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Asklemmy @lemmy.ml

starlord @lemm.ee

10mo ago

Does anyone have any instructables or ideas on how to make my car sound like a Tie Fighter as I drive around?

64 comments

Maybe if you have an electric car you could hack in and replace the space ship sounds with your preferred space ship sounds. Might be illegal though.
- You're probably joking, but in case you're not - those sounds are just what brushless motors sound like. There's nothing you can heck.
  If you're joking, good one!
  
  Some cars do actually make an electronic sound to warn pedestrians of their presence. Mostly European cars, and the little hairdresser's Jeep thing I forget the name
  
  You’re probably joking, but in case you’re not: Electric cars must make an artificial sound on low speeds in Europe to alert people. The motor is too quiet on its own.
  
  He may not, maybe he's talking about the sound when the car isn't fast enough to alert people on the street, just to let know that something is coming. It shut at a certain speed I think

Replace your gasoline engine with a pair of ion engines

Just keep playing it on your stereo.
- No, stereos are playing imperial march

Is this an original idea or did you hear a car going wyeeeeeeaaaaaa and then decided that you wanted to do the same?
In any case, I commend your endeavour, good luck sir.

Just make mouth sounds.
- By far the simplest AND the best solution.

TIE fighters fly around in space, space has no air, sound are vibrations of air, no air, no sound.
So if you can make your car completely quiet, then it sound like a TIE fighter.
But since that is impossible since you want to br driving around, you should duct tape some speakers to the roof and have a synth generate a continous TIE fighter tone, which would create the proper effect
- And if you play it loud enough, you'll get a free police escort!
- My head cannon is that TIE fighters don't make sound exactly as they zip around, but they do something to the electromagnetic fields or some other techno babble thing that causes other things, like droids, space ships, rocks, or skulls to scream with a Doppler effect like that as they zip by.
- No, physics still applies throughout all galaxies, it is still in the same universe.
  However, one explanation could be that Star Wars takes places in a different universe, with different laws of physics.

I think the biggest obstacle would be from your perspective it would just be a steady annoying sound. TIEs only have their characteristic howl when doing a flyby. But if you're aware of that and you one want it for how it sounds as you drive by, I'd think just playing the tone through the speakers would do.
- Yeah, it's the Doppler effect that creates those cool sounds from the bystanders perspective.
  
  Which, of course, would make listening to that ion engine drone worthwhile.
- There's an audio illusion that's somewhat analogous to the barber pole illusion --- instead of a pattern which appears to always go up or down, you can have a sound which seems to always go up or down in pitch: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shepard_tone
  
  I personally find continuous impossible pitch shifting more distracting than a constant howl, but YMMV.

Buy an EV
Jailbreak the EV (good luck w this one)
Replace the boring OEM sound that is coming out of the speaker to warn pedestrians to a fucking epic Tie fighter sound.
Good luck and Godspeed.
- It's pretty much certain some EVs are easier than others to jailbreak. Probably don't go with a Tesla. My impression is that established manufacturers tend more to build cars that are just cars, so maybe a Nissan Leaf or something.

Make it unobtrusive. Otherwise reconsider

I can’t speak to specifics but I can give you some ideas.
So the obd port might have some basic info such as acceleration and turns since and/or at least torque/thrust readings that you can poll since insurance companies and others have devices that use them to track your driving (often paired with GPS which you don’t need)
So some arduino project that lets you plug in and poll that data and to establish a trigger for some audio could be fun.
http://arduinodev.com/connect-arduino-to-a-car-through-obd-ii-port/
Pair that with something else that lets you connect via auxiliary or Bluetooth so you can play it over the speaker and you might have something.
https://github.com/pschatzmann/ESP32-A2DP
This might be easier since a pi would be better suited to playback of audio and might be easier to get everything connected and to tinker with the Python to respond to certain readings
https://www.instructables.com/OBD-Pi/
- I saw such a device on Instagram. I think it was a Bluetooth connection from the computer diagnostic port to the phone.
  The app takes this data and makes the right noise based on engine revs. The app was full of different engine sounds both real and fictional along with silly noises such as farting.

Whistles... They go woo woo?
- Internet vintage
- Was going to post this if it wasn't here already. Thanks, great video.
- Ha. I missed this. I guess today I’m one of the lucky 10000
- I'm almost certain someone could build one of these that recreates the tie fighter sound. We need one of those YouTube makers with access to a metal 3d printer to design and build one.
  
  Can't 3d print exhaust components. However, I was wondering what various whistle tips inline would sound like. If each has a different size hole, perhaps they would have slightly different frequencies? The combination might be tie fighter'ish driving by.
  Anyone know how the original sound was generated?
- I quote this shit all the time,
- Here is an alternative Piped link(s):
  They go woo woo?
  Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
  I'm open-source; check me out at GitHub.

Bolt one end of some sheet metal to your bumper, leaving the other end to scrape along the ground. Should generate the required NYAAAUUUGGHHH sound wherever you go.

You might be able to tune the radio to an AM frequency that picks up the engine interference.

Stick an elephant in the back

get a hole drilled in your tailpipe
- The whistles go wooooooooo
  
  WOO WOO!

It'd be all through intake, not exhaust. That's where you get all the sucky whoosh noises sound from. Anything from the exhaust will be too explosive. Effectively, harnessing the sound of air being dragged into the engine for combustion, not being banged out.
The original sound was inspired by the sirens attached to Stukas in WW2, the siren wailing as the plane dove and air rushed through. These were added simply to terrify people.
However, there is rotaries. Adding rotary blocks to a rotary engine will make a much smoother scream sound, like the V10s and V12s of earlier Formula 1 cars. Though, it will be lacking that open air sound. Maybe with the right exhaust and intake, a tone could be achieved.
If you went EV, electric motors are high-pitched unless very large. You could combine this sound with air vents—catching air like the Stukas' dive bomb air sirens—to get something similar, however, the air vents will be dependent on making noise with constant speed, disassociated with the engine. The TIE fighter also has no electric noise, it's all terrifying roar...well, whatever the inhaling version of a roar is.

Play slowed down African elephant noises on the stereo as you drive on wet roads.
https://www.popularmechanics.com/culture/movies/news/g2486/how-6-of-star-wars-iconic-sounds-were-conceived/

Get yourself a Stuka Siren and modify it until the pitch is right.

You mean like this guy?

40000 rpm wenkel engine with a muffler.

Could you get a couple whistles at 'come online' at various speeds?
You might need some funnels to concentrate the air, but if you might be able to tune it so it works in the lower speed, 0-30 range.
Otherwise, if you can could also get a Raspy and a gyroscope to play them as recordings when certain tilt requirements are met.

64 comments