Postby kingbeandip » Fri May 19, 2017 10:27 pm
I am a music person, and at first I really loved the sound of the Rogue, but it started to wear on me pretty quickly, and today it forced me to turn off the music because of the dissonance. After turning off the music I realized that the dissonance is in the engine sound itself.
When I listen carefully, the engine sound has four (sort-of) independent sounds. The quietest is a low sputtering rumble that you can hear from time to time, which I like. There is a medium-pitched whine that sort of drones in the background, but is still fairly quiet. On top are what sounds like two high-pitched F-1 sounds, which have small rapid fluctuations in pitch. Together, these high pitched sounds sound sort of like two (or maybe one and a half) F-1 cars together, but they clash with each other constantly, and they also clash with the medium-pitched drone. They are also loud and high enough to drown out everything else, and when there are other Rogues nearby, the two cars can often clash horribly. I recommend simplifying the high whine if possible to get a cleaner sound, lowering the pitch a little to reduce the dissonance and to make the car stand out a little less (dissonance is easier to hear at higher frequencies), and making the high whine much quieter until it is just an overtone for the engine, making the medium-pitched drone more prominent and possibly offsetting it from the high whine by some number of octaves (or some similarly consonant interval like a perfect fifth; this might reduce the dissonance) and making the low-pitch gurgle a bit louder. In short, I think the sound is too high-pitched and complex to sound good, and I don't think it has to sound so much like an F-1 car to still be reminiscent of one. Also, F-1 car sounds are distinct because of their high whine, but they still have a fair amount of base and medium tones.
I hope my ears haven't fooled me, because otherwise this post could amount to nothing. Also, I've been too lazy to record a sound file and analyze it, but I probably could if anyone really wants me to...