Alien craft sound

Every other preset on this site is trying to be accurate to something. This one has nothing to be accurate to, which turns the same synthesis engine into an instrument rather than a model. Every parameter sits where a real engine would sound broken, and that is the point of it.

Ten seconds from a standing start. The launch, the gearbox working up through the ratios, then the overrun as the throttle closes. Driven by the same gearbox model the simulator runs, so the shift points are the ones you would hear in the car.

The ceiling is 12,000 rpm, 3,500 above the next highest. Brightness is 190 and the saturation character is 95, both the maximum here. Comb feedback runs at 90 against a typical 45, which pushes the exhaust resonators close to self-oscillation: instead of colouring the sound they start to ring with a pitch of their own. That is the harmonic drive quality, and on any real engine it would be a bug.

Firings per revolution are 7.5, a value no four-stroke can produce, since it implies fifteen cylinders. The resulting order spacing is unlike anything mechanical.

Noise drops to 60 and bass to 40, both the lowest here. Nothing about this is meant to feel heavy. The sub at 90 is the only weight, sitting well below the rest.

Three ratios, at 1.8, 4.5 and 10 km/h per 1000 rpm, are absurdly short: first gear runs out around 20 km/h. Combined with a 6,500 rpm shift point, it means the thing is constantly changing gear and constantly screaming, which is the intended effect.

Unevenness of 2 and jitter of 3 keep it inhumanly precise. It is the only preset here where sounding mechanical would be a failure.

Top gear at 10 km/h per 1000 rpm means 100 km/h has it turning 10,000 rpm and still climbing toward a ceiling no real engine has. There is no cruising speed at which it settles down, which is either the appeal or the problem.

Specification

Every figure above is read from the preset the app actually runs, not retyped.

Drive it

Open the simulator with this engine selected, allow location, and press ignition. See how it works for what happens between GPS and sound.

Related

• Jet turbine sound
• V10 engine sound
• Steam locomotive sound

Every other engine

• RECORDED CARS
  • BAC Mono
  • Ferrari 458
  • BMW M1 Procar
• SUPERCARS
  • Muscle V8
  • Modern V8
  • V10
  • V12
  • Anti-lag rally car
  • Air-cooled flat-six
• NORMAL CARS
  • Three-cylinder
  • Four-cylinder
  • Turbo hot hatch
  • Inline-six
  • Diesel
  • Flat-four boxer
• FUN SOUNDS
  • Steam locomotive
  • Radial prop plane
  • Jet turbine
  • Single-cylinder thumper

All twenty on one page, with redline and gear count for each.