Reading a lot of the comments it seems that most people here are keen to have otherwise quiet cars fitted with fake sounds. While I appreciate there's a safety aspect to making some sort of sound for pedestrians, I am actually looking forward to a future that makes cities and heavy traffic areas both quieter and cleaner. If you live in such areas, this would be a great quality of life improvement and dare I say, may improve property values in such places.
I'd hate to think that 20 years from now I'll still be subject to morons deciding to delight the neighbourhood at 2am with their overblown engine sounds.
Yes! I've already written NHTSA and US DOT about getting these synthetic noises banned. The more people who do the same, the more likely it'll get noticed.
Now, we just have to figure out how to include motorcycles...
People like the sound of engines. It’s interesting to me that you have issue with car exhaust notes but not police or other sirens. In urban environments you typically hear sirens more than vehicle noise, at least in my experiences in SF.
Maybe don’t be concerned with things that don’t really matter. Likely real engine sounds aren’t going anywhere anytime soon.
Most jurisdictions have laws against modifying cars to make them louder, so your attempt to make GP believe that his adverse reaction to loud cars is unusual or is his problem fails.
Maybe you should face that fact that your loud car is bad for the health of your neighbors.
Oh but they don’t! Lots of German “performance” cars now have speakers under the car to make obnoxiously loud sounds. They can’t produce them naturally because the muffler regulations prohibit unfiltered exhausts - hence speakers.
By far the worst offenders when it comes to neighborhood car sound are EV’s. They have decided across the board to blast the most bone chilling drone imaginable every time they are backing up a driveway or driving at low speed – you know, the kind of thing that happens in neighborhoods all the time.
The tone itself is the worst part. It’s as if it was specifically engineered by top audio scientists to be as repulsive as possible (that’s probably exactly what happened), then they turned the volume dial up to 11 so it’s still grating even in your house several doors down. I believe Tesla led the charge here, but now they’re all equally guilty of disturbing the peace and wanton noise pollution.
Just play a nice v8 sound at a reasonable volume for gosh sake!
There’s some regulation here to contend with that mandates these EV sounds have to include a 1khz-4khz tone which is probably what you’re noticing since it’s on the higher end of the usual urban audioscape. The Verge did an interesting piece on this recently – https://www.theverge.com/24182348/ev-sounds-low-speed-survey...
I kinda like the Skeuomorphic Brooke 25/30-HP Swan Car, which has Eerie Glowing Skeuomorphic Swan Eyes, can Rudely Spray Skeuomorphic Steam from its Skeuomorphic Swan Beak to clear a passage in the streets, can Obnoxiously Skeuomorphically Honk with an exhaust-driven, eight-tone Gabriel horn that can be operated by means of a keyboard at the back of the car, and can Disgustingly Dump Skeuomorphic Bird Shit onto the road through a valve at the back of the car.
It even has a baby daughter, Cygnet The Baby Swan Car!
I bet Elon Musk and every CyberTruck owner would love to drive a CyberSwan.
This Brooke Swan Car is truly extraordinary. It was the creation of the eccentric and wealthy Scotsman Robert Nicholl ‘Scotty’ Matthewson, who lived in early 20th century Calcutta, the capital of what was then British India
Matthewson wanted to shock the local elite with his car, and he certainly succeeded in doing so.
The bodywork represents a swan gliding through water. The rear is decorated with a lotus flower design finished in gold leaf, an ancient symbol for divine wisdom. Apart from the normal lights, there are electric bulbs in the swan’s eyes that glow eerily in the dark. The car has an exhaust-driven, eight-tone Gabriel horn that can be operated by means of a keyboard at the back of the car. A ship’s telegraph was used to issue commands to the driver. Brushes were fitted to sweep off the elephant dung collected by the tyres. The swan’s beak is linked to the engine’s cooling system and opens wide to allow the driver to spray steam to clear a passage in the streets. Whitewash could be dumped onto the road through a valve at the back of the car to make the swan appear even more lifelike.
The car caused panic and chaos in the streets on its first outing and the police had to intervene. Matthewson sold the car to the Maharaja of Nabha, whose family owned it for over seventy years.
The car was discovered years later in its original state, albeit in poor condition. The sumptuous Indian silk upholstery had been eaten away by rats.
