Gran Turismo 5 Sound Check: Lexus IS-F

Sound is often considered one of Gran Turismo’s weaker points, and we’re all looking for the series to make big strides in this area for its fifth installment. So, as we get the opportunity to hear more and more car’s in-game engine noise, I’ll be putting together some “sound checks” to see how they compare to their real-life counterparts.

First up: the Lexus IS-F. The video comes from recent Tokyo Auto Salon 2010 (via CoolColJ), and I’ll be first to admit it’s not exactly a stellar clip. Regardless, I think you will notice a distinct difference when you compare it to what you heard in Prologue, and a striking similarity when you compare it to the real thing. What do you think?

Gran Turismo 5 Tokyo Auto Salon Demo (source: BruceB0nsai)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Gtk-Nd0mdM&start=8

Real-Life Lexus IS-F Acceleration

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p3yPHsh6SDw

Lexus IS-F in Gran Turismo 5 Prologue

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Comments (66)

  1. MrK

    the sound in the first video is barely noticeable. That’s the kind of news you get from a fansite when you delay a game 73 times.

  2. Bernd

    @djcorrosive
    I knew what he was talking about. Just wanted to point out, that you get HIDDEN CARS + money instead of a worthless trophy in GT

  3. Speedthrill

    The thing is though: PD records the sounds on the engine bay.
    Plus i think you can’t compare these, as one is from a stand with bass boxes, and the one from prologue seems to be almost recorded with fraps.What I mean is that if you would add base, or maybe even make a movie from somebody with a racing rig and bass boxes in prologue it would’nt differ that much…

  4. Ngrignon

    It’s not the internal sound which really the culprit, it’s most of the time the track side sound of the car in replay… usually very bad with GT (except maybe for the race car like JTCC).

  5. Djcorrosive

    Bernd: lol he is talking about trophies mate. Not race trophies u get to go to a new event or to get a car lol

    but yes all new games have trophies.

  6. Bernd

    @Rodrigo – In GT, trophies are often cars, which you can’t buy. You have to win a race or a Championship, to get them. Sometimes it’s even more tricky: In GT4 you had to win the 24h Nürburgring first, to win the F1 car you needed for the Championship.

  7. Zenith

    Double post, live with it.

    I’m interested to see if they’re going to correctly represent ALL cars this time around, I remember the GT4 1965 Shelby GT350 sounded like a ricer.

  8. Devedander

    @Jono I would think they would aim for true reproduction from the system, thus if your speakers suck, the real car would sound sucky on it as would the game.

    But then maybe they will skew towards the more common – uses crappy TV speakers – crowd.

    Intresting note: Many pop songs today are written to sound good as ringtones.

  9. GTP_ProjectR

    Sounds like the transmission is alot more accurate, shift time is alot better it seems, past GTs seem to lag too much whenever you shift, if you have driven in real life you know when ever you grab a gear its “right there”. I think that was a very important aspect that they have fixed wooo! GO P-D!

  10. Alex

    @ DamageControl

    *Ding!* we have a winnar! we have a winnar!

    OT: Toyota’s are now officially junk with the exception of 1993 Camry/1995 Supra/1996 MR-2 :-D

  11. Jono

    The engine noises in GT must be very difficult to get right. The difference between player’s speakers varies much more massively than the difference between their screen types. Mainly talking about frequency response here.

    Modern music is produced to make it sound good on low end sound systems. This often has the effect of making it sound bad/unlistenable on audiophile setups due to clipping and missing frequncies etc.

    I wonder if PD have taken the same approach given that the vast majority of players are likely to be using their telly speakers. Granted, better sound systems are becoming more common but probably still in the minority. So the engine sound samples are filtered etc. to make them sound listenable for hours on end and without distracting from the overall experience rather than trying to reproduce in absolute fidelity the purest engine sounds. I could be talking out of my a**e of course.

  12. Spazza

    WOW, it does sound very good, but it didn’t have the cool “beep” that tells you when to change gear, that would be very cool!

  13. ner0_sol03

    Hmm this one if the closest thing I have heard compared to real life in a game… so ummm not to sound like a asss but where’s the real news at though… like car list comformations and full track list.. or maybe just all the features in. The game.. still think this game is not done and there just stalling..

  14. JimInPT

    I hope we can customize by wearing our helmet backwards and attaching a coffee-can sized fart muffler to a $150k Mercedes.

    Maybe even with neon underneath and a trunk full of flea-market woofers.

  15. 8@No$

    Are you serious? You can’t hear a thing from the Tokyo video… But you can tell for sure that GT5P does not sound anywhere close to the real one.. Tired of these “news”.. Give us a release date…

  16. Moon

    i cant tell, because all the audio quality is horrible on all links, im gonna have to play it then for myself… tire screeches are still the worst i ever heard.

  17. RacingFreak

    Does anyone know if you can turn off that beep noise in a real Lexus? Though it would be kinda cool to see in game for realism…it seems like it would annoy me rather quickly…I don’t need technology to tell me when to shift….shift lights or human nature is better IMO.

