What can be done to make the engine louder?

[Cold Fussion]

Don't see why it needs to be louder, the old V8's were by definition too loud. Anything that requires ear protection is too loud.

[CmdrVOODOO]

The fact that so much of the exhaust energy (where most of the dB's come from on a car), both heat and sound pressure is being reharvested and turned into other forms of energy it's damn near impossible to make the cars any louder than they are. Its simple physics really.

The cars may have a nicer sound if they were revving higher, but with the fuel restrictions, they are not making their power in the upper RPM range, and they are often being short shifted.

So yeah, as far as making them louder? Nope, not when you are transforming sound pressure into other forms of energy. It is not going to happen, but if they eased the fuel restrictions and allowed for higher RPM PUs, you may get a sound that is more pleasing to the ear.

[Gridlock]

..if they eased the fuel restrictions and allowed for higher RPM PUs, you may get a sound that is more pleasing to the ear.

..or a DSQ

[langwadt]

The fact that so much of the exhaust energy (where most of the dB's come from on a car), both heat and sound pressure is being reharvested and turned into other forms of energy it's damn near impossible to make the cars any louder than they are. Its simple physics really.

The cars may have a nicer sound if they were revving higher, but with the fuel restrictions, they are not making their power in the upper RPM range, and they are often being short shifted.

So yeah, as far as making them louder? Nope, not when you are transforming sound pressure into other forms of energy. It is not going to happen, but if they eased the fuel restrictions and allowed for higher RPM PUs, you may get a sound that is more pleasing to the ear.

The rpm dependent fuel flow restriction is what makes them run the reasonable high rpms they do now, they wouldn't run +10krpm if they weren't forced to by the flow restriction

[CmdrVOODOO]

The fact that so much of the exhaust energy (where most of the dB's come from on a car), both heat and sound pressure is being reharvested and turned into other forms of energy it's damn near impossible to make the cars any louder than they are. Its simple physics really.

The cars may have a nicer sound if they were revving higher, but with the fuel restrictions, they are not making their power in the upper RPM range, and they are often being short shifted.

So yeah, as far as making them louder? Nope, not when you are transforming sound pressure into other forms of energy. It is not going to happen, but if they eased the fuel restrictions and allowed for higher RPM PUs, you may get a sound that is more pleasing to the ear.

The rpm dependent fuel flow restriction is what makes them run the reasonable high rpms they do now, they wouldn't run +10krpm if they weren't forced to by the flow restriction

I was thinking of +3k or 4k RPMs (18,000 or 19,000) if they raised the total fuel allowed as well as the flow from lights out to checkers. But honestly I think this whole thing has more to do with people not liking change than I think it's the dB level. I know I was not happy when they switched to the V8s from the V10s. I've personally been more accepting of these V6's and their spaceship-like sounds than I ever was with the 2.4 V8s. Maybe I just hate the V8s because they replaced the V10s and I'm happy to see them go. I'm not sure what it is, but I'm good with this change.

[beelsebob]

Absolutely, it's everything to do with not liking change.

[zztopless]

They should just pick a better place for the microphones for the TV recording and mix that channel a little louder. The sound is not nearly that bad in the videos shot by viewers of the testing, so the TV guys did something wrong.

Yes!!! How the hell do videos shot on smartphones sound better have more 'detail' of the engine noise than multi-million dollar sound equipment, set up by people that do it for a living? Either political (Bernie wanting it to sound bad on TV) or they haven't put much time and or money into adjusting for the new engines (given how long F1 took to get HD video feeds and still has SD onboard cameras, the latter wouldn't surprise me).

[FW17]

[oT v1]

just employ Michael Winslow from police academy to do the sound effects

[McG]

Could he really do those sounds or was there someone doing the sounds for him!?

[Pierce89]

Absolutely, it's everything to do with not liking change.

Not necesarily true. I love the new PU's , but I don't think they sound that great.

[aleks_ader]

Could he really do those sounds or was there someone doing the sounds for him!?

He really do that sounds... You had internet so check it out.

[thedutchguy]

"FIA open to making F1 louder, less fuel-efficient says Todt"
http://www.grandprix.com/ns/ns27591.html

That didn't take long! Most important question if and how changes can be made and if there are parties involved with the power to veto changes.

[langwadt]

"FIA open to making F1 louder, less fuel-efficient says Todt"
http://www.grandprix.com/ns/ns27591.html

That didn't take long! Most important question if and how changes can be made and if there are parties involved with the power to veto changes.

I don't see how they can change much in the short run, they spend years designed the engine for a specific fuel flow
and rpm range and I doubt fitting a substantially larger fuel tank is just something you do

[thedutchguy]

About making the current engines sound better for TV:

Unfortunately, F1 has never been at the forefront of technology when it comes to its broadcasting. The change from 4:3 to widescreen came late, not to mention the switch to HD which was only made a few years ago. Even today, the onboard shots are still in upscaled SD which is pretty pathetic for a sport which thrives on technology.

Last weekend I was quite surprised to see that this billion-dollar sports couldn't get the telemetry graphics right on the onboard shots. In Australia there were synchronization issues, which meant that the graphics were about half a second ahead of the image and sound, which made the two look disconnected. It's also a joke that the indicator for 8th gear didn't work on the onboard graphics, even though several cars definitely used 8th.

I wonder where the microphone(s) from the onboard camera are placed (my guess would be inside the camera structure itself), but I bet they haven't changed their location compared to previous years. In the V10 and V8 era, pretty much any location was good as these engines out-screamed anything and everything. these new V6 power units require different mic placement. On some cars you could even hear wind noise, on others the high pitched sounds of the ERS motors and / or the turbo drowned out the sound of the V6 engine. I watched the onboard channel a lot last weekend and to me, the Ferrari sounded particularly nasty with a near constant high pitched squeal.

I'm not a sound engineer, but my suggestion would be to place the mics behind the exhaust if possible, in order to pick up most of the backwards directed sound. This will obviously be a challenge, as it will be difficult get a mic and its wires to that location in such a tight and hot environment.