Why are the sounds in GT games so consistently bad?

[RichardC27]

I've just been playing GT5 and can't take it any more. Why, in the 5th version of the game, on a machine capable of 5.1 surround sound and all the rest of it, are we still lumbered with such awful, awful sounds for the vast majority of cars?

I've just bought a '91 Acura NSX and race modded it, thinking I would have a nice, sonorous V6 with about 420BHP to play with. The car itself looks stunning, the interior is great, but the sound completely ruins it. I can't tell what sort of engine they recorded the sample from, but it's certainly not a V6.

The race-modded Corvettes, and the race cars themselves, sound nothing like they do in real life. Ditto the 908, and all the other LMP cars I've heard in the game. My tuned M3 sounds absolutely nothing like a real E92 car either.

It makes me wonder if the people at PD are as knowledgeable and passionate about cars as they would have us believe. The sound a car makes, particularly a racing car, is a huge part of its appeal and GT5, and all the other GT games before it, fail to capture this completely. It ruins the games for me, and is always one of the main reasons I stop playing. Surely now, on a console with enough power to finally do PD's vision justice, this should have been sorted?

Rant over

 

[Relinquish8t]

if the sounds were as good as they are in your garage this game would be so much better

 

[NissanSkylineN1]

Its because the car probably sounds terrible in real life too OR the parts are different than real life if you've modded it.

 

[RikkiGT-R]

I think only an engine connoisseur would notice these sort of things. I love the engine sounds on GT5, I know nothing really about engines IRL and just love them as they are in the game.

Had you mentioned the sound of collisions, however, we could've had a conversation

 

[leb111]

Well... If you stop playing this game for the sound...

I think they put their priority on the appearance of cars and on the driving physics, but I totally agree with you the sound are disgusting.

 

[RichardC27]

Collisions are awful too, but trust me, the team that does the engine sounds for PD have never been near a race track in their life. It's a real shame, because it's not that hard to do. Even some of the user-created mods for rFactor have almost perfect sounds. It just makes everything so much more immersive.

 

[EmptyBox]

There are 1000+ cars.

Think about that. Shouldn't expect the sounds to get better unless the car count is drastically cut, it simply is not realistically doable to have every car sound exactly correct with that many cars.

 

[CodeRedR51]

Discussed here:

https://www.gtplanet.net/forum/showthread.php?t=119772

 

[Relinquish8t]

Its because the car probably sounds terrible in real life too OR the parts are different than real life if you've modded it.

it has nothing to do with that, the cars sound so digital with no grunt snort or that good 4 stroke thumper sound

 

[SavageEvil]

I've just been playing GT5 and can't take it any more. Why, in the 5th version of the game, on a machine capable of 5.1 surround sound and all the rest of it, are we still lumbered with such awful, awful sounds for the vast majority of cars?

I've just bought a '91 Acura NSX and race modded it, thinking I would have a nice, sonorous V6 with about 420BHP to play with. The car itself looks stunning, the interior is great, but the sound completely ruins it. I can't tell what sort of engine they recorded the sample from, but it's certainly not a V6.

The race-modded Corvettes, and the race cars themselves, sound nothing like they do in real life. Ditto the 908, and all the other LMP cars I've heard in the game. My tuned M3 sounds absolutely nothing like a real E92 car either.

It makes me wonder if the people at PD are as knowledgeable and passionate about cars as they would have us believe. The sound a car makes, particularly a racing car, is a huge part of its appeal and GT5, and all the other GT games before it, fail to capture this completely. It ruins the games for me, and is always one of the main reasons I stop playing. Surely now, on a console with enough power to finally do PD's vision justice, this should have been sorted?

Rant over

Because you obviously have these cars withe the exact same mods as the ones they used to record for the game . I thought the same thing with the RM corvettes, but then I changed my sound on the system to large theater and lo and behold you can actually the roaring engine notes. Depending on your set up, some of the engine notes get muddled and hard to hear at all. You should know that when you select the car you hear how the engine turns over, very deep rumble...when racing, you hear the whine of the transmission and if your sound is set to full you can hear everything, including the burble of the roaring engine at speed. Sounds slightly like the Ford GT, but not as loud and roaring.

 

[NFSCARBON1]

XJ220 sounds like the LMcars in GT4. FGT sounds like a F1 car in garage but terrible on track. But at least the horrible tyre screeching from GT's 1,2,3 and 4 is gone

 

[RichardC27]

Well... If you stop playing this game for the sound...

It's a realism thing for me. For example, I bought the Courage C60-Hybride today. Now, I've seen that car race in real life quite a few times (and many other LMP1 cars with Judd GV5 V10's in them), and the sound in GT5 is nowhere near. It doesn't even sound like a V10, it's just a generic 'engine' sound.

 

[leb111]

There are 1000+ cars.

Think about that. Shouldn't expect the sounds to get better unless the car count is drastically cut, it simply is not realistically doable to have every car sound exactly correct with that many cars.

Yes but they could make groups. Like american cars for example, make them sound like a real old muscle car !

All the car sound like a tuned up skyline with a HUGE turbo.

 

[CAMAROBOY69]

Yes but they could make groups. Like american cars for example, make them sound like a real old muscle car !

All the car sound like a tuned up skyline with a HUGE turbo.

It gets really bad if you add the race transmission. Ruins the audio instantly even though it isnt all that great to begin with. Some cars sound really good at idle but as soon as you give it gas, sounds terrible. The muscle cars especially.

 

[JSkeezi]

If you are using a manual and you throw it in 5 or 6 gear at low speeds you hear a nice guurgle in the challenger, old scholls and exotics like the Lambo, Ferrari ect. And if you upgrade the engine and not the exaust the cars dont lose that original good sound!

