Engine sound is better in Mono...

  • Thread starter CoolColJ
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CoolColJ, GTP_CoolColJ
Hmm, the engine sound is better in mono...

I noticed some phase cancellation with whatever the Stereo option does with the engine sounds. Makes it somewhat nasally sounding

Turned it to mono, and the sound is fuller
 
here is another weird sound issue I noticed while doing a time trial and track day

I just won the Ford GT '02 in GT4, and it kinda sounds V8'ish in that American way with the semi-racing exhaust upgrade and pretty throaty with the race upgrade. Even the way it shifts sounds fairly authentic. It's just the samples are so short and raw sounding

With N2 Tyres anyway. There seems to be a bug that sorta makes the sound go all garbled. When I have N2 tyres it sounds better, with Sports medium tyres, the sound is garbled, like the sample loop point is not working right....
weird bug...

Have not tried R tyres to see what happens.
Might explain why sometimes, with some cars, the sound is really weird! :ill:
 
^Are you using TCS with those N2 tires? Could be the sound is garbled because TCS is being activated?

Engine sounds are better in mono because the game is combining the front and rear sounds of each car together. Personally, I've always lliked the rear sound (the sound we hear as we push the look behind button) because engine/exhaust is more prominent. This has gotten me in trouble a few times, as I'll be listening behind without looking ahead! :dunce:
 
no TCS

The sound is normal with N tyres, but as soon as I swap in Sports or R tyres the sound goes all warbley sounding :(
Pretty noticeable when you hear the car startup from the outside and take off in the pits when you do a track practise

I'm using a PAL GT4, I wonder if anyone else gets this with the Ford GT '02
I've heard this effect in other cars too
 
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I will definately have to try this when i get home from school today.

Anybody shed any light on why this is?
 
I will definately have to try this when i get home from school today.

Anybody shed any light on why this is?

It's just caused by phase cancellation with the Stereo option. I think they create stereo by playing the sound on each side of the speaker, but delaying one side a little. This always causes the sound to get a little nasally
 
That's definitely not true. I've had intermittent problems with the speaker on one side of my TV not working, and when in Stereo, I can barely hear things like going over rumble strips when it's on the "soundless" side. Those sounds definitely do come out on the functioning side, but fairly faintly. Even the menu music utilizes the stereo effect: certain notes play mostly through one side, and can barely be heard when that side is not working.

I find the improvement in sound quality in Mono to be quite small, even negligible; I likely wouldn't have noticed any difference at all if you hadn't made this thread about it.
 
Off course the music is in Stereo as per normal stereo music you found in CD and such
But to make the Engine sounds stereo, the game has to play 2 copies of the sound, one one each side of the speaker and delay one very slightly, we are talking milliseconds here. Doing this always causes some comb filtering of the tone which makes it sound more nasally.

If the sound was louder on 1 side you would hear it as coming out of that side more, which it does not. It still sounds fairly central. I play my games on studio speakers, and a good environment so that would be obvious to me
 
@Austin: Yeah, I've noticed that when a car is behind me on the left or right I can tell where it is without using the mirror. I run my PS2 through 200w speakers so it can be quite unnerving.
 
I think that you're misunderstanding me, CoolColJ. The overall sound is very central, because most things that cause sound in the game, such as noise from the wind and the engine, are symmetrical. But when something that causes a sound is based on one side, such as riding a rumble strip, being passed by an AI car, or having an inside wheel spin, that sound is much louder on the side on which it originates, although it can still be heard on the opposite side. The overall sound gives the impression of remaining central because although sounds like this stand out, they are still significantly quieter than the engine and the wind, and they only stand out so much to us because they aren't there most of the time. Believe me, I know this from experience. And even disregarding that evidence, it makes no sense whatsoever to me that PD would artificially create a stereo setup by having the same noises played slightly out of sync on both sides. What on earth makes that preferable to mono in the eyes of the developers, and how does that explain the fact that the car sounds significantly different in the "look back" view in stereo but not in mono? :confused:
 
Yes directional sounds have stereo placement, but the engine sound doesn't, but it does have a stereo widening effect as described, which causes it to sound nasally. If this bothers you, like it does for me, then play it in mono :)
 
Switched to Mono and didn't really notice any difference. I'll have to take a few more cars for a spin to see if I notice anything.
 
Switching to mono definately made a difference, muscle cars sound far more ... agricultural when idling ...

Like blub blub blub blub blub blub.
 
Switched to Mono and didn't really notice any difference. I'll have to take a few more cars for a spin to see if I notice anything.

First, take a car in GT mode and go to a Track Meet (world circuits), notice the sound of the car when its in the pits is MUCH PURER than the sound you get when you gain control, it seems like all the lows and mids and rumble is gone to make way for the "wind effect" and road noise.

SADLY, we are not able to choose that "track meet pit" sound, but Mono is the next best thing, the Phasing kills the sound in Stereo, but i have a feeling that the sample rate is lower in Mono(judging by the menu music) but i definitely use Mono over Stereo.
 
it's just louder when your in the pits, hence why it sounds better, loud = good, as always :)

sample rate of music is the same, it's just in mono.
 
it's just louder when your in the pits, hence why it sounds better, loud = good, as always :)

sample rate of music is the same, it's just in mono.

The pit sounds come through much clearer because they are void of atmospheric noise, once wind and road noise come into play theres no room for the engine, sadly.

If GT4 had the pit sounds for its default, the sound would be perceived as 10x greater.
 
Somebody already stated this previously, I can't remeber who exactly.

I switched to Mono to test, and frankly I think I felt some small differences, the sounds are more raw and lively in mono, when using stereo, all cars sound like vacuum cleaners, with mono they sound more like internal combustion engines, there's more fury from the engine.

I don't know how to explain, mostly because I don't understand nothing related to sound recording, but there's a difference indeed, however, it's only noticeable when you're paying attention exclusively to the sound, in my opinion, of course.
 
Somebody already stated this previously, I can't remeber who exactly.

I switched to Mono to test, and frankly I think I felt some small differences, the sounds are more raw and lively in mono, when using stereo, all cars sound like vacuum cleaners, with mono they sound more like internal combustion engines, there's more fury from the engine.

I don't know how to explain, mostly because I don't understand nothing related to sound recording, but there's a difference indeed, however, it's only noticeable when you're paying attention exclusively to the sound, in my opinion, of course.

It's like CoolColJ explained, the Stereo sounds have phasing meaning its one Mono signal that is being duplicated(for left and right) with a slight delay so it sounds very nasal and high frequency, switching to mono removes all traces of this phasing because it is outputting the pure Mono Signal instead of the artificially created Stereo signal.

To try this yourself, record a mono track of yourself speaking, go to your DAW(digital audio workstation) and create 2 Mono tracks, load one with your audio clip, and pan it full right, in the other add the same clip pan left, now shift one of them slightly ahead of the other(0.01 seconds) and notice the phasing that takes place.
 
Maybe off-topic (sorry) but I've switched to headphones recently and I bought a good pair of Bose. Not the Noise Cancelling type (because those are $300US) but the around-the-ear type ($150US) so I know their good. But the thing is that when I do a championship series and am testing / practicing prior to a race, the engine sounds a certain way, depending on the exhaust system I'm using; and I'm doing a bunch of laps so I get used to it. Then when I start the race the engine sounds different. Noticeably different. I don't think I'm imagining this.:)
 
$300 for headphones? Jesus moonwalking Christ, the most I'd spend would be around whatever €30 is in dollars.
 
Maybe off-topic (sorry) but I've switched to headphones recently and I bought a good pair of Bose. Not the Noise Cancelling type (because those are $300US) but the around-the-ear type ($150US)

Even $150 is alot; good lord! :lol: The only person I know who has headphones that expensive is a guy who owns a recording studio.

I used to wear headphones a long time ago (GT2 days) but they'd always wind up giving me a headache.

so I know their good. But the thing is that when I do a championship series and am testing / practicing prior to a race, the engine sounds a certain way, depending on the exhaust system I'm using; and I'm doing a bunch of laps so I get used to it. Then when I start the race the engine sounds different. Noticeably different. I don't think I'm imagining this.:)

You're not imagining things....that's a programming screw-up.

While qualifying, the exhaust note is gonna be whatever it sounded like during the previous race. Like, if I just did a race at Suzuka for instance, and had a sport exhaust installed, and now I'm at the next race qualifying for Tsukuba with a semi-racing exhaust, the game will still sound like a sport exhaust is installed.

Start the actual race, and now the game 'catches up', and the car will have whatever sound a semi-racing exhaust makes. 💡
 
$300 for headphones? Jesus moonwalking Christ, the most I'd spend would be around whatever €30 is in dollars.

Ahahah, if you're only application is gaming it would be wise not to go over 30 Euro. If you dabble in audio recording or are an audiophile(refuses to listen to MP3's, opting for FLAC or WAV) a good pair of high end studiophones are essential.

I gotta say though for GT and gaming, the mere size of the speaker cone from monitors or stereo speakers and the room dynamics make the sound much better than when using headphones.

The headphones sound is unaltered and pure but it seems like it cant "breathe" so i prefer using the monitors.
 
If you dabble in audio recording or are an audiophile(refuses to listen to MP3's, opting for FLAC or WAV) a good pair of high end studiophones are essential.

Guilty:tup:

You're not imagining things....that's a programming screw-up.

Glad I'm not crazy.

BTW isn't 30 euro worth about $150US nowadays??:ill:

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The headphones sound is unaltered and pure but it seems like it cant "breathe" so i prefer using the monitors.

My new Harmon Kardon amp has a great 'headphone' feature that can simulate 'Logic7' sound quality (HK's own 7.1 simulator) with a few tweeks to the adjustments. I'm a big fan of BOSE anyway (maybe I'm an audio snob; I have no problem owning that label) and to get any better sound quality in monitors or headphones you have spend REALLY big bucks. :)
 
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Holy 🤬...Man, you just put the fun back in this game, Try the RUF yellow bird, Holy crap. Every car i have tested, Sounds so much better, Night and day difference for me, No more of that generic vacume sound. RUF cars sound the best, But i have not even tested the astons yet.

Thanks a bunch man!


I take it back PD make Some Awesome sounds.

The RUF YB now sounds like a monster in 1st person, and sounds awesome in chase view as well. 👍



Aussy V8's.....:bowdown:
 
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Sweet! I gotta try this out (as a bonus for me- this will stop the blow-off valve coming from the "wrong" side of the car. I drive RHD, GT4 cars are all LHD, so it sounds wierd to me)

Just wondering, does anyone use surround sound* for GT4? Just wondering if it would be possible to hear whether it's the front or rear tyres that are screeching, this could be useful...

* I mean getting a surround sound audio signal out of the PS2, not using any "surround" effect settings on an amp. Actually, is it even possible for the PS2 to output surround sound?
 
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