GT Sport Audio Will Be Composed With ‘All New System’

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A key area of much discussion in the Gran Turismo series is the quality of audio. Compared to other games in the genre this is an area that GT hasn’t quite met the benchmark for in the past. However, Kazunori Yamauchi has confirmed to GTPlanet that there will be an entirely new system of reworked audio in place for the launch of GT Sport.

Audio is important to a racing simulator for many reasons, with the most obvious reason being immersion. When a car feels like the real thing, looks like the real thing, but doesn’t sound like the real thing it can be pretty jarring. The old system in GT was often coined as being ‘vacuum’-like in that it prioritized wind noise and captured the whirring of an engine over the actual ‘grunt’ many of the world’s supercars are known for. Audio also contributes heavily to the feedback sim racers get back from the car, hearing the intricacies of the engine allows drivers to make important gear changes and understand when the car may be struggling in certain ways. The static engine sounds in previous GT titles didn’t really give any proper feedback and players’ could struggle to read their car as a result.

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Look out for footage of the Evora, which will show the new sound engine’s potential.

The prospect of having a new system would allow GT to start again, looking to improve on these sounds and what they bring to the overall experience. With Kazunori himself being a racing driver, he of all people should be able to understand why the fanbase are generally concerned about the current condition of the sound design in the series. Work has already begun to bring the overall sound quality of Gran Turismo Sport to a level alongside competition in the genre. Speaking of the build shown off to fans in the Copper Box Arena Kazunori stated:

“So the system is completely new. But the sound material is not completely changed to the new material. So I think when you listen to some of the cars now, there are some cars that sound really good, and some cars that don’t.”

GTPlanet’s own Jordan Greer felt that the Ferrari 458 Italia in particular sounded very nice with Yamauchi agreeing. He also pointed out that the Lotus Evora was another example of a car which sounded better under the new sound system being implemented on the road to release.

As footage for the newest GT continues to pop up around the web, it would be wise to keep in mind Kazunori’s comments about the new system not being fully completed yet and reserving judgement as such. Through the interview with Polyphony’s president we can see that at least 2 of the cars are currently being put through the new system and we can tell that the team are not sugar-coating how they feel about the current system making note that cars simply don’t sound good. This level of honesty gives hope that moving forward the new system can have the potential to fix an area which has been requiring more attention in recent versions of the series.

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Comments (73)

  1. ArR29

    Can anyone explain what Kaz means by “new system”? Is it just new samples or they rework the sound?

  2. silverman_GT

    “Look out for footage of the Evora, which will show the new sound engine’s potential.”

    Didn’t PD want any direct feed footage uploaded on the internet?

  3. TurismoBad

    I can’t think of other racing game made in past 5 years that didn’t had ANY sound effects for shifting gears. Just unacceptable.

    As for the “sound will be improved”

    No it won’t be. I have zero hopes. It will remain as it is with little changes. There will be no shifting sounds, no exhaust pops, no mechanical noises. Just the good old sterile engine notes and nothing else.

    1. MeanElf

      Well, I think you may have made your bed too soon, as there is already at least one vid that has evidence of ‘exhaust popping’ and mechanical sounds.

  4. TomBrady

    Yea but a problem with that is that it was the same case with GT6. Some cars sounded amazing, some cars sounded awful. I thought rebuilding the cars from the ground up would eliminate the kind of inconsistency we saw between cars but it seems like it’s still there. Maybe they only rebuilt them graphically.

    1. MeanElf

      This time though PD has the ex-Forza wunderkind guy working for them, and as many seem to be basing their sound expectations on ‘the Forza sound’ we’ll have to wait and see if indeed that is satisfactory/

  5. Cool34

    Kaz needs to be on pare with the sound..or beat pc and asseto corsa in sound or I will be skipping this title.

  6. VBR

    The Ferrari 458 Italia sounded just as bad as every other car in GT I’ve ever heard. I don’t believe mr Yamauchi anymore, he’s said this type of thing before & nothing has really improved. I’ll believe it when I hear it.

  7. African Kat

    Thank you @GTPlanet for finally addressing this. The nightmare scenario is GTPlanet getting so close to PD that they are not objective when it comes to pressing PD on the obvious weakness’ of GT. This article however gives me hope that this wont happen.

