csgill75
Well-known member
Making custom engine and motor sounds is not hard to do at all but it is hard to do it right. First you have to find a source for your sound. If you cannot record the sound yourself then Google/YouTube is your friend. I am not going to list my sources however but another thing you can do to find sound files is search for Flight Simulator 2004/FSX freeware aircraft on the internet and there are TONS out there and all of those airplanes have their own sounds. Make sure you have a good range including the idle, the mid-range sound of the engine and the high end full throttle sound and a few seconds of each part.
Creating the sound file from a single .wav
OK, so you have your sound file of the engine you want to create that you recorded or got from a video. You first need to ensure that that it has all the pieces that you need (idle, mid and full power). The program I use is Audacity. Available at http://audacity.sourceforge.net/ . It is a free program and allows you cut different sections out of a single file and that is what you have to do, you have to Isolate the Idle from your master file, highlight it and export just that section. The same for the mid-range and High end. This is something that you can only learn with practice and by ear but once you learn how it’s not difficult and the program is super easy. Each clip should be around 5 seconds long but that is not in stone as you can use longer or shorter but I don’t recommend anything under 3 seconds as it gets too short when it comes time to speed it up. Now that you are ready to export your clip you need to save it in a folder as a .oog file format. The Idle needs to be named the RPM number of your engine you are going to use. I use 1600 as my Idle RPM’s for most of my engines so I name the first sound of my engine idle 1600.oog. Next thing you want to do is make it a little faster so that you have a sound that is a little faster just off idle. The way to do this is to add a effect in the program and change speed. I usually go 500RPM increments and use a 10% change in speed. It can be up to you though. I would do this 1 or 2 times before I got to the mid-range sound file. I would do it a few times between the Mid and the high power file as well, Just add 10% speed to the file and export with the RPM # it represents. With the Audacity program you can import more than one sound file at a time so you can mix them, change their volume etc. this is helpful when you are doing a transition between idle and mid-range that way it blends together. You don’t have to do every RPM as Realflight will speed up and slow down the files that you have to blend them together as well but if you want good control of your sound effect, I recommend a file every 500RPM so Realflight doesn’t do something you don’t want with your engine file and go up to the high RPM of your engine. I go to around 7500rpm for piston engines.
Creating a Sound file from a Flight simulator aircraft
Most of the ones I use come from the freeware aircraft available from at least a dozen different websites and some of you that already have Flight simulator programs may already have the files. The ones from the Flight sim usually are of better quality than the video version and have multiple RPM Range files to start with as well as other sounds like supercharger whines, Prop noise, Afterburner sound, etc. You do pretty much the same thing as what you would do with the single file however you don’t have to cut the pieces out of a single file and export as you can just export the .wav to .oog. You still need to ensure a smooth transition by speeding up the sound effect and creating a separate sound every 500 rpm or so. Using the Audacity program you can blend two, three and even four different sounds to get the perfect blend for the transition. If you get a good sound file pack with some quality sounds you may find a supercharger sound or afterburner sound that is a separate .wav (these are nice as you can apply the same effect to different engines if you want).
Importing into Realflight
What you should end up with is a folder with 10-15 different oog files all titled with the rpm number that they represent. The rest is easy all you have to do is Select Simulation>Import>Motor sound profile. Press the Browse button in the box that pops up and select the first .oog of your sound set, (1600.oog is usually my first). The next screen will show you that it found all the other sound files you created and will import those as well as the first one you selected. This screen also lets you name the file so you can find it in the Editor. Once you name the file you will be done importing the sound so all you have to do now is test it in the Sim to see if it works. Don’t be surprised if your first few don’t sound that great, I myself went through about 30 different engine sound profiles before I Got the R-2800 sound set where I wanted it. If made a mistake and want to remove the sound profile from Realflight its listed under the Manage User Files section under the Simulation menu.
Any questions you may have please don’t hesitate to ask.
Creating the sound file from a single .wav
OK, so you have your sound file of the engine you want to create that you recorded or got from a video. You first need to ensure that that it has all the pieces that you need (idle, mid and full power). The program I use is Audacity. Available at http://audacity.sourceforge.net/ . It is a free program and allows you cut different sections out of a single file and that is what you have to do, you have to Isolate the Idle from your master file, highlight it and export just that section. The same for the mid-range and High end. This is something that you can only learn with practice and by ear but once you learn how it’s not difficult and the program is super easy. Each clip should be around 5 seconds long but that is not in stone as you can use longer or shorter but I don’t recommend anything under 3 seconds as it gets too short when it comes time to speed it up. Now that you are ready to export your clip you need to save it in a folder as a .oog file format. The Idle needs to be named the RPM number of your engine you are going to use. I use 1600 as my Idle RPM’s for most of my engines so I name the first sound of my engine idle 1600.oog. Next thing you want to do is make it a little faster so that you have a sound that is a little faster just off idle. The way to do this is to add a effect in the program and change speed. I usually go 500RPM increments and use a 10% change in speed. It can be up to you though. I would do this 1 or 2 times before I got to the mid-range sound file. I would do it a few times between the Mid and the high power file as well, Just add 10% speed to the file and export with the RPM # it represents. With the Audacity program you can import more than one sound file at a time so you can mix them, change their volume etc. this is helpful when you are doing a transition between idle and mid-range that way it blends together. You don’t have to do every RPM as Realflight will speed up and slow down the files that you have to blend them together as well but if you want good control of your sound effect, I recommend a file every 500RPM so Realflight doesn’t do something you don’t want with your engine file and go up to the high RPM of your engine. I go to around 7500rpm for piston engines.
Creating a Sound file from a Flight simulator aircraft
Most of the ones I use come from the freeware aircraft available from at least a dozen different websites and some of you that already have Flight simulator programs may already have the files. The ones from the Flight sim usually are of better quality than the video version and have multiple RPM Range files to start with as well as other sounds like supercharger whines, Prop noise, Afterburner sound, etc. You do pretty much the same thing as what you would do with the single file however you don’t have to cut the pieces out of a single file and export as you can just export the .wav to .oog. You still need to ensure a smooth transition by speeding up the sound effect and creating a separate sound every 500 rpm or so. Using the Audacity program you can blend two, three and even four different sounds to get the perfect blend for the transition. If you get a good sound file pack with some quality sounds you may find a supercharger sound or afterburner sound that is a separate .wav (these are nice as you can apply the same effect to different engines if you want).
Importing into Realflight
What you should end up with is a folder with 10-15 different oog files all titled with the rpm number that they represent. The rest is easy all you have to do is Select Simulation>Import>Motor sound profile. Press the Browse button in the box that pops up and select the first .oog of your sound set, (1600.oog is usually my first). The next screen will show you that it found all the other sound files you created and will import those as well as the first one you selected. This screen also lets you name the file so you can find it in the Editor. Once you name the file you will be done importing the sound so all you have to do now is test it in the Sim to see if it works. Don’t be surprised if your first few don’t sound that great, I myself went through about 30 different engine sound profiles before I Got the R-2800 sound set where I wanted it. If made a mistake and want to remove the sound profile from Realflight its listed under the Manage User Files section under the Simulation menu.
Any questions you may have please don’t hesitate to ask.