By on October 3, 2009

I have no doubt the guys at Sharkwerks know their onions when it comes to engine modifications. But here we have yet another video where the soundtrack underneath is as inappropriate as an intern dancing buck naked on a boardroom table at Black Rock. Not only does the keyboard player deploy a pseudo-strings sound originally sampled by Robert Arthur Moog in the late sixties (true story), the performance asks the bizarre question “what’s wistful about a Porche 997 GT3RS with a highly modified 3.9L engine producing 500hp?” Answer: nothing. The Best and the Brightest know that the last thing a powerful engine needs is a backing track that makes the artistes at royaltyfreemusic.com seem like Gustav Mahler. Click ahead to 7:00. For fifty-five blissful seconds, we hear all we need to hear. All we want to hear. Note to car video producers: step WAY from the synth. Your true destiny lies in San Fernando Valley, where porn producers treat generic audio wallpaper with all the respect it deserves.

Get the latest TTAC e-Newsletter!

Recommended

18 Comments on “What Really Grinds My Gears: Synthesizer Soundtracks on Car Videos...”


  • avatar

    Aren’t the porn guys in the San Fernando valley?

    I have to agree though. The most egregious example was the brit TV show “5th Gear” (of all folks!) who drowned out the melodious roar of a Jaguar D-type’s “Sir William’s Sixth Symphony” with some opera AND synth simultaneously!

    –chuck

  • avatar
    geggamoya

    It could be worse though, like taping over all the sound with noise from The Generic Guitar Molesters or Mr. Supergangsta and whatnot.

  • avatar

    Sorry about that just enthusiastic is all… most folks liked it but we also have a very simple one with mostly just the exhaust and car v car stuff here:

  • avatar
    ruckover

    “The Best and the Brightest know that the last thing a powerful engine needs is a backing track that makes the artistes at royaltyfreemusic.com seem like Gustav Mahler.”

    What the heck does this sentence mean? I know you would not insult Mahler, but that is all I can come up with.

  • avatar
    porschespeed

    Aren’t the porn guys in the San Fernando valley?

    Chuck,

    True, but I’ve heard that there are a few sites based just up the road in SF. Think there’s one that involves machines and girls and, er, well, I forget…

    Robert,

    I’m confused. From a man who understands not to be picky about how the girl snorts the line off your appendage, the thought of a naked intern dancing on a boardroom table is inappropriate? Really?

  • avatar
    PeteMoran

    @ RF

    Preach it!

    If the engine note isn’t musical enough then the video shouldn’t be being made!

  • avatar
    guyincognito

    The video is kinda cheesy but lets face it, you can’t be good at everything. To build and tune an engine that produces that power curve and that engine note excuses any film faux pas in my book.

  • avatar
    Unconcerned

    I have to agree that I would much rather the engine note without any music in the backround but I have to give them a little credit and some faint praise for which I offer to no average youtube video for the simple fact that they lower the music when people are speaking or when they engines reving so you CAN hear it. Not to mention they dont just have music over pictures like most youtube vids with no sound whatsoever. By comparo this video doesnt even annoy vs the video with the fast car or the burly truck or the sand flinging rail that has some random radio friendly tune over the whole damn thing! GRAAA

  • avatar
    Detroit-Iron

    Quite possibly the worst offense in all of youtubedom. It’s not 1970, the camera isn’t super 8, you have a freakin’ mic, it is a travesty. Why?

    @ruckover
    You really don’t understand what that sentence means?

  • avatar
    ZoomZoom

    Well, I’m gonna have to disagree with y’all. I found the cut from the music to the stupidloud engine sound to be especially annoying here on my music workstation monitor speakers. And it was especially moreso annoying (to me as a viewer of the video) that the car was sitting in the garage with the hood/trunk open with that loud whine wrecking my monitors. I can handle wrecked monitors, but please make it worth my while.

    If you must cut to an obnoxious sounding engine, please let the car be in motion.

