I was reading an article the other
day about the sounds coming from under your hood. Hood as in hood of your car
not hood as in where you grew up.
The article said if you have a very
modern car the engine noise you hear may not actually be engine noise. It could
be a recording.
No, you don't have to be driving a
Chrysler Milli Vanilli. It could be any car. BMW, Volkswagen, Toyota, Porsche,
and Ford are all actively working on making the sound sound as authentic as
possible.
The article said that for the 2015
Mustang Ecoboost, Ford sound engineers and developers worked on an "active
noise control" system that amplifies the engine noise through the car's
speakers. They then surveyed Mustang fan clubs to ask which "sound
concepts" they most enjoyed.
Volkswagen has a similar idea but
uses something called a sounddaktor, a hockey puck shaped device that plays
sound files in the GTI and Beetle Turbo. Lexus worked with Yamaha sound engineers
to direct sound towards the driver seat.
All this because auto designers
have made the interior of cars so soundproofed and, with superior engineering,
the noise of the engine so quiet. But it turns out the smooth-running,
hyper-fuel efficient, super silent cars we've sought for so long don't offer up
an "authentic driving experience." So you know what to do. If
consumers want authentic, then find a way to fake it.
Get that new slick fifteen-speed
bicycle and clothespin a playing card to the spokes.
What the heck, everyone uses
enhancement these days, to get that modeling contract, or even sweeten out
those vocal flat notes in a Top 40 hit.
But in a car? Gives a whole new
meaning to the term auto-tune.
America, ya gotta love it.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment