2014 United States Grand Prix - Austin

[ringo]

Since everyone is offering impressions on the sound quality I believe I will join in. First thing, The V6's are extremely anemic sounding compared to the old V8's, some may be ok with that and some not. You really can have a conversation with someone setting beside you and the cars flying by with no problems. The cars don't even drown out the trackside commentary. It can be heard clear as day with the cars at full tilt. I was very surprised by the difference in sound from the engine suppliers. The Renault powered cars sounded decidedly wimpy compared to the others while the Mercs had a nice growl to them. The most surprising thing for me was when the Ferrari powered cars get out of the throttle they all have a very loud growl (for lack of a better word). It is very noticeable and the sound continues until they get back on the gas. I'm not quite sure what route Ferrari took with their pu design that gave them that quirk. The others seem to make no noise at all when off the throttle but both the Ferrari and Sauber cars had the same sound. Overall the sound itself isn't bad, its just very quiet. Its not what one would expect from the self proclaimed pinnacle of motorsport. The Ferrari Challenge and Porsche Cup cars were much louder on track than the F! cars.
Still, watching an F! car fly through the 3-4-5 complex with the speed and direction change is something one would have to experience to believe.

Ferrari is dumping more exhaust through the waste gate off throttle and maybe even when on throttle as well. This is why they may sound that way. This also speaks to their inability to harvest as much energy in 1 lap as the other engines.

[Hobbs04]

Turn 1 compilation: http://youtu.be/hXR-DW_-gXs

Just a short video I took from Turn 1 General admission area. those microphones were along the fence just below the jumbotron... Seems like my smartphone picked up better except for the deeper sounds.

[Chase3009]

Hobbs04, Dynamic range compression isn't the same as compressing an audio file for download. When you do that you are just getting a smaller file at the expense of overall sound quality. Dynamic range compression in a literal sense brings the volume up or down of certain frequencies in a sound to match an overall volume. Therefore you are losing some sounds that would be heard live. It is necessary but it can be way overdone. As seems to be the case here.

Blanchimont, just because they have microphones mounted by the track edge does not mean they are using the correct equipment to capture a sound. The microphones that captured the V8 sound may very well need to be changed to properly capture the V6 sound. For example, if you go into any professional studio used to record vocalists there will be a very large assortment of microphones. Some work for certain voices, some don't. In the picture you provided it appears there are two different types of microphones mounted there. One is a shotgun mic which is very directional dependent, it will only pick up sounds in a very small area directly in front of it. The other appears to be some type of dynamic large diaphragm mic. These are more all around type microphones. Still these will have very different frequency responses. Take a look at the charts below and you will get the feeling of what i mean. No two microphones will pick up the same frequencies.



Both of these are very common microphones. The 1st is a shotgun type mic and the second an dynamic mic. But as you can see the frequencies that each pick up has many peaks and valleys that differ from one another and that is common for every type of mic made. These 2 mics in conduction can pick up a broad range of sounds that can be blended together then compressed for the live feed. That is what i assume they are doing. I would think that FOM would experiment with different mics and signal chains to get a pleasing sound but it may be in Bernies best interest just to forget about it and continue on as is. Anyway, sorry for the long post, I hope it made some sense. We could get more in depth with this but I think it would be proper to start a new thread to do so.

[djos]

Imo they are using some really aggressive dynamic range compression or something similar.

Can you explain range compression

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=dynamic+range+compression

More serious, the sound on track have a large dynamic range, and compression is used to make it more viewer freindly. But in general this is done badly and just makes the cars sound horrible.

Precisely.

[langwadt]

Thanks deterherligt, I thought range compression was some new tech on the engine relating to compression ratios. Had a good laugh though. But yeah I understand it now, back in the Napster days I always compressed my music so it was quicker to download on dial up internet.

compressing to make a file smaller, i.e. your music on napster or a zip file is not the same thing as compressing
the range, i.e. make the quiet part louder and loud parts quieter so the the average level is more constant

[komninosm]

Overall the sound itself isn't bad, its just very quiet. Its not what one would expect from the self proclaimed pinnacle of motorsport.

On the contrary, it's what everyone should expect from the pinnacle of motorsport. Sound doesn't add anything to a vehicle. It subtracts energy that is wasted.

[Hobbs04]

I understand now. I would give a thumbs ^ but can't. Good write up the microphones too.

[AJ85234]

I was in turn 19 and at several points during the race you could not hear a single car. It was eerily quiet. Not what I expect out of an F1 race.

Other years you were in a very pleasant trance from the moment the first engine fired up until the last car rolled by.

This year it was too subdued. I will spend my hard earned money to go to the races but it is by far, not the same experience.

I thought the race was alright but definitely better near the end. The large open space of COTA really showcased just how awful the 2014 cars sound. They were barely audible on television and I suspect it was just as bad in person. When the cars were on the opposite side of the circuit you could probably hear a mouse fart

I was in turn 5 and could hear them around the whole circuit. I can say they are awful on tv compared to in person.

[Manoah2u]

since i've read about engine cover 'protection casing' - you know, that extra layer installed to protect from possible debris on engine blowups - wouldn't this take away some noise buildup? would ditching such a thing gain a couple of dB????

[Sulman]

Precisely.

They've still got that awkward 'Gran Turismo 1 in a tunnel' strange sound that drowns in reverb. It's just a dirge.

The phone camera footage people shot at tests and the video the gentleman posted here sound much more interesting.

[komninosm]

since i've read about engine cover 'protection casing' - you know, that extra layer installed to protect from possible debris on engine blowups - wouldn't this take away some noise buildup? would ditching such a thing gain a couple of dB????

Probably, but again, why bother? Sound is waste. I'd rather have a safer car too.

[hairy_scotsman]

I was in turn 19 and at several points during the race you could not hear a single car. It was eerily quiet. Not what I expect out of an F1 race.

Other years you were in a very pleasant trance from the moment the first engine fired up until the last car rolled by.

This year it was too subdued. I will spend my hard earned money to go to the races but it is by far, not the same experience.

I thought the race was alright but definitely better near the end. The large open space of COTA really showcased just how awful the 2014 cars sound. They were barely audible on television and I suspect it was just as bad in person. When the cars were on the opposite side of the circuit you could probably hear a mouse fart

I was in turn 5 and could hear them around the whole circuit. I can say they are awful on tv compared to in person.

Yep. At T12 there were times when cars would sneak up on us if we weren't looking left, as we'd not hear them coming down the back straight until they were very near us. It was amazing. Before, if there was even just one car on the track, not only could you hear them all the way 'round the track, you could easily tell where they were and could hear every throttle change or shift. Now it's pretty much just a monotone.