Active Sound Design to Meet Vehicle Brand Sound and Minimum Noise Safety Targets

Active sound design is a methodology to improve the driver’s experience by giving acoustic feedback on the vehicle’s performance and ensuring the safety of other road users by emitting exterior warning sounds.

Low emission and autonomous strategies have changed NVH and the acoustic landscape. Take a look at the advancements in the area of vehicle acoustics and the science behind building quieter cars.

The Simcenter active sound design solution describes the engineering process for the vehicle or engine sound enhancement. It adds meaningful sounds to the vehicle – both inside and out - that meet both brand sound and engineering targets.

Technological solutions for vehicle and engine sound enhancements

New innovative methods in NVH engineering enables engineers to build and evaluate virtual vehicle assemblies long before physical prototypes exist. But assessing sounds on a virtual vehicle has its limits. Additionally, many measures that reduce noise sources require expensive trim material and add overall weight to the vehicle.

Active sound design can be used for engine sound enhancement to compensate for the lack of acoustic feedback and increase driving pleasure. Secondly, new noise sources that have become apparent can be partially masked by enhancing the sound and providing the right driving experience. This allows you, for example, to create the perception of driving a sporty car just by playing the right active sound over the speaker system.

How to claim your brand sound signature with active sound design

Built on long-standing NVH engineering experience, the active sound design technology solution lays the foundation for the driving experience of the (near) future.

• End-to-end active sound design – several techniques for different types of vehicles
• Typical applications:
  • Exterior warning sounds to comply with legislation for pass-by noise
  • Downsized engines and interior engine sound enhancement
  • Electrified powertrains and sample-based sound design
• The process of implementing active sound design for interior sound enhancement

Download the white paper now and claim your brand sound signature.

Active noise cancellation technology – improve in-cabin vehicle acoustics

Active noise cancellation (ANC) is another technological approach to improve in-cabin comfort by reducing the perceived level of powertrain and road noise. After all, the sound of next-generation vehicles will no longer be dominated by the powertrain but largely influenced by road and wind noise. Active sound design and ANC technology typically run in parallel on the same embedded system. Therefore, manufacturers can simultaneously reduce the perception of in-cabin noise while enhancing the acoustic feedback to the driver on the vehicle dynamics.

This white paper explores how active noise cancellation can help conventional and all-electric automakers reduce unwanted noise sources and improve overall vehicle acoustics and the driver experience, as well as how this can be adopted and implemented in the vehicle. Advanced active noise cancellation technologies such as the Mentor broadband ANC solution have been designed to precisely tackle the dual problem of canceling engine noise and road noise.