    But it didn’t really get better at 7:00 as Robert suggested. Come on. THAT engine was the be-all/end-all? Not on these speakers and not to these ears. Maybe I’m becoming an old fogey. You kid’s keep it quiet out there!

    That said, I didn’t find the music to be offensive at all. I didn’t recognize it and I don’t know the source of it, but I can say that it had structure, rhythm, a key and modality, dynamics, and emotion. That’s more than one can say for lots of music out there today. Some of it’s so lazy…using whole-song samples from a Doobie Brothers or Eagles album in the 70’s or 80’s.

    And one last thing, since synths and samples were mentioned: I don’t give a shit where a musician digs up his samples. I don’t care if they’re 24-bit, 8-bit, or eight-track. I don’t care if it’s genuine percussion samples personally created by Mick Fleetwood or if it’s just stupid bathroom noises made by somebody’s cousin.

    It’s what the musician DOES with the samples that matters to me.

  • avatar
    DearS

    500hp from a NA six cylinder. I did not even dare to dream that far ahead in a production car. Thank you God.

    I hope its safe.

  • avatar
    DweezilSFV

    No worse than the head banging heavy metal junk that overpowers so many of the pieces done on the sound tracks of television car shows.

  • avatar
    shaker

    DweezilSFV :
    “No worse than the head banging heavy metal junk that overpowers so many of the pieces done on the sound tracks of television car shows.”

    Or any of the cable shows that show “manly” activities, like colossal constructions, really big machines, etc.

    It’s like a dump truck that can haul 300 tons of earth isn’t “badass” enough all by itself; they have to add a totally generic guitar-heavy riff-track to drive the point home (I guess the HD picture isn’t quite enough to those suitably inured by the constant barrage of music that seems to infiltrate TV and commercials, whether appropriate or not).
    Whew! Thanks, I feel better

  • avatar

    Lol, I was expecting to hear the crappy dance-music du jour from the title of this, not crappy-pantstastic canned Yanni stuff, is that supposed to make this feel Epic? Fail. Beats having way to loud rap or metal music peaking out over the video I suppose. But I guess even that is better than the sound of most tuner-cars anyway. Hold the fart-can, batman, I’m blowin’ it out my butt trumpet.

  • avatar

    Thanks guys… the motor is a real gem from the factory and they run it up to crazy levels in the prototype races… Here’s what we did in terms of the build:
    http://sharkwerks.com/porsche/technical-articles/201-sharkwerks-evoms-8800-rpm-3-9l-502-hp-engine-upgrade.html

  • avatar
    ruckover

    Detroitiron, I do not know what it means. Mahler was a great composer (at least I find him so), but he is not remembered for his playing abilities. So, what is RF trying to say?

  • avatar
    DearS

    From what I’ve seen the engine is a bit of money at $25K. Still it a very special car, and still a bargain perhaps relative to others at this price.

  • avatar
    Detroit-Iron

    @Ruckover

    I’ll have to remember that if I am ever on Jeopardy. I think RF was referring to composition rather than playing ability though.

Read all comments

Back to TopLeave a Reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.

Recent Comments

  • Lou_BC: @Carlson Fan – My ’68 has 2.75:1 rear end. It buries the speedo needle. It came stock with the...
  • theflyersfan: Inside the Chicago Loop and up Lakeshore Drive rivals any great city in the world. The beauty of the...
  • A Scientist: When I was a teenager in the mid 90’s you could have one of these rolling s-boxes for a case of...
  • Mike Beranek: You should expand your knowledge base, clearly it’s insufficient. The race isn’t in...
  • Mike Beranek: ^^THIS^^ Chicago is FOX’s whipping boy because it makes Illinois a progressive bastion in the...

New Car Research

Get a Free Dealer Quote

Who We Are

  • Adam Tonge
  • Bozi Tatarevic
  • Corey Lewis
  • Jo Borras
  • Mark Baruth
  • Ronnie Schreiber