Well I can safely say that the technique PD use to record the samples is very good. For the most part, sporty cars come out the best, since they sound alot louder at small throttle openings.
Anyone who managed to read Evo magazine when they took their Fireblade to the test area for PD to record and photograph, they'll notice how PD record sounds.
One mic at the exhaust, the other at the engine. Rev at 1000rpm intervals for 4 seconds at each upto the redline.
A few hard blips too, so they can get an idea of the engine inertia and things like that, and also how the tone changes when under blipping.
Now, the biggest flaw with this is, that some cars, VERY notably the M3 and DB9, and probably lots of other cars, have a very dynamic exhaust note, especially the two noted above as they have dynamic exhaust porting along the length to allow for alterations in note (make it sound better) and also to tweak back pressure.
Anyway, if anyone goes out in their car, and sits and revs the car at say 3000rpm, it sounds very mechanical, and you don't hear much of the exhaust. Your using a small throttle opening.
Now, get out on the road, and hit a hill at 3000rpm, full throttle opening and keeping at 3000rpm, the engine sounds under strain, and the note of the exhaust usually hardens.
I'm quite sure PD know this, but I'm quite sure that they cannot guarantee they get it right for every car. I assume they alter the sound to get the "note" out more, but an M3 simply doesn't do that. The car has a tight zinging noise at 5000rpm+, but is only noticeable under full throttle, not a high 6000rpm while stood still!
The DB9 is the same. In normal driving, at say 6000rpm, it sounds about right, but when it really opens up at full acceleration, and the throttle is buried, it sounds massively different to PD's.
Now more than ever this is evident! I assume with 700 ish cars to record, they share some samples and they even probably put cars in generic types to how the sound is effected at different rpm.
A few, like the RS4, Vanquish, Ruf RGT, Zonda C12S and SL55 AMG sounded great in GT Concept, and sound good again here in GT4. I believe these cars, naturally being very loud, give a good "note" even when on a small throttle opening.
The M3 on the other hand, is quite refined on a small opening, and only gets it's distinctive note on full throttle, which has been missed hugely in GT4 by the sounds of it
What is really needed is some kind of lab environment, enclosed sound proof room, dyno, but with some kind of silent rollers, and then get the car on the rollers, and rev it to the desired rpm at full throttle, and then up the resistance to keep same rpm, but wide open throttle.
Without wide open throttle, the exhaust note is different, the throttle butterfly is not fully open, so you get different induction noise (big effect on M3 CSL), and lots of other differences I'm sure.
I hope PD take the time to do a good job next time, and really go to town on this issue. Half the cars in GT3 shared the same sound, even major cars with very distinct sounds!
I for one have had the trouble of trying to simulate the M3's sounds in a seperate car sim/game for the last year or so. I've been building an M3 and want it to sound spot on, and currently I'm still a mile off, and was hoping that some GT4 recording of theirs would be worth while. But right now mine actually sounds better
A pic if anyones interested...
Seya
Dave
It doesn't have to be long...
please!
