Quote from Scawen :

I've added an experimental option to prevent clipping. It uses a small function on the output waveform to map 0...infinity to 0...1
So:
- it doesn't clip, regardless of how excessive the sound is or how many cars
- it is quieter, so you'll need to turn up the volume
- it is always distorted to some extent

I don't know how bad this distortion is.

I tried with many mods and many of my engine sounds and didn’t make much of difference.

At minimal just when it start to clip the distortion was not as bad but, still not enough to say it has helped.

It makes some difference at least with the P166 - the sound is noticeably quieter with the option on:

Yeah, as Flame points out, it makes a pretty big difference, so I hope you did switch on the option!

I got concerned that while in the engine sound editor, if anti-clip is enabled, then there is an issue that the person editing the sound can't tell if the sound will clip (because it will never clip). So that might influence the way they edit the sound.

So I think I should always disable anti-clip while you are in the engine sound editor.

Quote from Scawen :

Yeah, as Flame points out, it makes a pretty big difference, so I hope you did switch on the option!

I got concerned that while in the engine sound editor, if anti-clip is enabled, then there is an issue that the person editing the sound can't tell if the sound will clip (because it will never clip). So that might influence the way they edit the sound.

So I think I should always disable anti-clip while you are in the engine sound editor.

Not going to lie of course I did not switch it on 🤣,(how stupid of me) but the sound is still too loud and it sounds distorted in the video.

I will note I did Send Jake_Blasted a new sound for his P166 mod that doesn’t clip or sound distorted, it’s up to him when he wants to upload it.

I will do more testing in couple of hours and get back to you with more accurate info.

Edit: P166 original sound has “exhaust pulse tone” it’s higher then lowest setting, I’ve noticed moving that up will make any sound distorted.

Quote from Scawen :

... it makes a pretty big difference ...

My concern is that it seems to make the loudness on the power closer to loudness on the over run (once I've compensated with the volume knob), which is less realistic ...

Its a bug bear of mine in race sims that the loudness doesn't vary enough. I know this is difficult to achieve but LFS has always been always quite good. Obviously IRL engines are quieter when not burning fuel and race engines massively so .

I've long thought that loudness should be more closely linked to power and maybe torque (via some clever maths) but I suppose that's another discussion.

I think the sound of the engines/exhausts in LFS is lacking the lower spectrum of frequencies.
Can we add more 'bass'?

Do people often change the input wav?

I remember in early days of testing we used a champagne cork sound that worked quite well.

You can save or load the input wav (to engine folder) by clicking the S/L button near the top of the engine sound editor.

I wonder how much that wav affects the output sound. I guess the champagne pop sound worked well as it had a good range of frequencies in the short sample.

Quote from Scawen :

Do people often change the input wav?

I remember in early days of testing we used a champagne cork sound that worked quite well.

You can save or load the input wav (to engine folder) by clicking the S/L button near the top of the engine sound editor.

I wonder how much that wav affects the output sound. I guess the champagne pop sound worked well as it had a good range of frequencies in the short sample.

I dont know if people change it much, but from the little bit of screwing around I have done, the engine wav makes a LOT of difference

I have tried to record and use wavs before but it is difficult to get one bang without any other noise. Also if there is any echo it causes issues. I like the concept though and hope it can be refined.

The biggest issue I've found with editing .eng is not the inability to recreate an exhaust note or engine tone but just the depth of volume without engaging any clipping.

So in general LFS use I would always balance a .eng to something my ears could handle superficially but also ones that don't clip otherwise in races your ears get destroyed and if the .eng clips it can totally white out all sound when you're nearby another car that's also clipping