley Davidson and a part of the design process was ensuring that the bikes made the "correct" HD noise*. What was interesting for a technical perspective was seeing a bike in an anechoic chamber, which had a robot arm waving around an array of microphones so that they could localize sounds emanating from different parts of the bike.
While I had no idea that car manufactures were doing this to such an extreme, it's not surprising when you are selling an image rather than just a product.
* what will be more fun in the future is seeing what the HD sound will be if their electric bike takes off. The reviews I have seen from the test riders have been really positive.
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Guess it's the geek in me, but when I think of all the noise being generated I think "Why is this energy going into sound instead of the wheels?" Sure, when I was a kid we all thought it was cool to flip the air filter covers and get glass packs, but now I think it is like sticking cards in your bicycle spokes. This is especially true now that I have had a chance to drive a Tesla: No vibration, or excess sound, just smooth power going right where you want it. Put your foot in it, and you are pushed back in your seat with very little noise. Driving a Tesla, or any decent electric is almost a transcendental experience after driving ICE cars. I read a review by someone who said Rolls Royce has to come out with an electric car because the experience is so much better. Of course electric cars are dangerously quiet for pedestrians, so a noise maker at low speeds is legit. Audi has been busy making interesting concept sounds for their electric vehicles.
Imagine how much harder physics would be if electrons had feelings! -Feynman, maybe
It helps if you can listen to the engine and really get a good idea how it is running. It was part of troubleshooting before the computers.
People want to feel in tune with what they are using, and sound helps with that. I'll grant that power doesn't have to be loud, and shouldn't be obnoxious in any case, but I can understand that it gives many people more of a connection to their vehicle.
I think that people will get over it, but it will be the end of an era.
I don't understand this argument, really. It seems to me that on most roads with pedestrians, tire noise is louder than engine noise, and more than sufficient for me to be aware of cars behind me.
I used to work for a large auto company from Japan, and at the end of the day most of what makes a car or truck is snake oil, but if we quit doing it people stop buying it. We might intentionally introduce inefficiencies in the exhaust to increase that "rally car" sound. Bucket seats and offset head rests trick you into folding your legs and rolling your shoulders in, making the car seem more spacious. Truck tricks include obese front grills despite the engine being efficient enough not to warrant them. And those big bulgy hoods? nowhere near the engine size. To make up for it, and make you feel like our technology is more advanced, we put plastic guards and bezels on top of the engine. It makes the engine look larger for someone who doesnt know what an engine looks like outside of a car or truck, and that sells.
an we never stopped there. to make up for the gearing required to get that 40mpg, we might program the computer to hold a lower gear longer or shorter to make the car seem "peppier" than it really is. simple things like a vertical indicator on the speedometer can help people associate the product they own with the racecar version they saw in the movie. Making that connection is critical, especially in trucks. Most of our trucks cost upwards of 30 grand, something blue collar could never afford. but if we associate it with blue collar, add splash guards and lift, and run a few ads? instant joe six pack. Actual blue collar construction workers drive, in most cases, an old mid nineties hatchback or 4 door sedan. They have kids to feed.
So grow up. no, your new 4 cylinder mustang wont roar like a bored out foxbody with glass packs, but you know what? it also gets 36 mpg and doesnt require 93 octane. It doesnt spew benzene and MTBE from the tailpipe because we gave it a catalytic converter. and it wont roll over and kill your kids because we added stability control, and govenment mandated roofing that can hold the weight of our car.
Good people go to bed earlier.
Of course we all benefit from patents, copyright & trademarks, right?
There may be a battle brewing in the sound of cars. ~20 years ago, Harley Davidson tried to trademark the sound of their motorcycle, but that didn't pass. Many others have though and we can expect more as 'sound branding' becomes more widespread.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S...
http://mentalfloss.com/article...
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/...
...omphaloskepsis often...
This is a missed marketing opportunity. Car manufacturers need to expose an API so that third-party developers can provide owners with their own sounds -- sounds that respond to the state of the car.
Want a car that sounds like the Jetsons' flying car when you take off from a light? Now you can. Want your Prius to sound like an F1 Lotus? It's downloadable. Want your econobox to sound like a muscle car? We're here to serve you.
The good part is, the quieter the car is, the more effective the sounds will be, so those of us that like silence will benefit, too. It's a win-win!
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.
Engineers at Samsung, Apple and other marketing conscious companies are sometimes asked to do unusual tasks. At Honda, planning the introduction of the 6 cylinder CBX motorcycle in the 1970s, sound design became important:
"From the beginning," Irimajiri explained, "our Six produced a smooth jetlike exhaust sound. But with an ordinary exhaust arrangement, it wasn't that close to a jet. We thought if we worked on it we could come up with a motorcycle sound like no one has ever heard before.
"So we sent some engineers to the Hyakuri Japanese Air Force base in Chiba prefecture. For ten days they tape-recorded the sound of Phantom jet fighters, and then came back and designed an exhaust system for the CBX that could duplicate that sound. When I heard it for the first time I was amazed; they had captured the Phantom sound perfectly."
from: http://www.motorcyclespecs.co....
short Wiki article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H...
hear the sound: https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
...omphaloskepsis often...
As a Leaf Electric car driver, I can say that the lack of engine noise is one of the primary benefits of an electric car.