In 1991 it came into the ownership of the Louwman Museum and was fully restored. New upholstery was commissioned from an Indian weaving mill following the discovery of remnants of the original material under the seats. All the gadgets were made to working order again. In 1993 the Swan won the Montagu Prize at the prestigious Pebble Beach Concours d’Élégance in California.
The Brooke ‘Swan Car’ is truly extraordinary. It was the creation of the eccentric and wealthy Scotsman Robert Nicholl ‘Scotty’ Matthewson, who lived in early 20th century Calcutta, the capital of what was then British India. Matthewson wanted to shock the local elite with his car, and he certainly succeeded in doing so.
Quite a sight!
The car’s first outing in the streets of Calcutta lead to newspaper headlines: “Women screaming” and “animals in the streets scattered in all directions”. At the time traffic in Calcutta was already very busy and chaotic. The authorities’ response was to be expected: they banned the car from public roads.
A work of art on wheels
The body represented a swan, probably inspired by Swan Park in Calcutta where Matthewson lived. The accessories are just as quirky as the body of this work of art on wheels. In particular the system that allowed hot water to be sprayed from the swan’s beak and the brushes used to keep the tyres clean.
The Maharaja of Nabha
Matthewson decided to sell the car. A buyer was found in the person of the Maharaja of Nabha. After a conflict with the neighbouring principality, the Maharaja was forced to abdicate. His son, at the time 9 years old, succeeded him. The Baby Swan was built specially for him and beautifully complements the Swan Car.
Meet the Swan Car
The cars didn’t see much use and in the 1980s part of the Maharaja of Nabha’s car collection was sold, including the famous Swan Cars. Both cars were acquired by the Louwman Museum and subjected to a thorough restoration.
To accompany the large ‘Swan Car’ The Maharaja of Nabha had this smaller version made for use on his estate in the 1920s.
The body was hand-beaten from steel sheet and fitted with an electric motor. It was called the ‘Baby Swan’ or ‘Cygnet’. Note the cygnets at the front. This is probably the oldest Indian-made automobile.
Both cars are now reunited in the museum, like ‘mother and daughter’.
For a less scientific approach LAxemann has some interesting videos as well. He uses software synthesizers to create the sounds. His introductory video is quite interesting:
That rigid body engine sim is, without a doubt, one of the coolest software projects I’ve seen in my entire life. If only we could get sim racers to adopt this tech.
Ange's top patron is BeamNG, arguably the most physically accurate sim racer out there right now (in some areas, it still needs improvement). I predict within five years BeamNG + engine sim will leapfrog what anyone else has done in this area and recreated what we all thought video games were doing when we were little kids.
Yeah, I always look forward to their new developments. This is similar to Ange's effort with SiliconX to add realistic engine sounds to an electric motorcycle though this appears to be for an electric race car.
Looks like this uses soundbanks instead of actually simulating an engine like AngeTheGreat's simulator. The author of this one has published their source code here https://github.com/markeasting/engine-audio
Tangentially: Does anyone know where to find a collection of the low speed sounds emitted by electric vehicles (in the US at least)? I'd be interest to hear the different approach different manufacturers have taken.
i too would be very interested in this! i am for now a petrol head but continue to be fascinated and also mildly irked by the varying EV sounds.
some sound like galactic spaceships, some like weapons, some like "blurred mechanical noise", and some are almost indescribable in words. some can be semi-nightmarish.
i'd love to play with a soundboard that had all the different EV manuf sounds on it.
I absolutely love the reverse sound my Toyota RAV4 Prime (hybrid) makes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gUT94MBt_Ao To me, it sounds like the future. Sort of a hovering UFO. People's heads definitely turn when I back out of my driveway.
Shortly after moving into my current place, I would randomly hear this hum that for the life of me I could not figure out what it was. I had even looked at maps to look for some sort of place nearby that might make sense. It wasn't a constant hum, and there was seemingly no schedule for it. A week ago, I just happened to be in my drive way instead of the fenced backyard when I heard the noise. It was my neighbor's EV <facepalm>
My main objection to the newer EV sounds is that they are tonal enough to be recognized as a musical chord, but not a pleasant one. It’s either vaguely minor like a horror movie score, or a downright dissonant mash of pure sines.
