Based on real life experiences and playing previous Forza games on fairly good sound systems - I have to say the car sounds in FM7 still feel weak and “faraway” after many updates. The bass and volume seems to be really low on exhaust sounds. These things are VERY loud and aggressive IRL. I buy your games every 2 years and this is the first game where the car sounds are a letdown.
Aside from inaccurate sound samples for many, many cars, there is just no real bass and loudness to the samples. Can this be corrected wit an update please? Could we have a bass/volume boost for car sound? The helicopter flybys, the rumble strips, the overpasses whooshing past the car - everything feels loud and bass-heavy even at 60-70% internal volume. What’s going on with the car volume and bass then? This needs to be addressed, please!
I completely agree with you on this. I have now turned the sounds down and the opponent car volume right up and when a car comes past on full chat you can still barely hear it. Definitely a step back this year I’m afraid
Let me reiterate what I was trying to get across - the sounds in FM7 that have been improved over the FM6 samples (such as the SLS or F-type) have been improved by a noticeable margin. The accurate notes in this game are really that good (458, ACR Viper etc) however, those were already good in FM6 to begin with. In Fm7, and I’m saying this applies across the board, the deep bass and rumble is absent from car sounds in general. In cockpit view for instance, my woofer should be alive but it barely moves. In first person views, I should be hearing and feeling a lot of bass and sheer car volume but I don’t. When going to chase view, I should be hearing the exhaust wail, scream and rumble, but I don’t. Instead the sound gets even tinier and more high pitched as you go to chase cam.
This is very strange. Try and stand just 20 feet away from a high power car IRL and ask you buddy to rev it up… the sound will literally move through you and make you cringe a little especially if the car happens to have a V10 or V12 engine. Exhausts are very, very loud when you’re actually near the car or inside it… they have the sounds muted in FM7 for some reason. Maybe they want gamers to hear the tires and ambient track effects more? I don’t know.
One of the examples you used from FM6 - the Jag F-type - that’s definitely terrible! They improved it, but again… where is the deep bass and rumble? These cars do not sound tiny and high-pitched in real life. The Aventador sample from FM6 is THE best sample they have in any FM game. I’ve heard many Aventador drag races, high speed drive-bys, revving at car meets, when I was down in Dubai for work. I even had a friend work in a Lambo dealership and sat him down to listen to the Aventador from FM6 - he said the rev range sound is nearly 95% accurate, especially around the 6000 rpm range and the off-throttle crackles and burble. The sample in FM7 sounds like a flat Murceilago/Reventon sound, rather than a menacing and even intimidating snarl that the Aventador/Centenario exhaust produces.
In fact, do you still play Horizon 3? That game nailed the Aventador exhaust sound almost completely. A mix of the FM6 and H3 would produce the perfect Aventador sound, if that were possible. It makes me wonder why the same car tends to sound so different between games every 2 years. Would be nice if they could just improve the sound incrementally, but no, it sounds almost completely different.
I don’t like how the V12 sounds got done in the game - they are either too generic or not unique and distinct to each car. Even some of the V6 cars tend to sound like 12-cylinder ones at higher rev ranges. The new Skylines for example, they sound downright horrible. The sample was just right in FM5 and 6, and actually improved tremendously in H3, minus the weak off-throttle sound and somewhat muted cockpit sound.
So there’s two issues really, that the developers either feel don;t need fixing or simply don’t want to look into: sharing same samples across different cars (the MC12 sounds like the LaF sameple, while the Maserati GTS sounds like a 458) AND absence of proper bass and volume on exhausts. I would appreciate Turn 10 so much if they could only patch in some kind of colume/bass boost option for now, until they readjust the frequency range to make the car sounds stand out like they should.
It’s interestnig you bring up wind noise - FM4 did this brilliantly. The more speed you pick up, the more wind noise you’d hear which would actually drown out the engine and exhaust sound… superb! FM7 does not have enough wind noise effects to drown out car sound. The car sounds are already tiny and muted to begin with no matter what speed you’re going at.
For Handless21: This totally makes sense to me. FM5 had the least cars and tracks - yet the car sound accuracy and deep bass + dynamic frequency in the exhaust sounds was ridiculous I tell you, simply ridiculous. Best forced induction and exhaust sounds I’ve heard in a Forza game running on the XB One.
