Come on feel the noise in F1 for 2016

[John S]

New rule:- 2/3 pipes divides gasses from Turbo wastegate - Voila much din! 

Let's hope it works like they say.

http://www.grandprixtimes.com/news/display/11037

[cosworth151]

Reminds me of the old saying, you can put lipstick on a pig, but it's still a pig.

[Steve A.]

Reminds me of the old saying, you can put lipstick on a pig, but it's still a pig.

So you have had a night out in Newcastle then.

[Dare]

I think I like a rose by any other name is still a  rose

[Alianora La Canta]

Will it makes the cars sound like less like they've been synthesised through a Soundblaster 16* in a computer game?

* - The Soundblaster 16 was a typical sound card in computers in 1995 - quite tinny and bleepy, but still good enough to generate computer music well. Less good with actual music (which was considerably better-sounding on even the cheapest hi-fis of the day).

[Jericoke]

Will it makes the cars sound like less like they've been synthesised through a Soundblaster 16* in a computer game?

* - The Soundblaster 16 was a typical sound card in computers in 1995 - quite tinny and bleepy, but still good enough to generate computer music well. Less good with actual music (which was considerably better-sounding on even the cheapest hi-fis of the day).

I will not have you bagging on the SB16!  It was a miracle of technology that was so far ahead of it's time, that it's still the fundamental design of sound processing.  The limitation of the SB16 was that computers of the day simply couldn't feed it enough information to be of use, and the idea of creating computer speakers with any thought to sound quality was still alien thought.

The SB16 could crank out 'CD quality' sound (still the gold standard in audio processing).  If you took the time to hook up a decent stereo, and tracked down some 'demos', you'd find better sound than anything you get from satellite radio these days.

[Alianora La Canta]

Will it makes the cars sound like less like they've been synthesised through a Soundblaster 16* in a computer game?

* - The Soundblaster 16 was a typical sound card in computers in 1995 - quite tinny and bleepy, but still good enough to generate computer music well. Less good with actual music (which was considerably better-sounding on even the cheapest hi-fis of the day).

I will not have you bagging on the SB16!  It was a miracle of technology that was so far ahead of it's time, that it's still the fundamental design of sound processing.  The limitation of the SB16 was that computers of the day simply couldn't feed it enough information to be of use, and the idea of creating computer speakers with any thought to sound quality was still alien thought.

The SB16 could crank out 'CD quality' sound (still the gold standard in audio processing).  If you took the time to hook up a decent stereo, and tracked down some 'demos', you'd find better sound than anything you get from satellite radio these days.

The SB16 was a miracle of technology... ...in the mid-1990s. F1 is not in the mid-1990s and (supposedly) not pretending to be. It is in the mid-2010s, and one would expect its engines to sound like they are from the appropriate millenium, at least, given that F1 is meant to be the pinnacle of single-seater motorsport.

[John S]

The SB16 was a miracle of technology... ...in the mid-1990s. F1 is not in the mid-1990s and (supposedly) not pretending to be. It is in the mid-2010s, and one would expect its engines to sound like they are from the appropriate millenium, at least, given that F1 is meant to be the pinnacle of single-seater motorsport.

Ah but there's the rub Alia, what is the appropriate noise for these times? 

I well remember sitting in the grandstand at Brands in the 1970s being deafened and shaken to the bone, pleasantly I might add, by the 5 litre lumps in the F5000 cars thumping their way round the track. After the race me and my mates then got into our Minis, Anglia 105Es and Cortinas and then proceeded to deafen the wildlife of Kent, as best we could, with our straight thru exhausts, oh happy days.

However these days we'd have our road cars confiscated for making such din and I'm sure most race meetings in Europe now have decibel limits that they must stay under. My point is - yes times change - but in most walks of life technology is being pushed for a quieter life.

I miss the old F1 & F5000 cacophony, but how many excessively noisy road cars or aeroplanes, by design, are there now?

 

[cosworth151]

how many excessively noisy road cars or aeroplanes, by design, are there now?

How about Mustangs?



How many of them can pull massive G's in corners? How many are open wheel? F1 is supposed to be about extreme machines, not grocery getters.

[Jericoke]

how many excessively noisy road cars or aeroplanes, by design, are there now?

How about Mustangs?



How many of them can pull massive G's in corners? How many are open wheel? F1 is supposed to be about extreme machines, not grocery getters.

That's the problem at hand... all that sound is wasted energy. No self respecting engineer considers an extreme machine to be 'wasteful'.

Is the goal to make a fast machine or a loud machine?  The technology has evolved to the point that an F1 car doesn't have to be loud to be fast, and from experience I'll tell you that the loudest cars are the slowest.

So F1 needs to decide if they want a high tech series, or a visceral experience for fans.

[Alianora La Canta]

The SB16 was a miracle of technology... ...in the mid-1990s. F1 is not in the mid-1990s and (supposedly) not pretending to be. It is in the mid-2010s, and one would expect its engines to sound like they are from the appropriate millenium, at least, given that F1 is meant to be the pinnacle of single-seater motorsport.

Ah but there's the rub Alia, what is the appropriate noise for these times? 

I'm not picky. I want something that sounds like a real engine. There are lots of ways of doing it. Modern sportscars manage it. Most of the junior-series single-seaters manage it (when they're not teamed with especially large silencers due to having engines much too powerful for the sensitivities of locals. Modern rally and touring cars manage it. Even Formula E manages that, if you listen to it closely enough when it's standing still (in action, the tyre squeals tend to drown it out). But F1 doesn't, and it stands pretty much alone in that failure.

Unlike most people complaining about the engine noise, I have no issue with the volume of the engines F1 uses - it's a problem of tone, timbre and "clipping". "Real engine" sound is also quite diverse, as confirmed by many a road car enthusiast, and I pretty much expect each manufacturer to interpret it a little differently, even within the confines of a performance-orientated formula with fairly tight parameters of success and failure. Sounding like an engine is a solved problem, so it is pointless for F1 to pretend it isn't.

[Philbe]

Interesting this.....does the sound of a vehicle make it more exciting, create more emotion or make you want one.
Jag does it with the FType and Lambo does it with the Huracan, synthesized cracks and bangs that make a fella week in the knees.
So if the powers that be make the F1 cars sound better (fake or not) to sell more tickets then I'm all for it.