I recently started getting something related in my youtube recommendations and that is the recordings of PWM motor signals from japanese and american trains[0]. There's also people building their own boards and motors to generate these same waveforms[1].
I really hope we can get to a point where there are multiple approved sounds to choose from. If the car has to make noise, might as well be able to select from some options.
Probably won't see Hampster Dance approved, however...
But more realistically, think of the headache of trying to keep your engine's Hampsterdance in sync with the Hampsterdance blaring from your car's stereo, (as it naturally would be).
God, the Hyundai sounds are terrible in Korea. They sound like a UFO and are very loud. They tried to go too hard with the future vibe and it drives me nuts living in the small streets of a very busy Seoul.
I did notice this when I had a city apartment with a window facing the street: regulators have not taken noise pollution into consideration. They made it very loud so as to be sure to alert all pedestrians, which is good, but it is also far more noticeable than a quiet ICE in several situations. If I’m in a building, I really do not want to hear a vehicle! Noise pollution is a real problem and the current regulations unfortunately do step backwards in my opinion.
I recall a thunder simulator (generator?) from years ago. You could draw/modify a “line” representing the ground surface, give it a few seconds, and it would output thunder. Early-ish internet days, Java applet. Might have been on a university web site.
I tried searching fairly recently and came up empty handed. Is it possible that anyone here on HN might remember this and have a reference? I would settle for a paper.
I touch Theta param in the left part of it, and the sound disappears, all the numbers go mad into infinity and then become NaN. Also there's no sound if none is selected in controls, but changing anything in controls makes the same effect -- all params spiral into infinity. Not fun.
More fun than I expected. Now I want more engine sounds. I wonder how hard it would be to contribute new engine models. Like, what is the recording process and processing required to build the source sounds.
Readit News
I'd hate to think that 20 years from now I'll still be subject to morons deciding to delight the neighbourhood at 2am with their overblown engine sounds.
Now, we just have to figure out how to include motorcycles...
Not possible. Db limits are one thing, but a content-based rule would be akin to banning certain types of music.
Maybe don’t be concerned with things that don’t really matter. Likely real engine sounds aren’t going anywhere anytime soon.
Maybe you should face that fact that your loud car is bad for the health of your neighbors.
AMG, Audi RS, M Power - they all do it.
The tone itself is the worst part. It’s as if it was specifically engineered by top audio scientists to be as repulsive as possible (that’s probably exactly what happened), then they turned the volume dial up to 11 so it’s still grating even in your house several doors down. I believe Tesla led the charge here, but now they’re all equally guilty of disturbing the peace and wanton noise pollution.
Just play a nice v8 sound at a reasonable volume for gosh sake!
Experiments show that people can determine the direction of a hiss (a sound composed of many frequencies) better than a beep or a pure tone.
Dead Comment
They already do have active noise cancelling, but I believe it is to benefit the passengers.
It even has a baby daughter, Cygnet The Baby Swan Car!
I bet Elon Musk and every CyberTruck owner would love to drive a CyberSwan.
https://www.louwmanmuseum.nl/en/car/brooke-25-30-hp-swan-car...
Brooke 25/30-HP Swan Car
This Brooke Swan Car is truly extraordinary. It was the creation of the eccentric and wealthy Scotsman Robert Nicholl ‘Scotty’ Matthewson, who lived in early 20th century Calcutta, the capital of what was then British India
Matthewson wanted to shock the local elite with his car, and he certainly succeeded in doing so.
The bodywork represents a swan gliding through water. The rear is decorated with a lotus flower design finished in gold leaf, an ancient symbol for divine wisdom. Apart from the normal lights, there are electric bulbs in the swan’s eyes that glow eerily in the dark. The car has an exhaust-driven, eight-tone Gabriel horn that can be operated by means of a keyboard at the back of the car. A ship’s telegraph was used to issue commands to the driver. Brushes were fitted to sweep off the elephant dung collected by the tyres. The swan’s beak is linked to the engine’s cooling system and opens wide to allow the driver to spray steam to clear a passage in the streets. Whitewash could be dumped onto the road through a valve at the back of the car to make the swan appear even more lifelike.
