RE: Rev it up for Electronic Arts
Friday 28th April 2006
Let's hear those pipes!A sound designer for EA games here in the UK wants to record your car.
Rev it up for Electronic Arts
Your motor could be in the next game
Let's hear those pipes!
Lewis Griffin said: "On a couple of occasions now, I’ve used the PistonHeads forum to source cars, for the purpose of recording the car on a dyno, and using the recordings in racing games. I’ve always had the best response from posting on PistonHeads, but it’s mainly been the Jap tuner crowd, Civics, Skylines, etc.
"I’ve just begun to source cars for our next batch of games, and this time I’m trying to focus mainly on exotic sports cars, the higher revving the better, with lots of sound character. Our best sounding cars in the last game was a Gallardo, so normally aspirated, high revving V8s and V10s, with lots of grunt are ideal. I’d like to record Lambos, Ferarris, TVRs, Audi RS, or race prepped cars -- anything that sounds awesome. We then work on the sound mefore it goes into the game."
Those who make the cut will get mentioned in the credits, plus receive free copies of the software.
Recording process
The car’s tyres are removed and the hubs are coupled directly to the Dynapack. Microphones are placed in several positions around the car, and the Dynapack operator runs the car through a short set of steady rpm intervals from approximately 1,000rpm to just under the vehicle's redline under low, medium and high load. Then the car is run through a series of four ‘power runs’ in a single gear from low rpm to rev limiter over intervals of five, seven, nine and 20 seconds.
According to Griffin, the Dynapack operator is very capable and has done this for dozens of cars including high-end race cars. He is also exploring the possibility of doing additional road recordings, and is negotiating with Top Gear's Dunsfold Aerodrome as a venue.
Contact him by phone: 01483 463259.
Discussion
bigjimmy said:
Is it me, or do cars sound slightly stale on a Dyno. They sound much nicer when the engine is under stress and the car is being pushed along the road/track? If so, game makers should try and find away of recording them on the move.
If not, tell me to get lost.
If you read the last paragraph then you will see that is what they are trying to do. I suppose the acoustics of a dyno room compared to a wide open track are different as well.
Remember also that the DSP and audio faciltities of modern PC and console audio hardware are capable of some nifty post-processing and runtime fiddling of the base sample. The designers can then play with it to the extent that it sounds like it's bouncing off tunnels, walls, underpasses etc. Having the base samples be recorded in comparitively flat environents helps to make this possible along with recording during various stages of load in both RPM and gear. The programmers can then add doppler effects, add reverb and fiddle with the sound according to occlusion information etc.
I would have guessed that air turbulence at speed would also fairly significantly alter the sound made.
I would have guessed that air turbulence at speed would also fairly significantly alter the sound made.
bigjimmy said:
Is it me, or do cars sound slightly stale on a Dyno. They sound much nicer when the engine is under stress and the car is being pushed along the road/track? If so, game makers should try and find away of recording them on the move.
If not, tell me to get lost.
The point of a dyno is that the car is under stress, it is a static simulation of a road test. The dyno is driven by the car but there is the appropriate level of resistance back to the car to simulate actual driving conditions. In many dynos or rolling roads power is recovered from the mechanism driven by the cars and used to generate electricity.
Sounds the best way to get pure sounds. Rollers and recording don't mix well, so running the hubs, and applying load to sustain revs at low to high rpm under varying loads is a great way to record the sounds!
Now, if the owners of the cars get copies of the audio recorded as well, that would be nice
Plenty of simmers out there who would love to have the equipment to gather this information but don't. But loads of simmers out there who have access to people with cars who would freely let them record the cars (already had several with Maser V8's and lots of Yank V8's, just not the equipment to run under load with no tyre noise etc.
I think EA should do the right thing, and let the sounds be open source for non-profit use
If owners give them the sounds they couldn't get commercially without great cost, then it's only fair the car owners get the audio back
hint hint cough cough!
Guess we can always decrypt/record the sound files from the game when we buy it, but thats hard work
Dave
>> Edited by Mr Whippy on Friday 28th April 12:22
Now, if the owners of the cars get copies of the audio recorded as well, that would be nice
Plenty of simmers out there who would love to have the equipment to gather this information but don't. But loads of simmers out there who have access to people with cars who would freely let them record the cars (already had several with Maser V8's and lots of Yank V8's, just not the equipment to run under load with no tyre noise etc.
I think EA should do the right thing, and let the sounds be open source for non-profit use
If owners give them the sounds they couldn't get commercially without great cost, then it's only fair the car owners get the audio back
hint hint cough cough!
Guess we can always decrypt/record the sound files from the game when we buy it, but thats hard work
Dave
>> Edited by Mr Whippy on Friday 28th April 12:22
NJW 77 said:
Just tried to phone him but that seems to be a fax number. It looks like they have a cerb from a previous recording, think they want another with sports pipes/decatt?
Maybe I'll send a fax instead
Try 01483 463259 - I work for EA so will let him know the article has the wrong number
wonder if they want a rover v8 Tuscan challenge car Mustang Baz said:
Just tried to phone him but that seems to be a fax number. It looks like they have a cerb from a previous recording, think they want another with sports pipes/decatt?
Maybe I'll send a fax instead
Try 01483 463259 - I work for EA so will let him know the article has the wrong number
Cheers Craig. I sent a fax anyway. Dont want to look too keen
>> Edited by njw 77 on Friday 28th April 21:01
I'm really hoping Polyphony will be paying as much attention to engine sounds in the next Gran Turismo. Great physics and graphics, but at the moment the engine sounds are not at all realistic. What's worse, two completely different cars can sound exactly the same...