  8. Martin_320nm

    THE PROBLEM WITH PD SOUND — my thoughts…
    In terms of the PD’s sound generation system, what all iterations of GT to date seem to have had in common, is that they take a sample loop of a car and simply play it back at different frequencies — depending on what RPM the engine is doing!
    There is only ONE frequency at which a sampled car engine would actually sound like the original car that was sampled — and that is at the original sample rate!! As soon as the sample veers away from that original sample rate — even by a few semitones — then it will cease to sound like the original car, and instead more like a vacuum cleaner!
    So, to correct this long-standing trait of GT games, PD urgently needs to implement a totally new approach which accurately emulates the car’s audio physics in real-time — based on what happens inside (and outside) a real engine, and NOT rely on the outdated audio ‘cheating’ method of simply speeding up or slowing down pre-recorded samples. Any thoughts?

    1. Johnnypenso

      If the system is outdated, why is it other games have no trouble using this outdated system and creating glorious sounding cars?

    2. Griffith500

      Granular resynthesis is not like Martin describes, Johnny, that’s what all the cool kids are using these days.

    3. Martin_320nm

      I’m not trying to describe “granular synthesis”, but rather that GT games are just manipulating & repeating sample data (call it what you will) — and I can hear that instantly and it sounds so fake. It’s like the difference between an organic realtime soft-synth modeller with oscillators and filters etc, versus a midi Soundfont wavetable player trying to copy a real synth but using chunks of sample data. GT is equivalent the latter.

    4. Griffith500

      I agree; I hate pitch-shifted sampling. Funny that GT uses advanced synthesis as well…

      The granular stuff is worth checking out if you have any interest in it, it’s what Dirt Rally uses, for instance.

    5. Leggacy

      I’m pretty sure that Griffith500 is right, the sounds are made from grain tables. It’s fairly complicated, not just repitching a few samples there are many captured from throughout the rev range. I don’t think I can judge it until I’ve heard it on release day, through my headset or monitors. I always thought the sounds were OK. It’s not a deal breaker for me I just want some competitive racing. As for other games doing it better, I think PCars has a lot issues with the sounds, so many glitches and clicks that shouldn’t be there it’s kind of distracting. I’ve never found this with GT6. The worst thing about GT6 sound is the defaulting to the “living room” sound setting which compresses the f**k out of the audio when a loud sound happens. Always use one of the theatre settings!

    6. Griffith500

      Sorry, I should have been clearer. GT doesn’t use granular methods, but other games do.

      The reason GT sounds so smooth despite that is because, like iRacing and LFS, it doesn’t skimp on control. Unfortunately the physics that feeds that control is a little too “sharp”, unlike iRacing in particular which is gloriously elastic.

      The advanced synthesis I was referring to is the “AES” technique, first heard on the Red Bull cars, and later the Senna and some VGT cars. (See video linked below in discussion about physics / controls).

  9. forzaturismo

    “So the system is completely new. But the sound material is not completely changed to the new material…”

    Humm so PD got new system, but still make old “vacuum” engine sound…
    Well done :)

    1. INEEDNAWZZZ

      To be fair, he said that was relating to the build which was shown at the event. It’s a placeholder in other words.

  10. 2clickswest

    I personally would just collaborate with Evolution Studios while they still were under Sony and used their experience in making car sounds and just slightly modified it to fit the need of a more realistic game which is GT.

  11. freedom1104

    same speech made by kaz during gt6 launch all over again. it will be updated during updates they said, sound will be improved they said. till now end of product support life also doesnt feel any good changes from 1.00 to 1.23.

    btw i tried using different sound output to see if sound improved or not, earphones, 2.1 pc speaker, 5.1 surround home theatre, the difference is just the volume.

    1. ZEROTHEKNIGHT

      Actually half of what he said was true about engines sounds improvement in GT6 because i’ve noticed for example one car from maybe Acura or Honda which is i think a GT500 Class Racing Machine which got it’s sound completely changed.

  12. Normalaatsra

    Didn’t people say the Evora sounded bad in the demo? Was this just updated or did people not know how the Evora should sound like?

  13. Tenacious D

    “Audio also contributes heavily to the feedback sim racers get back from the car, hearing the intricacies of the engine allows drivers to make important gear changes and understand when the car may be struggling in certain ways. The static engine sounds in previous GT titles didn’t really give any proper feedback and players’ could struggle to read their car as a result.”

    You guys who actually think like this are strange humans. I’ve grit my teeth at excessively loud tranny whine, and missed shift points when I thought a car had more gear left, but struggle to know a car’s attitude or motivation… no.

    I can think of another game which went entirely the other way, that every car sounded heavily modified. I refused to upgrade the mufflers for weeks. A race car from later in the series was shown here in the news feed and it sounded about as basic as something from GT5 or 6. But of course, fans lauded it.

    I hope there will be no lingering “negative placebo” effect here, and any improvements that don’t hurt the ears are going to be panned as those same old Hoover sounds or something by certain “fans.” I’d love to be proven wrong, and Sport will be given a fair shot. I guess we’ll see.