I hear things on my commute that I didn't even know existed prior to my Leaf. I hear birds chirping, walk ways for the blind clicking, subtle details in my music, and occasionally, total silence. It's calming. It's also kinda cool to accelerate hard off the line (faster than most gas cars can do) with near silence.
The car does chirp externally when backing up, but it's not very audible from within the car. Perhaps a similar chirp when driving forward at a slow speed would work.
My God can beat up your God. Just kidding...don't take offense. I know there's no God.
If you WEREN'T FUCKING LOOKING as you crossed the road, it's your own fault.
In many countries, quite literally.
Your ears are no good for distance detection, nor at detecting noise from background without "obscuring" all noise (hence if you are in a loud place for a while, it doesn't SEEM loud because your ears are "dialling down" every volume, including that of the car beside you - that's why you have that "Shit, it was loud in there, hear how quiet it is now I'm out of that place!" moment). Your ears are easily deceived. Echoes can easily distort the origins of sounds.
If you're relying on your ears, in any way shape or form, to cross the road, you're going to get run over. That's why blind people need to have dogs who can hear, but deaf people can cross a road just fine on their own.
Look towards the traffic on your side of the road, look the other way, look BACK to the traffic on your side (the FIRST side that you are walking into and will kill you) as you step out, as you approach half-way and are about to cross over into that traffic's territory, check the other side again.
Sounds DO NOT play a part.
Mandating things like compulsory side-lights (like many European countries have 24/7 for all vehicles, no matter the weather conditions) does infinitely more for safety than fake noises on silent motors.
Fucking green-cross-code people (UK people, at least). The kind of thing you learned when you were five. Look, look the other way, look again, step out. Listening is merely a backup device in case some fucking nutter comes steaming down the road not seeing you and you need to dive out of the way. But, guess what, you'll turn your head to look at him first.
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.
All kids under 10 love to have a playing card clipped into their bicycle spokes. It just sounds so bad ass.
Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.
Yeah but any noise will do. The sound doesn't have to be engine noises. It can be a recording of a baby screaming "VROOM!!!!", or a recorded message like "I need a vehicle with a very loud engine to reassure myself I'm not gay".
There's only so much energy in the exhaust though, and that level has been steadily diminishing, especially with the advent of modern small turbo engines.
Just look at modern F1 cars. They're getting nearly 900 horse power out of a 1.6l turbo (plus hybrid system), and the engines are so quiet you hear tire scrub over them, even with racing slick tires.
This sort of reminds me of when Motorola was putting fake antennas on their cellular phones (with the real antenna inside) because they thought people wouldn't buy the phone if it didn't have a visible antenna. But eventually, society learned that an visible antenna was not necessary and we moved on. I suspect in another 20 years most cars will be a lot more quiet as a result of hybrid and electric drivetrains. I've been driving an EV now for 3 years and now that I've grown accustomed to the silence, hearing any engine noise at all sounds so yesterday, so obsolete.
There is nothing ridiculous about mandating some amount of noise in the meantime.
I completely disagree. If you mandate noise you will never get silence. Plus once you get enough cars close together you almost can't distinguish them anyway because it basically becomes white noise. Just because people have become accustomed to a certain amount of noise is not a credible argument for continuing to emit noise pollution needlessly. And no, I am not at all concerned about blind or inattentive pedestrians crossing the road in front of me. It's MY responsibility as a driver to drive carefully and watch out for possible road hazards. It is also their responsibility to watch out when crossing the road. Hell, people get hit by trains while walking and they make a huge racket and are 100% avoidable by staying off the tracks.
Clearly it needs to be user-customizeable - I would totally take a silent car that could be programmed to go "vroom! vroom!" excitedly when I went fast in it.
In Switzerland, the Law on Road Traffic sets pedestrians priority on vehicles. So, vehicles have to be very careful in any situations involving pedestrians, and the noise of the vehicles play a less important role to the safety. The effect of the rule has proved to be a success to lower the number of accidents, even if a few fanatic periodically attack it. The fact is that pedestrians includes vulnerable groups of peoples like children and seniors that can't be required to have a license to cross roads.
EDIT to the above (love Slashdot's posting system):
What *needs* to happen is that someone needs to show up to a gearhead rally with a Prius wired with that SAME digital file and BETTER speakers, meaning that right next to the "roaring Mustang" is an even-louder Prius, sounding otherwise identical. LOL.
-Styopa
Domino's is already ahead of the game here. If you're faking engine noise, might as well get creative with it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
"Well kids, you tried your best, and you failed. The lesson is, never try." -Homer Simpson
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.
Tires are almost silent on paved roads
The hell they are. Tire noise accounts for 70-90% of overall noise energy when travelling over 50mph.
Have someone put their car in neutral and turn the engine off as they roll down a hill toward you.
I will notice the car getting louder and louder as its speed increases. What's your point?
If you look at this demo of the QNX Kia Soul at CES 2014 starting at about 1:20 they demonstrate the acoustic shaping properties of QNX Car 2.0. From dampening exterior noise to engine sound "enhancement". They demo the Soul revving but sounding like a Dodge Challenger.
"A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky dangerous animals and you know it." - K
Roads? Where we're going we don't need roads.
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
How and why did you suddenly turn this into Geeks vs "Normals"? The "geek" is included in people and has just as much (or little) say as anyone else. Besides that, I doubt it's only geeks who would enjoy less traffic noise.