Hey peeps,

Well I work as an audio designer for computer games, and i'm currently working on a car game. I want to add the sound of my beetle into the game, the way I do it is record the car's engine and exhaust at several steady RPM's, both with the clutch engaged and disengaged. I then blend them together.

Question: If I was to jack up the beetle, and pop the rear of the car on axle stands, and block the front wheels. Do you reckon I could safely drive the cars wheels? I could stay out of the car and just use my hands, I guess it would be bad to sit, causing strain on the chassis. Would the car be okay on that sort of angle?

Any other ideas, or warnings?

Heh heh... reminds me of Ferris Bueller's Day Off !!!

CLASSIC movie, and has this great scene where they put a Ferrari up on blocks, chuck it in reverse and fang it to try and "unwind" the odometer reading. Long story short... the car ends up going backwards through a plate glass window down a 30+ foot drop, ending up a steaming heap in the trees below !!!



The way I'd do it, mount the mic of your recording gear and go for a drive... that way you'll get the noise of the tyres on the road as well.



Else, book some dyno time and go nuts.

Haha, I remember that!! I don't want road noise becuase I need to keep this seperate so I can record the tyres on several material types. Plus keeping a steady RPM will be a nightmare!! I'll give it a go then, going to look strange with duct tape all over her hehe!!

Dyno's are too noisy!!!

I've often "driven" my car (several over the years) while on axle stands, if the drive wheels are off the ground the car can't move regardless of how hard you rev it, but be very carefull about other people around the car especialy children as the wheels will be turning, also make sure the wheels are a good measure off the floor, at least 25mm I'd say, just to be sure. As you say, block the front wheels just to make sure.

just get a gopro camera.
they stick them anywhere and go for a drive

http://gopro.com/videos/auto/ 

Hey, the go pro's are cool but the audio quality is a bit low for what i'll be doing, I've got a nice audio recorder and some good mics which I'll be mounting if driving, or just using mic stands if I go down the axle stand route. Going to go for a drive now and see what I can do with my portable recorder as a test.

they sound heaps better before you change it so you can load on youtube.
you can buy a plug in mic and then place the mic anywhere.

Quote:

Originally posted by dannyarmstrong Hey peeps, Well I work as an audio designer for computer games, and i'm currently working on a car game. I want to add the sound of my beetle into the game, the way I do it is record the car's engine and exhaust at several steady RPM's, both with the clutch engaged and disengaged. I then blend them together. Question: If I was to jack up the beetle, and pop the rear of the car on axle stands, and block the front wheels. Do you reckon I could safely drive the cars wheels? I could stay out of the car and just use my hands, I guess it would be bad to sit, causing strain on the chassis. Would the car be okay on that sort of angle? Any other ideas, or warnings?

Be careful that when the rear wheels turn that the car does not bounce.

If a wheel is badly out of balance, you may not notice it when driving, but if it is too bad, then the car could set up a bounce and if you then get sympathetic vibration the ultimate nightmare of the car bouncing off the stands might occur.

Just be extra careful, with you in the car and your foot poised over the barke pedal as you test for bounce.

Bounce. Get the wheels balanced.

No bounce. Go for it.

And, just in case things go pear shaped, make sure the car is facing out of the garage in case it does fall off the stands.

Yogie

On stands, wheels 50mm off the ground, chock front wheels in front and behind, forward gears, facing towards a safe place, sit in car, squeeze throttle to obtain rev required, dont stab the pedal. They have been servicing thousands of cars at our work that way, and never had an incident. Being in the car is important, as it will be the assurance that you can be in control if it goes wrong.

Many thanks guys, I did a test run and it worked out fine, and I will be recording these in the next week or so, need to get a few other types of cars together first, god my A3 sounds boring hehe, I will post my recordings soon!!

what if you went on youtube and find a video with a vw on the dyno and extract the noise of that ??

or even put on a car hoist if your friends with a machanic