You new car engine sound is likely FAKE... hehehehehehe

Sweet engine sounds fake

Inquistr said:

The powerful revving sound of the engine is undoubtedly the best part of owning and driving a muscle car. However, the purring of your latest car could very well be a synthetic recording.

Automakers have been accused of replacing the authentic engine purr with a shallow, mechanical one that emanates from a sound-generating engine. This sound generation tech is merely synched with the gas pedal. As proud muscle car owners stepped on the gas to hear the sweet signature rumbling, they were treated with fake sounds that were produced from another machine dedicated to producing these fake engine sounds.

Essentially, if you’ve bought a car within the last few years, chances are high you’re not actually hearing your engine growl, but instead a recording of it.

Car manufacturers, including BMW, Volkswagen, Toyota, Porsche and Ford, are all in on the deception, working hard to make sure the synthesized versions truly sound like their iconic old car engines. Shockingly, Ford even surveyed its customers to get the sounds just right.

Take into consideration the 2015 Mustang EcoBoost. Ford sound engineers and developers boast about creating “Active Noise Control” system that amplifies the engine’s purr through the car speakers. They even surveyed members of Mustang fan clubs to find out which “processed sound concepts” they enjoyed the most.

My Honda fit sounds just like the exhaust- lifeless and anemic.

so Ford stopped running the tube from the intake tract to the firewall to bring the joyful sounds of air rushing into the throttle body to the inside of the car?

I wish they would have put that on the V. It makes no noise. I'd love to be able to turn up cabin noise on track/autocross.

I heard the turn signal sound is fake - it used to be a relay? What's next? fake burnout sounds?

Lame. Why don't they just make em louder in the first place Factory straight pipes?

They should all take a tip from Fiat, which has managed to make the little 500 Abarth and its little engine sound like a beast, simply by using exhaust tuning.

I wanna say my friend pulled it out of his GTI a few years ago when he bought one.

Just silly, but then again they don't make cars to appeal to riff raff like us. I'm just glad Mitsubishi was too cheap to try nonsense like that one my car.

irish44j wrote: They should all take a tip from Fiat, which has managed to make the little 500 Abarth and its little engine sound like a beast, simply by using exhaust tuning.

Absolutely, I'm in love with that sound from my friends Abarth

Some car on TopGear lets you choose the fake sound. I think it was a renult clio you can pick turbo,v6 ect...

SENSATIONAL REVELATION! AUTOMAKERS SECRETS UNVEILED! WHAT YOU READ MAY SHOCK YOU!

Seriously, it's not a secret.

Mazda has added a little sound conduction pipe to the intake to increase the growl on the Miata since 2009 - but only on the manual transmission cars. The automatic owners apparently are a different demographic.

Datsun310Guy wrote: I heard the turn signal sound is fake - it used to be a relay? What's next? fake burnout sounds?

They used to be really cool electromechanical devices. A bimetallic strip would heat up and "pop" from one shape to another, closing a contact with a click. The one in my MG is just slightly erratic on the timing, with slight shifts in the rhythm. Great character, makes me laugh every time I use the car.

Then they changed to electronic units that are much more consistent, last longer and run cooler. But they don't need to make noise. The noise is artificially added because drivers expect it.

This makes my mind frown. And this looks like a growing trend. Is there a genuine problem that modern engines just don't sound as good, or is it too much of a compromise?

I can think of a couple vehicles that sounded great from the factory. Years ago my brother had an '89 Chevy Cavalier Z24. It came with a cowl induction hood that had connected to the air box. It made a wonderful honking growl noise when you accelerated. Horrible car, but I bet they sold a bunch on the sound alone. I love the way my Titan sounds. You can tell Nissan put a lot of effort into it. It's a perfect balance of aggressive but not tiring.

I think that manufacturers do it because it's cheaper to record it and integrate the sound with the factory stereo system. Plus, since it's synchronized with the throttle, at low throttle and highway speeds the car is quiet, and loud when the driver goes WOT. I wonder how they will behave when owners put aftermarket exhausts on the car.

Datsun310Guy wrote: I heard the turn signal sound is fake - it used to be a relay? What's next? fake burnout sounds?

It took me a while to figure out how to cancel the fake shutter noise my digital camera made. I guess people expect it, but it just bothered me.

wspohn wrote:

Datsun310Guy wrote: I heard the turn signal sound is fake - it used to be a relay? What's next? fake burnout sounds?

It took me a while to figure out how to cancel the fake shutter noise my digital camera made. I guess people expect it, but it just bothered me.

And it makes you seem creepy when you're trying to take pictures for the gga thread.

If you can't make it sound good, just make it quiet.

Cobb managed to hack it on their ecoboost mustang. Would make the noises based on tach needle position even if the motor wasnt running.

They should program in the beeps and "Prepare to qualify" from Pole Position whenever you put it in gear.

I read about the M5 doing this a couple of years ago. After a glorious V10 soundtrack the focus groups weren't impressed by the new twin turbo (with reverse flow heads and the turbos inside the V!!) so BMW piped more lively soundtracks through the cars speakers.

None of that with my cars but my newest is 8 years old now.

Man... and I thought air pumps were stupid.

Why not put speakers on the outside too? With selectable soundtracks? That way everyone hears a Big Block Chevelle at the light or a F1 car when passing on the freeway!

I like it. I have a Focus ST and they do this with it. I like it because it sounds good and because it gives noise feedback for manual shifts without making the car noisy all the time.

they have to do this because they isolate the cabin from the world around it so well these days. take all the sound deadener out of a car, and suddenly it would probably sound a lot cooler to weirdos like us on the inside..

i'm one of those people that thinks that every hybrid or electric car should use the sound of George Jetson's car, and everything else should sound like a top fueler when you go WFO...

Keith Tanner wrote: SENSATIONAL REVELATION! AUTOMAKERS SECRETS UNVEILED! WHAT YOU READ MAY SHOCK YOU! Seriously, it's not a secret. Mazda has added a little sound conduction pipe to the intake to increase the growl on the Miata since 2009 - but only on the manual transmission cars. The automatic owners apparently are a different demographic.

Datsun310Guy wrote: I heard the turn signal sound is fake - it used to be a relay? What's next? fake burnout sounds?

They used to be really cool electromechanical devices. A bimetallic strip would heat up and "pop" from one shape to another, closing a contact with a click. The one in my MG is just slightly erratic on the timing, with slight shifts in the rhythm. Great character, makes me laugh every time I use the car. Then they changed to electronic units that are much more consistent, last longer and run cooler. But they don't need to make noise. The noise is artificially added because drivers expect it.

If it weren't for that relay clicking noise, old folks would never cancel their turn signals. It's a secondary reminder to the flashing light, and a beep or something would just be confusing or annoying. Same as fake shutter noise on a digital camera - they need something to acknowledge that the camera took the shot. It might as well be the expected sound, if it's less annoying than a beep or other tone.

Tuning the engine sound mechanically like Keith mentions above is A-OK. Faking it electronically is not. Ridiculous. Now, where should I mount my fake BOV noisemaker?

Duke wrote: If it weren't for that relay clicking noise, absent minded people like BlueInGeen44 would *never* cancel their turn signals.