you'de be looking at 2-3 years at earliest for the -8 to be released.

 

Seriously? I have been under the impression it would be released at pretty much the same time, or maybe a few months later.

After all, it has been previewed quite a bit already...

Well, in this thread no aircraft (or subtype) has been specified, and the scope of the addon will comprise the -8i. That's why I wanted to make sure that the GEnx sound will be part of the deal as the fourth engine sound.

 

Referring to this thread alone, you're right, but if you look at the update threads, you'll see that we've only shown the 400 for quite some time. Regardless, I'm not sure I follow the thought process of seeing that each engine type has specific sounds, but then wondering if the 8 would follow this trend. Even the "visual update only" version of the 8 we did for the old 747 had updated engine sounds. I believe you own that product, don't you?

 

Seriously? I have been under the impression it would be released at pretty much the same time, or maybe a few months later.

After all, it has been previewed quite a bit already...

 

Two to three years may be Simon's estimate, but it is not ours. I think you'd do well to pay a little more attention to what we're saying, and a little less about what people in the forum say here in the forum, at least when it comes to official information about products.

 

 

you'll see that we've only shown the 400 for quite some time

 

But you have previewed the -8i, which lead me (and maybe a few others) to believe that it is not trailing too far behind... :smile: Therefore, Amir speaking of three engine types made curious about the fourth, and newest one, also in terms of previews. I do follow the annoucements, but I likely don't get every bit of information, especially if it's between the lines and the threads get really long. So I'd be curious to hear about your approximate time frame.

Yeah an external engine startup video would be neat to hear, just to get our hearts pumping on what we can expect soon.  :smile: 

Why? Who cares what the outside sounds like? I only want the inside FROM THE COCKPIT sounds covered. Don't fly from the outside.

 

You've answered your own question.  Sean likes it.

 

I also don't fly from the outside much, but there is nothing wrong with a plane enthusiast listening to his simulated 747-400 starting up.  Perhaps the sound reminds him of airport visits or where he works, or whatever...

 

Just because you don't want it, doesn't mean everyone doesn't.

 

I am fairly sure, trusting PMDG, you will both be very happy.

 

Cheers,

Rudy

New features... like does the engine sound finally fades away and gets drowned out by the wind noise as you climb higher into the thinner air? :Big Grin: Presently 90% N1 sounds the same on the ground and at 30000 ft... in any sim and plane :He He:

Ive noticed this for a long time, no one ever talks about it, due to changing air density the sound should change.  Would be a great feature to have.

New features... like does the engine sound finally fades away and gets drowned out by the wind noise as you climb higher into the thinner air? :Big Grin: Presently 90% N1 sounds the same on the ground and at 30000 ft... in any sim and plane :He He:

 

Yes - this is one of our new sound features!    :Big Grin:

 

We have built our own custom sound system for the engines and now we have full control over the engine volumes relative to altitude.  A big thank you for the hard work done by Chris and Alex who got this amazing implementation ready for the Queen.

Well, there goes my wallet.

With the Aerosoft A330 and PMDG 747 coming hot and fast, I have to eat noodles and stop going to Walmart from now.

Yes - this is one of our new sound features!    :Big Grin:

 

We have built our own custom sound system for the engines and now we have full control over the engine volumes relative to altitude.  A big thank you for the hard work done by Chris and Alex who got this amazing implementation ready for the Queen.

 

Amazing! PMDG keeps surprising.

Would (or could?) this feature be 'retro-fitted' into previous releases (737 & 777 namely)?

Anders,

 

We shall see but it is too early to tell right now.  We shall cross that bridge when we get to it.  :smile:

 

 

Yes - this is one of our new sound features!    :Big Grin:

 

We have built our own custom sound system for the engines and now we have full control over the engine volumes relative to altitude.  A big thank you for the hard work done by Chris and Alex who got this amazing implementation ready for the Queen.

 

Really!? I didn't think that was possible. That idea sounds amazing, looking forward to hearing it in action!

Great news, Armen! This was one of the last things that for a long time I had secretly wished for. Along with the curved CRT and the bouncing MCP digits. Looks like you guys got it all.

​

​I remember this sound feature was one of the things that was "laughed" at as a request back in the 747v1 days... along with the weather radar. "FSX limitations", they'd always say!

I will certainly be getting this one, and I cannot wait to do some low level VFR in it, what a beaut.

Question to Kyle: considering there are three different engine variants, does that mean you guys go flying on all three 747s on the jumpseat to record the sounds? Or do you record the sounds of the engine from the cabin?

Arjen,

 

We get our recordings from multiple sources - some from the cockpit, some from the cabin and some from outside - From my side I covered the RR engines from a few recent flights - my recordings were from the cabin; two at the front on the top deck and two in the nose - so I got a good personal understanding of how these engines sound in relation to the cockpit.  

 

The recordings of course are important but it is only the start of a very long and complex process to translate them into the simulator.

 

Flight simulators use audio pitch shifting on sound files to raise and lower the musical key of the sound - just like when you rev a car, the car engine sound pitch goes up as you apply more power. Similarly in FSX when you move the throttle forward, the pitch shifting raises the musical key of the engine sounds to achieve the same effect.

 

The problem is that there are so many distinct sound elements inside a recording (the hum, the whine, the bass, the hiss, the grind, etc) that if you just use the original recordings, you end up pitch shifting everything inside the recording at the same rate - which causes all sorts of realism and audio issues.  For example, the pitch shift on the whine may be fine as you move the throttle up but it will not be fine for the hiss, the rumble, the hum and the grind - because in real life, all these sound elements vary differently across the throttle range.  

 

The solution is not to use the raw recordings - but to use numerous audio processing tools and techniques to completely deconstruct the recordings into their individual audio elements - that means splitting the raw recordings into a multiple sets of individual files - so we have the bass, the sub-bass, the hum, the hiss, the whine, the grind, etc all broken down into separate files.  

 

Once you have the individual sound elements broken down into separate files then comes the big challenge of reconstructing it all back together across the whole throttle range - but then you find that the deconstructed files are not enough to create the satisfactory audio experience - so you need to add even more sound layers and elements to fill in the gaps.  For example, the whine sound as you move the throttles up to 70% before toga - we dont have one sound layer for this .... we have three layers of whine per engine! .... layered and matched so they are all in pitch tuning sync and sound consistent together. That is twelve sound files just for the whine! These sort of details are not just applied to the whine but also to all other sound elements in the soundset, in order to create the rich and deep soundscape across the whole frequency range - from the sub bass all the way to the high frequency hiss.  

 

 

So - the recordings are significant but the main challenges are to understand how the engines sound and behave and then use these complex processing techniques to get as close as you can to sounding like the real thing.