What is it with the transmission sound?

  • Thread starter Thread starter meck_rb7
  • 37 comments
  • 17,891 views
meck_rb7
Even the Sambabus has that sound. It's not like it's a touringcar or something. The Cobra has the same sound. Come on man.. i know you can ajust the sound, but thats only when shifting IIR? So what is it with that sound?
Click to expand...
The whine? That's straight cut gears in a sequential gearbox. Reverse gears in most older cars are also like this :D

Doesn't matter what vehicle you put the gearbox in, it'll make the same noise. If you leave the gearbox setting at default (so it doesn't swap the box out for a racing one) it will not make this noise, but have delays between gears as it waits for the engine revs to drop before releasing the clutch.
 
GTWelsh
The whine? That's straight cut gears in a sequential gearbox. Reverse gears in most older cars are also like this :D

Doesn't matter what vehicle you put the gearbox in, it'll make the same noise. If you leave the gearbox setting at default (so it doesn't swap the box out for a racing one) it will not make this noise, but have delays between gears as it waits for the engine revs to drop before releasing the clutch.
Click to expand...

So the Sambabus got a sequential gearbox for make races today? Haha..

But thank you! That's clear then.
 
meck_rb7
Almost yes.. but in every race car you hear that noise, except for the road cars.
Click to expand...

Yeah. Used to hearing the whine of race transmissions in-car in real life footage, road cars not so much. In GT Sport, every car I've used as had the pronounced whine.

Shame it drowns out engine noise.
 
That noise is called a "straight cut gear box".
Some high/hyper performance cars and most track cars use this.

As for why the samba bus has it, is beyond me.
 
meck_rb7
i know you can ajust the sound, but thats only when shifting IIR? So what is it with that sound?
Click to expand...

Really? It doesn't tone down the whine? That's why I reduced the volume for tranny, because most cars sound the same to me, I really wanted to hear the engine more, not the whine.
 
250Cal
I actually did not know this! Thanks.
Click to expand...


Oh don't worry, i've toned it down to a quarter and it's still pronounced to certain cars. I think it's made to over-compensate the fact that they didn't record the real sound.
 
I don't doubt that, I also noticed that pCars also does this.

Mostly VGT cars have more pronounced whine - understandable since some don't exist IRL, so no way to record sounds.
 
Danyutz
Really? It doesn't tone down the whine? That's why I reduced the volume for tranny, because most cars sound the same to me, I really wanted to hear the engine more, not the whine.
Click to expand...


Imo it doens't really... seems like it mute's shifting gear a bit....
 
daan
It can be very pronounced in real life.

Click to expand...


OMG, I would die I GT had that sample in there. I do like how it changes pitch though, GT Sport needs some of that in there for the sake of adding a bit of realism to engine notes because although they sound good they are still too clean and lack some of that natural irregularities that occur in engines IRL.

Danyutz
I don't doubt that, I also noticed that pCars also does this.

Mostly VGT cars have more pronounced whine - understandable since some don't exist IRL, so no way to record sounds.
Click to expand...

The engine has nothing to do with the whine in the transmission, if it was not straight cut sequential gearbox there wouldn't be the same whine. VGT cars with straight but gearbox have the whine which is a characteristic of the box. Samba Bus in the daily had the custom box installed thus the whine.
 
meck_rb7
So the Sambabus got a sequential gearbox for make races today? Haha..

But thank you! That's clear then.
Click to expand...

PrinceAsh7
That noise is called a "straight cut gear box".
Some high/hyper performance cars and most track cars use this.

As for why the samba bus has it, is beyond me.
Click to expand...

The One Make race with the Sambabus has some tuning done to it and yes a racing transmission as well. I did a few of those last night and noticed that it got up to almost 100 mph in 5th gear. I know for a fact that thing IRL would barely hit 50 mph with a tail wind going down hill and does not have 5 gears. Turns out they upped the power ~300% and weight is ~80%. I'm sure there was other things done to make it more 'race-able' for the one make. A lot of fun by the way.
 
Was it really that hard for them to record the true transmission sound for all the cars when they recorded the engines ?
And is it me or the engines sounds a liitle different more powerful when you manualy set the tranny ?
 