The sound of your engine is what really gets you going on a proper drive, and it's the memory that lingers longest. Shame on any developer who gets this wrong in a driving game/sim.
Griffin: how about defecting to Polyphony for a few months?
The sound of your engine is what really gets you going on a proper drive, and it's the memory that lingers longest. Shame on any developer who gets this wrong in a driving game/sim.
Griffin: how about defecting to Polyphony for a few months?
r988 said:
Is it me, or do cars sound slightly stale on a Dyno. They sound much nicer when the engine is under stress and the car is being pushed along the road/track? If so, game makers should try and find away of recording them on the move.
If not, tell me to get lost.
If you read the last paragraph then you will see that is what they are trying to do. I suppose the acoustics of a dyno room compared to a wide open track are different as well.
yeah, should have read the last paragraph. oops
..but it's not right. What you are trying to recreate is what the car sounds like from the drivers seat ON THE ROAD. The tyre noise, airflow and lack of reflections from a dyno room will change the sound dramtically. Why not just record the car from inside whilst on a track, it has to be a lot easier than running a load os DSP on it to 'correct' it?
Mr Whippy said:
Plenty of simmers out there who would love to have the equipment to gather this information but don't. But loads of simmers out there who have access to people with cars who would freely let them record the cars (already had several with Maser V8's and lots of Yank V8's, just not the equipment to run under load with no tyre noise etc.
I think EA should do the right thing, and let the sounds be open source for non-profit use
If owners give them the sounds they couldn't get commercially without great cost, then it's only fair the car owners get the audio back
hint hint cough cough!
Guess we can always decrypt/record the sound files from the game when we buy it, but thats hard work
Dave
I would go further and do what the software houses do, licence the sound to them, it's your car; your copyright...
spunkym said:
..but it's not right. What you are trying to recreate is what the car sounds like from the drivers seat ON THE ROAD. The tyre noise, airflow and lack of reflections from a dyno room will change the sound dramtically. Why not just record the car from inside whilst on a track, it has to be a lot easier than running a load os DSP on it to 'correct' it?
You ideally need all the sounds independantly. Gearbox whine, wind noise, tyre noise, are or can all be independant factors of the engine. Ie, you have an off and run onto the grass, the last thing you want is tyre on tarmac noise in the sample.
Or perhaps if you get airborne you want to remove tyre noise altogether.
Then for replays, having a pure engine sound alone means you can get it sounding realistic from outside.
It's nice anyway to see the big companies finally pulling their fingers out in this area. Like several have said the noise a car makes can be just as important as the way it looks and performs. I guess only now the budgets are as big as they are for games can they invest in the equipment and time. Still need help on the car front though
You'd have thought if they were lisencing cars they'd get a reference car from the manufacturer to measure up/photograph etc etc...
Seems a bit much just getting a free game for what would be a days worth of testing and taking your P&J out of the garage for. A game is only £35>£50 and the fuel costs would be more than that alone etc etc blah blah... what that is really worth to them is half the game. You'd expect you'd get a £1000 for the effort as the data is easily worth that to a company selling many copies off the back of your car's voice
Dave
i could supply a 911 with trippleB full stainless, and the ducati with full leovinc GP 55mm pipes 
both are just a little loud but the duc's exhaust is rated at about 126db, with open dry clutch and straight through carbon air in takes, it really is "the real deal" if you want somthing that sounds amazing.
it sounds like it would break into your house late at night and violate your first born given half a chance
it really is evil.
email me through my profile if interested.
both are just a little loud but the duc's exhaust is rated at about 126db, with open dry clutch and straight through carbon air in takes, it really is "the real deal" if you want somthing that sounds amazing.
it sounds like it would break into your house late at night and violate your first born given half a chance
it really is evil. email me through my profile if interested.
Well, personally I wouldn't want to give a company as greedy, monopolist and downright arrogant as EA a hand in anything they do. And most certainly not for their arcade-bullshit-"hit oncoming traffic as hard as you can" Need For Speed game series.
Nice touch that they are actually asking you people to basically give them your vehicle's sound with a reward of, well, ABSOLUTELY NOTHING (unless you count the game - which to me has somewhat of a negative value - so basically you receive LESS THAN NOTHING), for them to get a product right that will basically make them millions of dollars whenever it hits the shelves.
Wouldn't at all be surprised to hear that, in case Polyphony for an example started virtually the same program to improve the sound on their next Gran Turismo game, and if by any chances the same vehicle owners would step in to help them, those car owners would get lawsuited by EA because they supplied "EA intellectual property" (=their cars sound) to a rivalling company.
Chris
Nice touch that they are actually asking you people to basically give them your vehicle's sound with a reward of, well, ABSOLUTELY NOTHING (unless you count the game - which to me has somewhat of a negative value - so basically you receive LESS THAN NOTHING), for them to get a product right that will basically make them millions of dollars whenever it hits the shelves.
Wouldn't at all be surprised to hear that, in case Polyphony for an example started virtually the same program to improve the sound on their next Gran Turismo game, and if by any chances the same vehicle owners would step in to help them, those car owners would get lawsuited by EA because they supplied "EA intellectual property" (=their cars sound) to a rivalling company.
Chris
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