    1. Griffith500

      “sim racers are strange human beings” Let’s not state the obvious, now! :P

      I don’t find GT’s sounds static, and I don’t find that they hinder feedback. They are technically more responsive than any other game, save iRacing.

      Depends on what it is that you need the sound engine to tell you that you can’t glean from the graphics / control feedback.

    2. Brendan Rorrison

      Personally I think Driveclub has more responsive sounds than GT in general – and that’s not even semi-simulation.

    3. Griffith500

      Could you perhaps elaborate on that? I think we might be using conflicting definitions of “responsive”.

  14. guywithanAE86

    Man, and I thought reading the news was depressing enough.

    I personally don’t care how they deal with engine sounds. Literally ANYTHING is better than what the engine sounds have been since GT4. So far what I’ve heard from that new Ferrari and Miata, that ex-forza sound guy seems to be working hard. I’m glad to see PD is finally trying to alleviate one of the biggest glaring issues of GT. Well whatever, they got like over 900 cars to re-do the sounds for, so I’m not surprised at all that we still don’t have proper engine sounds for each and every car, quite a few of which are one off cars that I can’t imagine are easy to hunt down and ask for a re-recording.

    Whatever, I’m just one guy. I’m glad to see they’re working on it, and I look forward to GTS all the same.

    1. ZEROTHEKNIGHT

      Didn’t you noticed an engine sound improvement in GT6 for example a certain Honda or Acura which i think is a GT500 very Class Racing Machine ?

  15. mister dog

    “The old system in GT was often coined as being ‘vacuum’-like in that it prioritized wind noise and captured the whirring of an engine over the actual ‘grunt’ ”

    No they just sounded like vacuum cleaners :D

    1. geo1098

      LOL. This times 100. Prioritized wind noise and engine whirring, so that good sound was just hidden in there all the time hence having to redo it all. Just admit sound was crap, they hired the sound guy from Forza and it is getting better in GTS. All for it, will be playing it but I suspect we’ll see cars with premium sound and some with standard sound.

    2. Griffith500

      “Grunt” is not a helpful word at all. What is missing is a dedicated intake sound, always has been.

      It’s not a case of “prioritising”, either, rather a systematic recording error from the early games. The article is full of little misleading misunderstandings. Hopefully that’s genuine and not designed to pander to the malcontent.

  16. SavageEvil

    @Griffith500 What are the odds they have a fully working AES system in place? If they do, then GT 7 will be epic in the way how it accurately models sounds for upgrades, diameter of tubing and bore will shape the sound realistically(close as they can get). Personally after GT6 Red Bull Jr’s, I want more of that the level of audio, the race car way :).
    Now let’s hope they have tire audio correct, first video had race cars with tire squealing like street treads, then later videos it changed but race tires still didn’t sound right still too much highs should be lower in tone, more like Forza’s race rubber noises. Kaz seriously needs to quite putting all the burden of intent on tire sounds, that’s absurd, what’s the point of all the physics simulation/tire grip simulation, realistic simulation of suspension and by association car movement to basically rely on screaming tires telling me I’m at the cars’ limit?

    Anyway on topic the C7R and the Vantage both sounded good, still low and not played up like they should be cause you know Kaz loves tire sounds front and center. My thing is are they including shifting sounds in the appropriate autos, some cars definitely contain rowers and not those fandangled electronic do-hickies. I want to hear imperfections in the engines that can be programmed in to occur depending on engine load, rpms and what the car is doing at the time. I’ll wait and see just what they implement and how detailed it actually is.

    My reservation is the words all new system, does it mean they did away with the AES they built and used for a lot of DLC GT6 cars? Color me at this point confused and concerned as I heard good sounds out of a few cars and then heard the Chiron, facepalm.

    1. Griffith500

      I’m not a betting man, so no idea on the actual odds! Just remember the house always wins… :B

      At this point in time, I’m expecting the sound in GT Sport to fall back to sampling in many cases, but those samples will be re-mixed from their original sources and perhaps also the newer recordings – I would guess that’s what Mike Caviezel will be doing in the interim with a small team. That’ll be a reasonable stop-gap, if they improve the controls and physics aspects of the sound too.

      Imperfections are hard to do with something like AES, in some senses, but actually also really easy in others. It’s certain that PD have a fully working prototype or twelve, but the issue is getting that to work flawlessly for 20 cars, three sources per car and technically for eternity.

