[Difflock]

Here's something I've been pondering on (no not the toilet!). In a thread regarding Aussie V8 supercars someone mentioned you can 't beat the sound of a V8. I wholeheartedly agree (unless it's a howling V12).

Now, whilst some of our little cars can give out a satisfying whine from smoothly meshing gears and balanced motor, we don't have a more guttural aural (I said AURAL!) satisfaction.

I wonder, given todays technology and gadgets etc. can we not have some way of relating the sound of blood-curdling race engines link to our little cars? I'm thinking along the lines of how it's done in video games - the sound is linked to throttle position. Not only that, but have the engine note go up and down the gearbox and remain steady depending on what you're doing with the car on the track.

No doubt this may be ridiculed and I think it's somewhat of a pipe-dream myself, but seeing as plenty of slot jockeys go to the trouble of building layouts with full and interesting scenery, the "proper" engine sounds may add that extra little bit.

Just think, another rotary control on your throttle with positions marked V8, V10, V12, Street, Race, Misfire, Dropped Valve.... oh the possibilities

Opinions please as always.

Mark.

 

[Tropi]

You don't already do it using human vocal chords?

 

[vfr750]

If I could make my V16 BRM sound like the real thing and give out the smell of Castrol R, you'd never get me away from the track.

John

A lost cause that doesn't respond to treatment

 

[Scott B]

God no, then there would endless posts about how the sound of the Fly Daytona isn't quite right!

Seriously, great idea and relatively easy with today's chips. I want blipping throttles on the down changes too. And tyre squealing when you lock up into a corner.

Anyone still got that great mpeg of the man going "rrring-ting-ting " like a sixties GP car?

Scott

 

[Difflock]

Could you not splash the motor casing with some Castrol R? At least you can get the oil

 

[astro]

Actually, the electric motors of Fly cars are designed to give accurate scale sounds of the engines they represent. If you scale up the soundwaves by a factor of 32, u get the gutteral sound of V8s, V12s etc as appropriate

 

[JohnP]

How's this for service

Check out Swiss' first post on page 2 of the Ninco 934 pics thread:

QUOTE "Not only do the have proactive suspension all round and the NC7 engine, they also boast soft rubber fenders, exclusive wheels and something Ninco call a simulated engine (sound ??) "

 

[Difflock]

QUOTE (Ecurie Ecosse @ 6 Feb 2004, 01:19 AM)Anyone still got that great mpeg of the man going "rrring-ting-ting " like a sixties GP car?

Scott
God, I remember something along those lines. There was a picture of an F1 car (Ferrari I think) and it said wait for the sound to finish loading and try not to laugh for 2 minutes.

Laugh?

I nearly wet myself! I had tears streaming down my face. I wish I'd managed to save the picture and sound file.

Mark.

 

[Robert Davies]

THIS ?

-Rob

 

[jonny s]

Astro , you are a very funny man. I`m just starting to get the style of your humour unless I am wrong and you have been drinking your own bath water

I`m still haunted by Alex Riley making car noises on "Short Circuits" not so bad if you just had to put up with it once but he rehearsed that over and over and over and over

As for smell, well haven`t these toys got a distinctive smell already? I believe I can still remember the smell of my first set at Christmas. Some of the smells down at the club are pretty grim but that may be the racers and not the cars!

 

[Scott B]

YES!

It's the bit he gets all high pitched and goes Wwweee -eeeee I love most.

Scott

 

[Difflock]

Cheers Rob!

Added to favourites

Mark.

 

[550rs]

Adding sound to a car itself is straightforward with some caveats:
1. The size of the speaker determines performance of bass response. Turbo whine, high-rev (motorbike) buzz and driver whinging would be fine using common small toy speakers but trying to repro rumbling V8's will be challenging. Some MRR guys use a toy speaker with something like a film cannister to create a airbox cavity for resonance to reasonable effect for low revving diesel engines.
2. The sound will create additional vibration within the car with potential negative effect on handling.

It would not be a big stretch to link SportWorld's telemetry to something like a headset or VRR helmet just for the sound, depending on the granularity of SW's telemetry readings and whether it will stream real-time data to something like a plugin. Doing the Doppler Shift coding properly would take a little while though if the circuit has tunnels, overpasses etc.

 

[Tropi]

Far too sophisticated!
Just glue a piece of stiff card to trail on the contrate teeth like we used to do on the spokes of bicycle wheels!

 

[NOISY MUSE]

QUOTE you can 't beat the sound of a V8. I wholeheartedly agree (unless it's a howling V12).

UNLESS it's a "big" Brit inline six ala Jag and Aston-Martin (unless your tastes run to red and Italian and I'll offer Maserati 300S)!!

They're ALL (engines big and small, V12 or V-twin) music to my ears...

Scottrik
NOISY (for a reason) MUSE

 

[Fergy]

Certainly, I'll agree that there is no better music than the sound of a race engine, but I don't think anyone wants to hear it at many times its normal speed... upshifting through the gears and downshifting again on a main straight that takes all of one second to traverse is gonna sound like a full-race chipmunk on steroids if you ask me! But then, you didn't...

 

[Gringo Hairpiece]

Probably showing my age here but didn't Scalextric do this back in the early 80's. Wasn't it part of their, then very advanced, track computer addon's. Three boxes could be bought seperately and used together or alone, one worked out fuel usage and pitstop strategy. There was also that F1 start thing which produced tyre smoke and squealing starts.

 

[astro]

Just remembered something from the toy fair on a related subject.

The konami r-c (and now r-c slot) cars had stereo speakers set up, and these were producing engine noises based on the throttle given to each of the cars. The speakers were not the loudest and in a crowded fair, so its hard to judge how good or effective this method was. Generally, in this environment, I wasn't impressed with the sound coming from somewhere other than the cars themselves, took a while to even realise it was linked to the cars throttles.

 

[Xlot]

Personally (I know it's heresy for an Italian) I must confess having a weak spot for 90-degree crankshaft V8s

Sound simulation will most probably be part of slot racing's future - I'm thinking fixed, not car borne systems - one essential aspect will be simulating the Doppler effect (sound pitch changing as the car passes by)

On the other hand, those who point out the inevitable cacophony do have a point, plus commercial tracks would definitely have problems with neighbors !

 

[Difflock]

QUOTE (Fergy @ 6 Feb 2004, 04:50 AM)Certainly, I'll agree that there is no better music than the sound of a race engine, but I don't think anyone wants to hear it at many times its normal speed... upshifting through the gears and downshifting again on a main straight that takes all of one second to traverse is gonna sound like a full-race chipmunk on steroids if you ask me! But then, you didn't...

I agree Fergy. The same thing struck me last night before getting some sleep. Unless the cars are powered by Evo1 motors on 9 volts then they're just too quick for the 1:1 sounds to work properly.

Interesting thread though

Mark.