Better Sound for SRFs???

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PostPosted: Thu Jan 26, 2012 2:10 pm
SRFs are so quiet they some times don't sound like "real" race cars. Perhaps BMW has an answer for us. Do you suppose we could pass tech with loud speakers hidden under the body work running through a really big amp?

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/26/opini ... .html?_r=1

Warning: The Next Sound You Hear Will Not Be Your Engine
By SERGE SCHMEMANN

When you pay $100,000 for a red-hot BMW M5, you expect the twin-turbo V8 to emit a mighty song. Those who drive this superbrutal version of the midsize BMW are not generally in search of silence. And a nudge on the accelerator fills the cabin with a richly satisfying ascent from low rumble to high scream. But it’s a recording, a virtual roar.

I was stunned when I first learned in the December issue of Automobile magazine that the sound you hear inside a 2013 M5 will be coming from its speakers, and, to judge by subsequent letters and Web chatter, I am not alone. “I don’t believe it! A car that lip-synchs!” moaned one correspondent.

The sound doesn’t even come from a microphone in the engine compartment, which would make some perverse sense, but from a digital recording: “a discreet soundtrack in keeping with the harmonious and assured characteristics of the V8 power plant,” BMW explains in its literature. Stomping on the gas pedal, the Bavarians continue, “prompts an immediate audible response to match the instantaneous — and typically M — burst of power from beneath the bonnet.” They call it Active Sound Design.

I tried to put this in perspective. We all know that much of what we hear in life is not really so. Canned laughter and “sweetened” applause have been TV staples for decades, and all the slamming doors, breaking glass and squealing tires you hear in movies are sound effects. (I always notice when they have tires squealing on dirt roads.)

Natalie Wood doesn’t actually sing “I Feel Pretty” in “West Side Story.” When recording artists go flat, electronics get them back on tune, and Broadway theaters use wireless mics. Our daily life is filled with electronic pianos, ring tones, the disembodied voice giving you your bank balance over the telephone. Even silence can be electronic, courtesy of sound-canceling headphones.

I remember visiting the East-West German border at the Fulda Gap before the Wall came down. That was where the Soviet tanks were supposed to come rushing in at the outbreak of World War III, and the guards on both sides put on a great show of preparedness. I was on the West German side. And from the East, I kept hearing roosters crowing and dogs barking.

After a while, I realized that it was the same crowing and barking at intervals. It was a recording. The East German side was a no-man’s land, and the intention was apparently to make visitors believe all was well over there.

Of course, the BMW’s engine recording is really what you would hear if the car did not have extraordinary sound insulation.

And I can appreciate BMW’s quandary. Buyers of powerful cars place a high premium on the “exhaust note,” and manufacturers spend a lot of money getting it right. At the same time, high-end cars are expected to filter out the sounds of the mundane world. BMW might further argue that electronics are taking over many other functions. Stability control that helps control a car during a skid. Screens that mimic mechanical speedometers.

So why is Active Sound Design so surprising? For one thing, the electronic driving aids and displays make no pretense about what they’re doing. Recorded engine sounds, however, are a deliberate deception. They’re like going to a concert and listening to a recording. On the other hand, I wouldn’t mind buying a BMW recording and installing it in my ’96 Jeep Cherokee.
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PostPosted: Thu Jan 26, 2012 4:18 pm
Have one of these...

http://www.amazon.com/Victory-SRV8-Soun ... 779&sr=8-1

..in my Volvo. Sound pretty cool.

Video (not mine) here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B_su9MXpOJo

Needs a Life!!!
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PostPosted: Fri Jan 27, 2012 9:00 am
Just pipe the opening soundtrack from Grand Prix through your earpieces on a loop :-)
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PostPosted: Fri Jan 27, 2012 11:32 am
This sounds like another one of these...

http://www.museumofhoaxes.com/hoax/af_d ... splay/C469
Ken Grammer
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PostPosted: Sat Jan 28, 2012 10:47 am
Well, it may be flatulent, but at least the SRF makes some noise.

My street car is a 2012 Chevy Volt (great freaking car!) that in full Electric Vehicle mode makes a noise of, well, the little voices in my head. Even when the EV range is over and the gasoline-powered generator flips on to charge the batteries, I can only kind of sense the engine running in most instances. And you can't sense the flip-over at all, except for a change on the dash display.

That said, auto makers like BMW and GM understand that engine sound is still important to drivers, even in an extended range electric vehicle like the Volt.

So, when the Volt is in what is called "Charge Sustaining" (CS) mode and the engine is on to charge the battery and the throttle is connected only to the electric motors, they map engine response to the throttle input so that when the throttle is punched the engine revs appropriately. Mind you, in the Volt, the engine can maintain battery charge at any RPM it needs to. But the engineers feel it's more gratifying to the driver to make the throttle input mapping more proportional to the engine RPM.

There is also an instance when accelerating over 70 MPH in CS mode where the engine kind of "directly" powers the wheels by clutching into the "A" motor/generator. Throttle input remains proportional in this case. Also, in Mountain Mode, a Volt driver can rev the engine while parked. (Um, to impress the dudes at the drive-in?)
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PostPosted: Sat Jan 28, 2012 12:07 pm
Mental image of Bob in "mountain man" garb, sitting in line at the Starbucks drive-in, waiting for his latte and revving the snot out of his mobile generating station...

Image

This is all very disturbing.
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PostPosted: Sat Jan 28, 2012 12:37 pm
John Walsh wrote:Mental image of Bob in "mountain man" garb, sitting in line at the Starbucks drive-in, waiting for his latte and revving the snot out of his mobile generating station...

Image

This is all very disturbing.


Indeed it is disturbing because I stopped wearing that hat three years ago in favor of a full-on Davey Crockett model. Chicks love it.

By the way, "revving the snot out of a mobile generating station" is, um...exactly what that is. So I got nuthin' for that.

I do have to admit that once I got used to driving an electric every day, whenever I get back into my GMC Canyon pickup it takes some time to get used to all that V8 noise.

It's a whole nuther thing with a car like the Volt. Just for giggles, take one for a test drive, punch it into Sport Mode and stomp on it. That's what 273 instant foot pounds of torque feels like. The car is a true sports sedan. (But, damn, I do miss shifting. Or even hearing any shifts, for that matter.)
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PostPosted: Sun Jan 29, 2012 1:39 pm
we deal with this every day here at our electric kart racing track. "Gassers" come in with an initial snub-their-nose attitude about "toy electric karts"... until they race them one time and get that kick from instant-on torque!

:D
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