      On that note, GT6’s sound engine had little streaming glitches every now and then, which were more than a little painful (although I think they’ve been patched out, if not technically fixed, whatever their cause). They also removed sound transmission delay and played with reverb ideas. The lack of reverb in the build of GT Sport we were shown might mean they re-did the sound engine for PS4; like they did for each new console before.

      Note the sound engine is the workhorse part that allocates resources, manages buffer playback, mixes sources and renders the output(s). It’s major role is the spatialisation of the sounds into the virtual world, but it is relatively agnostic as to the source of the ones and zeros in the buffer it’s reading from; i.e. the overhaul is not necessarily related to AES at all, just as it might not relate to samples.

      I would expect the major change to be in the spatialisation, especially reverb.

  17. sirjim73

    Where can we find footage of Copperbox I wonder? ;)

    It should be noted that my content was recorded offscreen so doesn’t feature game audio.

    When playing a range of cars at the event, it was clear that some cars were more advanced soundwise than others – which is confirmed by what this article says here and hardly surprising (to me at least).

    I consider the article above to be quite reasonable as we have already heard evidence of changes ongoing and personally I will wait to see what further changes occur between now and final release, especially when release is still six months away, and not rely on any “Copperbox” sounds as being the final article.

    If the sounds don’t change between now and then, or even if they do, make whatever conclusion you wish to make, based on the final product. As I am sure you will…

    Just my two pence worth…

    1. chengman

      Especially since the Evora 400 is out now. They took a 7 year old car, remodelled and redid the sound, even though there is a brand new car that isn’t slower than an Ecoboost mustang from 0-60

  18. usielx313

    Yeah…we removed dynamic weather and time so we can improove audio. We also discard damage to keep the framerate because we are not able to do more with this old engine we are using here at PD (its a secret…dont tell anyone)

    GOD! Cant belive people is hoping for something good in this game.

    1. ZEROTHEKNIGHT

      Removed dynamic weather & time to improve engines sounds !?
      I thought KAZ stated that it was done to keep the frame rate stable at 60FPS ?

  19. ArR29

    This gave me a little bit of hope. I just want a proper shifting sound. Shifting in GT6 feel and sound so robotic and unnatural.
    Imo Grid Autosport has one of the most impressive audio in last generation console. If GT can reach that quality, that would be great

    1. Griffith500

      You’re technically asking for a physics improvement.
      The drivetrain model is due an overhaul; I think it’s at least partly responsible for the lack of “lift-off oversteer”, too.

    2. ArR29

      Hhmm. I do not know that, I’m not a very technical person. Thanks for correcting. Also I wonder if it’s something to do with input? I noticed in GT6 when you hold acceleration and brake button at the same time on controller while downshifting, you can get a decent shifting sound

    3. Leggacy

      I’ve had issues with the sound on Grid Autosport, the audio made my Sony pulse elite headset clip and cut out quite often. Also there were some weird feedback issues with my T500 that weren’t present on a G25, felt like the feedback was fighting with its self. It looked like a good game, but I never played it because of the sound and feedback

    4. Griffith500

      Yes, you can get some nice sounds with H-pattern and manual clutch on those cars that allow it. This is especially true of the AES cars. :)

    5. TomBrady

      @Griffith Drive a Ruf CTR, BTR, Elise 111R, etc. and try saying there’s a lack of lift off oversteer.

  20. Griffith500

    It’s not new for Kaz to admit the cars don’t sound good, he said that before GT6 arrived, too.

    Not a lot of meat in this one; guess I’ll have to watch these “Copperbox” videos for context and proper interpretation of cheeky-Kaz-isms.

  21. TheGTGuy

    After watching Mikes conference on how he captures sound and everything else with that, I’ve no doubt in my mind that the sounds will be great come release, maybe they might patch in new samples after realease but I’m excited by GTS and what the future holds.

    Btw here’s the link to the conference if anyone’s interested.

    https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=fwhycFQQedM

  22. Magic Ayrton

    On the one hand this is very reassuring and excellent news. On the other hand I will not be pre-ordering GTS.

  23. MrWaflz55

    Pretty much everything people were trying to say earlier. Everything at the Copper Box is subject to change.

  24. Samus

    This is the same man that claimed the sounds in the GT6 demo were ‘just sound effects’ and would all be replaced for release. It didn’t happen.

    1. SavageEvil

      Indeed and the 98T didn’t happen in GT 6 either right? Guess those engine sounds were just sound effects as well.

  25. nocturnalgrey

    That last paragraph sums it up perfectly..

    “As footage for the newest GT continues to pop up around the web, it would be wise to keep in mind Kazunori’s comments about the new system not being fully completed yet and reserving judgment as such.”

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