J.D
Was it really that hard for them to record the true transmission sound for all the cars when they recorded the engines ?
And is it me or the engines sounds a liitle different more powerful when you manualy set the tranny ?
Click to expand...
I still dont find the engines sound that good, and the transmission is very similar to other cars. i feel like they have maybe 5 different transmission sounds and thats it.
 
jagenigma
Wow, it is way more screeching here. How the hell could the driver withstand that?
Click to expand...
Drivers wear a fire resistant balaclava under the helmet. and depending on how loud the car is, they were semi-blocked ear plugs or plugs that have a radio transmitter.

source: I've done some amateur track days and racing.

also, helmets are generally padded enough to not hear it as badly.
 
The first problem with the transmission whine in GT Sport is that it sounds horrible! The second problem is that they use the exact same sound in every car you fit fully customizable gearing to. The third problem is that, while you can alter the volume of the transmission, it only seems to work for external views. When I tried altering the volume yesterday it made no difference in bumper or cockpit cam. Is that a bug, or a deliberate design choice?

I love the sound of transmission whine in real life cars, they always sound different from car to car, & Project CARS tranny whine is delicious! If PD really wants to use one sound for it, at the very least they should use one that actually sounds nice & like a real car. My other criticism is that the sound they are using in GT Sport sounds identical to the one they used in GT5. Very lazy sound design indeed imo.
 
VBR
The first problem with the transmission whine in GT Sport is that it sounds horrible! The second problem is that they use the exact same sound in every car you fit fully customizable gearing to. The third problem is that, while you can alter the volume of the transmission, it only seems to work for external views. When I tried altering the volume yesterday it made no difference in bumper or cockpit cam. Is that a bug, or a deliberate design choice?

I love the sound of transmission whine in real life cars, they always sound different from car to car, & Project CARS tranny whine is delicious! If PD really wants to use one sound for it, at the very least they should use one that actually sounds nice & like a real car. My other criticism is that the sound they are using in GT Sport sounds identical to the one they used in GT5. Very lazy sound design indeed imo.
Click to expand...

Most racing gear boxes come from the same manufacturer, even if they dont a straight cut gear is a straight cut gear, they will all sound pretty similar even from different manufacturers. there was a time and maybe even still now almost every single rear engine open wheel car ran Hewlands. Kind of like V8 engines, if they all have the same exhaust or mufflers they will all sound extremely similar, the only way the engine note would really change is if one had a 180 degree crank.
 
fastone371
Just a real sound of the trans compared to the video game sound. Maybe that particular trans has more hours on it than another.
Click to expand...
Ohhh. I remember watching the highlights of Blancpain at Monza; the whine is still different from GTS (or any other game tbh), but it's not as raspy as that. It's much smoother. Does more wear make the whine more raspy?
 
Alpha Cipher
Ohhh. I remember watching the highlights of Blancpain at Monza; the whine is still different from GTS (or any other game tbh), but it's not as raspy as that. It's much smoother. Does more wear make the whine more raspy?
Click to expand...

Absolutely! Even different ratios will give a different pitch. There may also be some whine transferred from the differential thru the driveshaft, kinda works like an amplifier. In the the diff the pinion depth, how far into the rearend housing the head of the pinion sits, is a very critical measurement because of the hypiod cut gears, if you are as little as .005 away from specified measurement you can start to get a pretty loud whine from the differential. So all the noise in the video is probably not just the transmission. A poorly set up diff can also make different pitches of whine under load and coast. In the world of racing you dont always have time to make sure everything is perfect, especially when a car breaks on race day, for some reason track officials refuse to hold up the program even if everyone is not quite ready to go.
 
Last edited:
And, it does not have to be a straight cut box to have the whine... mine is not straight cut (but is not production spec either, neither the gear pitch or the thickness) and it has a pronounced whine when under full load... and a quiet whine at part throttle or deceleration.

The race boxes are also face-plated (dog-ring, aka no synchros) which is why you get the clunk on up/downshifts, it's the lugs smashing into the ears.
This also happens when you go on/off throttle as the transmission slop bangs the lugs/ears... which is why when you see race cars going slowly (yellow flag) you'll see them "jerk" when applying/lifting throttle... in a race car this is heightened as the motor is set up to run at higher rpms and isn't real happy lugging about, but the jerkyness starts with the lugs/ears banging about, and the engine being unhappy doesn't help matters.
 

Latest Posts

Back