{"id":22192,"date":"2022-05-13T15:46:04","date_gmt":"2022-05-13T19:46:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/autosector.com\/?p=22192"},"modified":"2022-05-13T15:46:04","modified_gmt":"2022-05-13T19:46:04","slug":"bmw-iconicsounds-is-one-of-the-brands-coolest-features-ever","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/?p=22192","title":{"rendered":"BMW IconicSounds is One of the Brand’s Coolest Features Ever"},"content":{"rendered":"

Car companies are beginning to get more and more creative when it comes to the fake noises used inside the cabins of their EVs. Because EVs make no inherent powertrain noise, they\u2019re often unexciting to drive quickly, as there\u2019s almost no visceral connection to the car; no vibration from an engine, nor any noise. To create a more interesting, engaging noise, BMW turned to Hans Zimmer<\/a> to create the IconicSounds Electric system and, after using it in the BMW i4 M50, I can personally say it\u2019s awesome.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m currently in the middle of my week-long test of the BMW i4 M50<\/a> and the Hans Zimmer-created acceleration noises are my favorite part about the car so far. Not only does the Iconic Sounds system work well, it\u2019s one of the coolest features I\u2019ve ever used in a BMW.<\/p>\n

The system can be turned on or off through the drive select modes and it changes based on the driving mode you\u2019re in. In Comfort and Eco Pro, it\u2019s noticeable but quiet. In Sport mode, however, it\u2019s loud and in your face, reacting to every bit of powertrain input there is, both throttle and regenerative braking. But it\u2019s not just an acceleration noise and a braking noise, it\u2019s more complex than that.<\/p>\n

When you\u2019re on throttle, it perfectly reacts to the amount of throttle input you\u2019re giving it. Zimmer and the rest of the team at BMW must have worked incredibly hard to make the sounds match driver input exactly, because a driver can adjust their throttle\/braking inputs constantly. So to match that, without sounding synthetic is immensely impressive.<\/p>\n

Of course, it you know it\u2019s synthetic noise; obviously the car isn\u2019t making those noises on its own. However, because the noises are so meticulously engineered, and respond so well to inputs, they sound perfectly in sync with what the car is doing and sort of feel real. The best way I can describe it is that it sounds like you\u2019re driving an alien spaceship in a big-budget sci-fi movie.<\/p>\n

Also, because those noises don\u2019t exist in the real world, and these sorts of systems are so new, you sort of just accept the way they sound. When you watch Star Wars, you don\u2019t question why TIE Fighters sound the way they do, they just sound awesome and that\u2019s that. It\u2019s the same with BMW IconicSounds. The sounds that come from driving the car are so alien, but also so cool, that it doesn\u2019t matter how synthetic they are, they\u2019re just plain fun. I\u2019ve been taking my four-year-old son for rides in the car just to show him the noises and he loves them.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s really the main takeaway \u2014 it\u2019s fun. Similar to when you drive an Audi R8 V10 or a Porsche 911 GT3, and you ring the engine out just to hear the noise, I\u2019ve found myself stabbing the throttle in the BMW i4 M50, just to hear the spacecraft-like noises. It\u2019s hilarious, absurd, and almost hard to believe that an automaker \u2014 especially one as stiff as BMW \u2014 would put those noises in an car. But that\u2019s what makes it so fun, it brings a sense of child-like silliness to driving the i4 M50 that even some of BMW\u2019s best internal combustion cars can\u2019t match.<\/p>\n

Plus, most of its internal combustion cars rely on speaker augmentation to make their engines sound better anyway. If I\u2019m being honest, I think the i4 M50\u2019s noises are cooler than most speaker-enhanced engine noises from BMW, because at least it\u2019s honest about it.<\/p>\n

There are many great aspects of the BMW i4 M50; it\u2019s bonkers fast, handles well, and has a big trunk, to name just a few. However, so far, the highlight has been the hilarious, sci-fi-inspired Hans Zimmer noises.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Car companies are beginning to get more and more creative when it comes to the fake noises used inside the cabins of their EVs. Because EVs make no inherent powertrain noise, they\u2019re often unexciting to drive quickly, as there\u2019s almost no visceral connection to the car; no vibration from an engine, nor any noise. To […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":22193,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22192","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-industry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22192","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=22192"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22192\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/22193"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=22192"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=22192"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=22192"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}