And you’re right - I did detect a bit of distortion but not too much. The fact that I have to increase the volume to nearly 70% just to hear and feel bass from my car exhaust is disturbing. The sounds seem to get more high-pitched and treble-heavy rather than bass and loudness heavy, if that sounds sensible. You increase the volume in their previous FM games and you can really, really hear AND feel the decibels shaking up your room.
You know, I have my tire sounds and track effects turned down to 55% because the rumble strips, suspension bottom-out effect, and helicopter flybys are creating so much bass. It is a shame because I can barely hear the tires screeching, or the wind and road noise picking up, not to mention car sound echoing off objects. But at least I can hear some bass in my car… some bass…but not at all at the level you’d hear or feel in an actual high powered car.
I still play FM6 and 5, even Horizon 3. The loud and clear car volume + bass/rumble effects from the exhaust nearly make me wet my pants I tell you!
While I agree that FM7’s sounds lack a little bass compared to 6, I fail to see how “better” FM6’s sounds are next to 7. Honestly, taking into account my experience with FH3 and FM7, I was not impressed. Not one bit.
Cars I tested in FM6 with the specific goal of replying to this post:
Ford GT: The best of the bunch but no game has nailed it so far.
VW Golf R 2014: Terrible. Pitch wrong like in FM7.
BMW M4 2014: Weakened version of M3 E46. Pretty bad.
Jaguar F-Type R: Worse than FM7. Sounds somewhat weak like in FH3.
Lamborghini Aventador: Similar between the games, less bass in FM7.
Aston Martin V12 Vantage: See above. A hint of Vulcan in FM7’s version.
Nissan GT-R 2012: FM6 is a mix of 370Z with Ford GT, FM7 seems to be a mix of Skyline and Aston V12.
The chase cam is not supposed to have much bass in it because they cranked up the ambient sounds in FM7, which is a trend with most other games on the market. That’s why you hear a lot of treble when driving in chase cam. Not all cars are supposed to sound like a Civic with mufflers. There are cars you hear on YouTube’s exhaust cams with barely audible exhausts past certain speeds, all you hear is wind noise and gas flow from the exhaust. 911 Turbo and SL 65 AMG are notorious for this.
I definitely miss some of the bass from FM6 in the newer games, though. But where you need the most bass is in interior cam, not chase cam which is what most people drive.
Audio quality saves the file size, which is huge in this game. Better sounds=bigger files. And that is one thing they had to do to keep overall file size lower.
Not saying this is the case but that is what i figured it might be.
I don’t think it is the case, because high end frequencies of engines don’t sound distorted (from file compression) which is sign of good quality files. They probably cut bass from the source because it didn’t sound good with the equipment that was used to record sounds in this game.
That’s interesting to know - thanks for the input Handles!
I did a little litmus test, driving the same cars between FM5, 6 and 7. FM6 stands out as the best example of good, clean sound with the subwoofer really coming into play as I’m going through the different torque ranges, going off throttle, downshifting, it’s almost zen-like.
Then I power up Fm7, drive the same cars, and it feels like somebody disconnected the subwoofer cable. The sounds are high-pitched and after just 30 minutes makes my ears ring and hurt. None of that with FM6 or 5.
I’m sure T10 has been to a live race at a track, because even when these cars pass by you in a pack, the bass and sheer loudness/decibels is clear as daylight. I do not understand why they decided to make the cars sound tiny and high-pitched this time around, but it seems like an extremely odd design choice.
I hope they will pay some attention to this. I can’t see how anybody with a half-decent sound system can enjoy the bass in this game - especially those who have already played previous FM games on the same amp and speakers.
I even paid close attention at the logo animation/startup sequence when booting up FM6 - its louder and the bass is deep and varied. What’s going on with the car volume and bass in FM7 guys? I can’t believe this is being swept under the rug by the community as well as the developers! I can’t be the only one.
I agree and I have a prime example. How on Earth did T10 screw up the newer ford GTs. In Forza 6 the production verison of the 2016 ford GTs sound was wrong but the GTLM was just fine…I actually go back to forza 6 just to use the GT GTLM…but here in Forza 7 the production verison sounds accurate while the GTLM has the same sound file as that and does not sound like that at all. Anyone who knows the Ford GT GTLM knows it has a unique loud rasp snort…blows my mind how they screwed up those 2 good cars.