    Yeah it’s not the greatest clip, but also go back and listen to the data visualizer demo….I don’t think the in car sounds are in game in the visualizer vid, but the drive by’s sound like in game. I’ve noticed quite an improvement, though I’ll reserve judgement until we can get some great direct-feed vids or when GT5 is in my PS3.

  18. d3br34k5

    I’ll wait to judge the sound on my 7.1 system. These ‘samples’ that float around are pretty crummy to pass opinion on in my opinion.

  19. Whatbrown

    Azzer, you can definitely hear that the car sounds deeper in the first vid. It’s not the greatest quality, but the difference is noticeable if you turn the volume up.

  20. SpecMiata-JSW

    I don’t think the sound is the worst…my biggest complaint is the over pronounced wind noise in GT5-P. Even on the tuned cars all you hear is wind once you get above 100 mph.

    Let’s hope they get it right!

    PS: Backfires and exhaust pops are required. :)

  21. Vince_Fiero

    Must say, for a simulation that even the sound of GT5p is not bad.
    On the other hand GT5 seems to have gone quite a step beyond.
    Just proves we can trust Polyphony Digital to come with huge improvements in GT5 on various domains of the Gran Turismo series.

  22. JANTSU

    “Then i suggest you turn on your speakers ;) There is a big difference in sound.”
    I agree with Unkr3at1v. I play prologue with 5.1 surround sound system and ISF sounds like in Gran Turismo 5 Tokyo Auto Salon Demo. I don’t think that we will hear any big improvement in GT5 car sounds.

  23. OmnipotenceZERO

    Man they’ll make it so realistic that even if we fart in real life it echoes in the game with proper bass n all lol

  24. dearlybeloved

    what i want to know is this… will the in-game car have the beeps that sound when you are just about to redline? If so than that will be good.

  25. TokyoDrift

    I’m not sure the prologue clip there does the audio any justice because mine does not sound as tinny as that. A more controlled comparison is needed to eliminate the variables of audio source and recording method.

    However, there is clearly a marked difference in the quality of the engine note there on the recent build – far more throaty and deep. OK, it might not have the crackles and pops that audiophiles want, but they will never be happy with the audio anyway. Personally, if they can make all cars as authentic as that, my expectations will have been exceeded.

  26. Bernd

    No problem for me, as I’m racing without music most of the time. I’d turn the hights (is that correct ?) down to get it almost perfect.

  27. Beethoven

    Excellent! Sounds exactly like the real thing (all quality concerns aside).

    My balls are twitching in anticipation.

  28. Joel

    i hope when you put a racing exhaust on the cars in GT5 they will sound more like the two tuned lotus’ in GT5P. they were the most realistic sounding cars in the game (even though they had no ‘crackle’ when you back off. and also i hope GT5 includes compression lock up

  29. Mr. Premium

    That’s a huge improvement. The recent build sounds much less tinny and artificial and from a distance echoes the real thing. Even the tone is correct.

    I hope they recreate Audi’s 5 cylinder properly this time! An Audi Urquattro does not sound like a bland 4 cylinder. Ironically, I noticed in GT4, the Ford RS200 seems to have a sort of off-beat throb, sort of almost… Urq-ish. WTF?

  30. mcknight8279109

    I hope they will let you put like catback systems and what not on your car and have the nice loud sound that it makes lol
    and i hope they have the toyota supra sounding right lol

  31. Devedander

    I honestly can’t say much about it as it seems like a lot of the difference likely comes from different recording devices under different circumstances…

    Lets see some more ideal conditions and conditions the same for both recordings, then we can say something.

  32. Bekim

    I’m sorry but, while it’s improved, its missing the grunt. In the real video you can hear the “grunt” or the headers, don’t know how to explain this properly, but in GT5 it sounds smooth, it needs to sound more like an engine, being pushed, that “grunt”.

  33. zepheadGT3

    This is great news! I was just playing GT4 today which reminded me that ALL the cars sounded the same! Hopefully in GT5 a Lexus will sound like a Lexus and a ferrari will a Ferrari…

  34. Carbonfibre

    This comparison is a bit loose as its both off screen and using two different speak set ups(one could have a sub while the other may not). Still, there is a difference so that is pleasing.

  35. daus26

    I definitely hear the difference. The one in GT5P sounded less deep and a bit “vacuumish.” The one from the Tokyo Auto Salon sounds deep and meaty, like the real thing.

  36. John Marine

    Well, to me… the GT5 Tokyo Auto Salon footage sounds much closer to the actual acceleration video than the GT5 Prologue video. I do rant against sounds in Gran Turismo games from engines. A lot of the American cars (while I’m not as picky as others) just don’t sound like American cars with the throaty engine sounds. Not even the 2005 Ford Mustang with a Racing Muffler can do itself justice in Gran Turismo 4 sound-wise.

    This is a step in the right direction, though.

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