The car caused panic and chaos in the streets on its first outing and the police had to intervene. Matthewson sold the car to the Maharaja of Nabha, whose family owned it for over seventy years.
The car was discovered years later in its original state, albeit in poor condition. The sumptuous Indian silk upholstery had been eaten away by rats.
In 1991 it came into the ownership of the Louwman Museum and was fully restored. New upholstery was commissioned from an Indian weaving mill following the discovery of remnants of the original material under the seats. All the gadgets were made to working order again. In 1993 the Swan won the Montagu Prize at the prestigious Pebble Beach Concours d’Élégance in California.
https://www.louwmanmuseum.nl/en/masterpieces-of-mobility/swa...
Designed to shock
The Brooke ‘Swan Car’ is truly extraordinary. It was the creation of the eccentric and wealthy Scotsman Robert Nicholl ‘Scotty’ Matthewson, who lived in early 20th century Calcutta, the capital of what was then British India. Matthewson wanted to shock the local elite with his car, and he certainly succeeded in doing so.
Quite a sight!
The car’s first outing in the streets of Calcutta lead to newspaper headlines: “Women screaming” and “animals in the streets scattered in all directions”. At the time traffic in Calcutta was already very busy and chaotic. The authorities’ response was to be expected: they banned the car from public roads.
A work of art on wheels
The body represented a swan, probably inspired by Swan Park in Calcutta where Matthewson lived. The accessories are just as quirky as the body of this work of art on wheels. In particular the system that allowed hot water to be sprayed from the swan’s beak and the brushes used to keep the tyres clean.
The Maharaja of Nabha
Matthewson decided to sell the car. A buyer was found in the person of the Maharaja of Nabha. After a conflict with the neighbouring principality, the Maharaja was forced to abdicate. His son, at the time 9 years old, succeeded him. The Baby Swan was built specially for him and beautifully complements the Swan Car.
Meet the Swan Car
The cars didn’t see much use and in the 1980s part of the Maharaja of Nabha’s car collection was sold, including the famous Swan Cars. Both cars were acquired by the Louwman Museum and subjected to a thorough restoration.
https://www.louwmanmuseum.nl/en/car/cygnet-the-baby-swan-car...
Cygnet The Baby Swan Car
To accompany the large ‘Swan Car’ The Maharaja of Nabha had this smaller version made for use on his estate in the 1920s.
The body was hand-beaten from steel sheet and fitted with an electric motor. It was called the ‘Baby Swan’ or ‘Cygnet’. Note the cygnets at the front. This is probably the oldest Indian-made automobile.
Both cars are now reunited in the museum, like ‘mother and daughter’.
https://youtube.com/@angethegreat
it is almost the same except has some severe qol improvements.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=afvKUTIL4D8
He has other examples and updates on his channel as well.
some sound like galactic spaceships, some like weapons, some like "blurred mechanical noise", and some are almost indescribable in words. some can be semi-nightmarish.
i'd love to play with a soundboard that had all the different EV manuf sounds on it.
I absolutely love the reverse sound my Toyota RAV4 Prime (hybrid) makes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gUT94MBt_Ao To me, it sounds like the future. Sort of a hovering UFO. People's heads definitely turn when I back out of my driveway.
There's one I hear regularly that sounds like a choir of demons.
[0]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mgxlM_kiDL0 [1]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i0B2bvd9rFQ
Probably won't see Hampster Dance approved, however...
But more realistically, think of the headache of trying to keep your engine's Hampsterdance in sync with the Hampsterdance blaring from your car's stereo, (as it naturally would be).
Not to mention all the other excellent tracks on https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hampsterdance:_The_Album
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6WpMlwVwydo
I think I'll petition NHTSA etc. to make this song mandatory for electric vehicles.
Oh my god it actually sounds like a more high pitched version of the Jetsons https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4NgSZ8sjDgU
Edit: Found it, look how loud this shit is! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IgvUu2YZ5ps
I recall a thunder simulator (generator?) from years ago. You could draw/modify a “line” representing the ground surface, give it a few seconds, and it would output thunder. Early-ish internet days, Java applet. Might have been on a university web site.
I tried searching fairly recently and came up empty handed. Is it possible that anyone here on HN might remember this and have a reference? I would settle for a paper.
Deleted Comment