En guise de post scriptum

Je regrette de ne pas avoir disposé, en rédigeant mon article pour les Cahiers, de ceci, lu dans un article du New York Times publié par le Figaro : BMW a mis en vente un nouveau modèle de très haut de gamme dont l'insonorisation est tellement bonne que l'on n'entend pas du tout le moteur dans l'habitacle. Voilà qui n'est guère compatible avec le désir des propriétaires de ces engins de jouir du feulement de leur puissante mécanique. C'est pourquoi le constructeur a implanté une sonorisation reliée à un ordinateur qui produit et diffuse un bruit de moteur, artificiellement fabriqué donc mais de façon à suivre fidèlement le mode de conduite du pilote, les montées en régime, etc. N'est-ce pas magnifique ?

Je n'ai pas trouvé en ligne la traduction française publiée par Le Figaro. Voici l'original :


January 25, 2012

Warning: The Next Sound You Hear Will Not Be Your Engine
By SERGE SCHMEMANN

When you pay $100,000 for a red-hot BMW M5, you expect the twin-turbo V8 to emit a mighty song. Those who drive this superbrutal version of the midsize BMW are not generally in search of silence. And a nudge on the accelerator fills the cabin with a richly satisfying ascent from low rumble to high scream. But it’s a recording, a virtual roar.
I was stunned when I first learned in the December issue of Automobile magazine that the sound you hear inside a 2013 M5 will be coming from its speakers, and, to judge by subsequent letters and Web chatter, I am not alone. “I don’t believe it! A car that lip-synchs!” moaned one correspondent.
The sound doesn’t even come from a microphone in the engine compartment, which would make some perverse sense, but from a digital recording: “a discreet soundtrack in keeping with the harmonious and assured characteristics of the V8 power plant,” BMW explains in its literature. Stomping on the gas pedal, the Bavarians continue, “prompts an immediate audible response to match the instantaneous — and typically M — burst of power from beneath the bonnet.” They call it Active Sound Design.
I tried to put this in perspective. We all know that much of what we hear in life is not really so. Canned laughter and “sweetened” applause have been TV staples for decades, and all the slamming doors, breaking glass and squealing tires you hear in movies are sound effects. (I always notice when they have tires squealing on dirt roads.)
Natalie Wood doesn’t actually sing “I Feel Pretty” in “West Side Story.” When recording artists go flat, electronics get them back on tune, and Broadway theaters use wireless mics. Our daily life is filled with electronic pianos, ring tones, the disembodied voice giving you your bank balance over the telephone. Even silence can be electronic, courtesy of sound-canceling headphones.
I remember visiting the East-West German border at the Fulda Gap before the Wall came down. That was where the Soviet tanks were supposed to come rushing in at the outbreak of World War III, and the guards on both sides put on a great show of preparedness. I was on the West German side. And from the East, I kept hearing roosters crowing and dogs barking.
After a while, I realized that it was the same crowing and barking at intervals. It was a recording. The East German side was a no-man’s land, and the intention was apparently to make visitors believe all was well over there.
Of course, the BMW’s engine recording is really what you would hear if the car did not have extraordinary sound insulation.
And I can appreciate BMW’s quandary. Buyers of powerful cars place a high premium on the “exhaust note,” and manufacturers spend a lot of money getting it right. At the same time, high-end cars are expected to filter out the sounds of the mundane world. BMW might further argue that electronics are taking over many other functions. Stability control that helps control a car during a skid. Screens that mimic mechanical speedometers.
So why is Active Sound Design so surprising? For one thing, the electronic driving aids and displays make no pretense about what they’re doing. Recorded engine sounds, however, are a deliberate deception. They’re like going to a concert and listening to a recording. On the other hand, I wouldn’t mind buying a BMW recording and installing it in my ’96 Jeep Cherokee.

Absolument dément ou "Wahnsinn" comme on dit ici !