Weak, tiny and "far-away" car sounds

Troubleshooting Hub Legacy Troubleshooting Legacy Motorsport Issues
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Dear T10 Developers,

I’ve enjoyed playing your games for well over a decade. F7 is the first game where I (and many others) believe that the cars do not sound as ferocious, visceral or powerful as they do in real life or even your previous Forza games.

The track sounds are fully utilizing, in fact “over-utilizing” the bass and midrange channels - but the cars sound weak, and lack bass and powerful exhaust sound. I have spent enough time at car meets and trackside to instantly identify with the feeling of being around or inside a high-powered car. I’m playing your game on a Denon 7.1 amp; I’ve also played it on Turtlebeach headphones, high-quality earbuds, and my dad’s ultra-powerful stereo JVC amp and speakers from the 80s.

Why is the game programmed to overshadow car sounds with track sounds? Even with track + tire sounds turned down to 40% and the volume cranked way up, the cars sound flat and really low on bass as well as midrange. Nearly every car in the game has a V12 note towards the redline and generally, sounds are very high-pitched and “treble heavy”. Where have the bass and midrange frequencies gone?

Please look into it. It is really cutting into the fun factor and immersion. For reference, please check out the car sound accuracy and bass level/loudness in your previous titles.

Thanks.

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What are you using for sound?

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Pls check my original post, 2nd para.

I have tires and track effects set to about 45%, crash effects at 60% and everything else on max (no in-game or replay music). Cars still sound tiny and low on bass in free play with no other cars around.

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With all these different things you are using for sound have you been changing your xbox output and hard resetting each time. As something isn’t working right in the channel mix.
Also editing your post after i’ve replied and then pretending like nothing happened doesn’t work.

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“Also editing your post after i’ve replied and then pretending like nothing happened doesn’t work.”

Not sure what you’re referring to here. I had already mentioned in my original post what I’m using for sound.

This is not a hard reset issue. All my games work fine although I do hard reset from time to time. FM5 and 6 have pretty loud and intimidating car sound, F7 has weak sounds. It’s not an issue with my amp but rather how frequencies have been programmed in the game to use midrange and bass. The cars do not utilize it properly.

It was like this since launch, it’s like this now. Maybe adding the 7.1 native option in the game has upped the overall sound mix a bit but the cars still sound like they are somewhat “absent” from the track. Rumble strips and helicopters shake my room even after reducing the game’s balance on these two. You don’t think that’s unusual? I should be feeling a lot of rumble from my car’s exhaust, even more so in the first person cam angles. All I hear is high pitched effects and air rushing into the engine. Exhausts ought to utilize bass and midrange appropriately all throughout the RPM range.

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It’s obviously an issue which only affects you and a small number of other people. We need to work out what you have in common as the devs won’t do it.
I’ve seen this issue come up a couple of times on the forums but we never get to an answer. Mostly people either fix their issue and don’t tell us or they don’t and don’t tell us.
It really doesn’t help when we’re trying to fix things and people don’t tell us when things work!
I had a similar issue on mad max where my car would only exhibit blower sounds and no actual engine noise. That only happened a couple of times though. It’s also irrelevant to this game. Which i have no trouble with the sound.

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I don’t know why you’re dismissing this off as a user-specific issue when it isn’t. Are the headlights not turning on for some cars in night and weather races also user specific? Or the tires looking all wacky and going sideways when you select a car right before going to the race screen and it continues to spin while the tires remain stationary? Brake lights that glow almost bright white/orange in specific low contrast conditions?

All these are issues in the game and have nothing to do with how I’m experiencing it.

This is an issue that hasn’t been fixed because we, the gamers, do not have access to the game code. I have no issues in any of my xbox games or movies. This is not a volume or channel mixing issue. I never said that there’s no actual engine sound. Please read the original post a few times - it specifically says the midrange and bass channels are not utilized for exhaust sounds, even though helicopters, rumble strips and overpasses going past the car exhibit loud and bass-heavy effects.

Let’s assume if what you are saying is correct - why are the cars loud, ferocious and visceral in FM5, 6 and FH3? It is the way they have mixed car sound that baffles me. Have you ever been to a real race? The rumble and loud decibels from the cars shake up the grandstands pretty good. And you don’t hear high pitched motor/exhaust sounds that cause ear fatigue but rather loud and thunderous sound that goes right through the heart - soul pleasing like anything!

What are you playing the game through? Are you telling me the sounds in this game are as good as FM5 and 6? Because eveyrthing in that game seemed to be very well balanced with the environment. Why does the environment sound louder than the cars? I have tires and track sounds set to 50% - I’m sacrificing tire noise, wind noise and reverb effects just to get meaningful feedback from my exhaust!

I never even need to look at the tacho when playing their other Forza games - the feedback from my single 12-inch woofer is enough to let me know when to shift. In FM7, I’m using an additional 6-inch woofer to make the exhaust sounds stand out - more than anything, it’s making the rumble strips and helicopter flybys louder. Almost heart-stabbing bass on those.

I don’t believe you when you say you have “no trouble with the sound” - I am not pointing out issues that I am facing. I am simply asking the developers to adjust the frequences or at least include a car volume boost option in the sound menu to make those exhaust sounds stand out. They don’t!

There’s a 30-odd page thread going on that I recently discovered - same issue over and over again: weak car sounds, inaccurate notes, sound sample sharing. So all those are user specific too I’m sure??

Seems to me like you’re trying to sweep a glaring flaw with the sound mixing right under the rug.

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Please use the Discussion forum (such as that thread that already exists) or forzafb@microsoft.com to provide feedback about game design choices so that the Tech Support team can focus on unintended issues that need to be investigated and fixed.

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