 

[wajdi1977]

We already have a 3d about GT5 engine sounds!I don't find the necessity to open this one!

 

[RichardC27]

It gets really bad if you add the race transmission. Ruins the audio instantly even though it isnt all that great to begin with. Some cars sound really good at idle but as soon as you give it gas, sounds terrible. The muscle cars especially.

The race transmission I don't mind, because a racing gearbox really does whine like that, because of the straight cut gears. That's one of the few sounds they've actually got right

 

[LordSandwich]

All the premiums are recorded from the cars themselves on a dyno and they sound fantastic on my system. Some of the standard cars still have poor sound quality. Maybe your sound system sucks?

 

[RichardC27]

All the premiums are recorded from the cars themselves on a dyno and they sound fantastic on my system. Some of the standard cars still have poor sound quality. Maybe your sound system sucks?

I'm sorry but I just don't believe that. I'm running on a full surround sound system with 5 speakers and a sub. No Chevrolet Corvette in the world sounds anything like my ZR1 RM. That should be a booming, rumbling beast of a V8 sound. Instead it sounds like a very weedy flat plane crank V8. In fact, with a bit of tweaking, that's what my Ferrari 458 should sound like.

 

[Flerbizky]

All the premiums are recorded from the cars themselves on a dyno and they sound fantastic on my system. Some of the standard cars still have poor sound quality. Maybe your sound system sucks?

^ This!...

 

[birksy82]

Nobody mentions what sound system they are using when they say the sounds are bad. Im using the standard speakers on my t.v which are not the best so i don't expect it to sound great. If you are using a decent 5.1 system and it sounds bad then its fair enough but if not what do you expect?

 

[MiniMarco]

but trust me, the team that does the engine sounds for PD have never been near a race track in their life.

Oh why wouldn't I trust you RichardC27 of the internets, It only makes perfect sense that sound engineers of a racing game would not visit a race track and that you would have that information.

 

[Hardrocky]

I pretty much spent every summer from the time I was in High Schiool at Mid Ohio race track. 911's, Corvettes and Camaros raced side by side back in the late 70's. The Vettes and Camaros were LOUD, the 911's sounded like buzz saws with blow off valves installed. Most of the cars were so loud that, during practice, I could hear them from my house about 10 miles away. Over the years the cars have gotten a little quieter. There are no big blocks anymore.
GT5 does not capture the sounds of a real race at all. There are a few cars that sound pretty good, depending on the camera you are using. NASCAR cars are good until you watch from behind, then there is a wierd fluttering noise like a piece of cardboard over the exhaust pipe. Some of the ricers sound like small block chevys. BTW I've seen a lot of footage from inside of cars over the years, the only ones I remember having super loud transmissions are WRC cars and the replay of Hans Stuck at the Ring driving a new, at the time, M3 GTR ( that thing is friggin loud ).
Could have been way better. ( using a Sony receiver with 12" Sony powered sub and 7.1 surround setup )

 

[Arcturus]

If you think the engine sounds are bad, wait till you notice the complete absence of environmental sounds in the rally modes. I'm not a sound snob by any means, but they could have at least added a token "stones hitting the bottom of the car" sound. The mode's simply ridiculous without it.

 

[Le Mans 88]

I've generally been impressed with the engine sounds but when tuning it's better to use the standard exhaust on certain cars to retain the engines character. For example the SLS loses it's rumble and the LFA it's high pitch scream when using the titanium exhaust. I'll try out the sports exhausts tonight and see what they are like.

A few of the LMP's use generic sounds but that seems to be a case of lacking access, the newly modelled 908 by contrast is spot on.

 

[Logan812]

How about you drive a stock/unmodded car in GT5 before you compare it to the stock/unmodded car in real life. Simple mods (like turbo, exhaust ect.) will change the sound drastically.

I for one don't get bothered by the sounds in the game because I don't let nitpicking every little thing get in the way of playing an awesome game that's well worth the money (though I'm not sure it was worth the wait.)

P.S. Have you driven the '69 Camero, it actually sounds like a V8 this time!

 

[CAMAROBOY69]

They should use this guy for the car audio in GT6.
It was in the funny video thread but sounds very realistic.

 

[BoneSawTX]

All the premiums are recorded from the cars themselves on a dyno and they sound fantastic on my system. Some of the standard cars still have poor sound quality. Maybe your sound system sucks?

false, I lived next to a huge performance shop and have 2 friends that own their own shops. i have seen in person over 200 vettes on dynos with every engine mod and exhaust combo possible and have never heard one that sounded like the garabge PD put together. Same goes with the Camaros in game, i've seen more of them and from 1998 to current share the same engine with the vette so thats one sound they could even share.

the only thing PD comes close to sounding like is a 1969 camaro that had a turbo 2JZ-GTE, and knowing PD they probably got that one wrong also. Some how they managed to get the 69 Z/28 in game close enough, Challenger on the other hand is another bucket of fail by PD.

 

[machschnel]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=twcu4zG6FEU&feature=player_embedded

Not that theres Porsche in Gran Turismo.... But listen to this and tell me Gran Turismo has good sounds.

 

[Lawndart]

Agreed, the 69 camaro sounds really good. But everything else is a bucket of bee's next to a sewing machine.

It's not a "what's your set up issue", it's the fact that just aren't at all accurate let alone even sound like engines...

Proof? Load up any other racing game in the past 5-9 years, no matter how bad the game is and it at least meets a cars min expectations. I've played many games not worth playing because proper engine sounds are hypnotic and can be heard in the soul as well as the ear. It's signature that tells you there is something alive under me and it will kill me if I miss treat it...