It was a long time ago since I played LFS, 4-5months or so, but now I wanted to have some fun and installed the latest version.
But to my HUGE disappointment all cars now sound like some kind of vacuum cleaners! I really loved the raw clean sound of the LX6 and Formula V8 for example, but now the experience is totally ruined. :/
There is also a lot of "room echo/feedback", setting "echo" to 0, does not remove this.
It sounds just as bad as any other "racing game" out there, with some kind of pitch variated sampled sound, with a blanked on it to attenuate high frequencies.

Is there any way to get the "old" sound back without downgrading to an earlier version?

The vacuum sound you are referring, is the transmission whine. Altough I am not sure if it is 100% correct, it's generated on the fly and real life has it too.

Just keep playing. It doesn't take long to get used to the new sound of LFS.

Or try tweaking the sounds yourself. I recommend DaveWS's soundpack too.

Have a look at DaveWS's sound pack:
http://www.lfsforum.net/showthread.php?t=19179

It's the best!

Find DaveWS's soundpack (not CSR) for it, and you'll make yourself happy again!

Edit: too slow, I'm losing it!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1q8ZNkhxT04

Loudest gearwhine ever

sweet ass video. I just had my headset on scared me poopless =3

Quote from ACCAkut :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1q8ZNkhxT04

Loudest gearwhine ever

Nee, Du spinnst! Everyone knows to post the Rolf van Os video!

EDIT: WARNING: VIDEO MAY CAUSE EARS TO BLEED!

Quote from wark :

Nee, Du spinnst! Everyone knows to post the Rolf van Os video!

Does this car even have an engine? I don't hear it.

PS: Watched it, now my ears bleed

No, it is not the transmission whine. That is OK. What I don't like is the total lack of personality. In previous versions the LX6 sounded so great I could just stand still and rev the engine for fun.

Quote from geeman1 :

The vacuum sound you are referring, is the transmission whine. Altough I am not sure if it is 100% correct, it's generated on the fly and real life has it too.

I have tried Dave's Soundpack, and indeed it is better. But there is a huge amount of reverb, it sounds like the car is placed inside a huge metallic can or something.

Turn down echo boost in audio options. IIRC Dave uses the minimum setting.

Quote from wark :

Nee, Du spinnst! Everyone knows to post the Rolf van Os video!

EDIT: WARNING: VIDEO MAY CAUSE EARS TO BLEED!

Ha ha, quality I've seen this before, but it still blows my mind, he must have the mother of all ear plugs to live inside that car, awesome driving too, but he obviously has a car thats soooooooo far beyond anything else in the field that it makes it effortless to pass!!

yes sounds suck in lfs, they wont get any money from s3 until they prove to me they are going somewhere

Quote from seinfeld :

yes sounds suck in lfs, they wont get any money from s3 until they prove to me they are going somewhere

Could be worse - they could sound like nKP or rF or GTR, and make you cry in your sleep when the samples merge or the bees attack.
Have you tried the new sound engine and DaveWS's sound pack? If not, then shut up. If yes, then get a hearing test

Quote from tristancliffe :

.....Have you tried the new sound engine and DaveWS's sound pack? If not, then shut up. If yes, then get a hearing test

I've watched your developement over the years and I have to say you're coming along nicely

Quote from tristancliffe :

Could be worse - they could sound like nKP or rF or GTR, and make you cry in your sleep when the samples merge or the bees attack.
Have you tried the new sound engine and DaveWS's sound pack? If not, then shut up. If yes, then get a hearing test

yea i use daves sound pack, thats as good as it can get until the lfs sound engine is updated, like being able to make induction, engine and exhaust sounds seperatly ect , it would be sooo sexy to have nice quad throttle bodies and nicer turbo spooling ect with a sound engine like that would be capable of using real life engines for sampling
but yeah csr csl or whatever it was called was alright, then dave came and smashed em, he should be on the dev team its seriously that good

Quote from seinfeld :

until the lfs sound engine is updated, like being able to make induction, engine and exhaust sounds seperatly

It doesn't? :magnify:

Quote from tristancliffe :

Could be worse - they could sound like nKP or rF or GTR, and make you cry in your sleep when the samples merge or the bees attack.

Ha..ha..ha...you're too funny. So, exactly what vacuum cleaner were they trying to emulate? Electrolux or Hoover?

Quote from Pain-less :

Ha..ha..ha...you're too funny. So, exactly what vacuum cleaner were they trying to emulate? Electrolux or Hoover?

Depends whether the said car has a turbo engine or not

EDIT: and I still moan a bit about the sounds. I very much disliked how the sounds were just thrown out in the V patch. There was certainly some hurry to get something released for christmas. But leaving the only good thing out from the official release (the sound editor) was imho a very bad choise, especially if you look at how bad and unrealistic the released sounds were. How the previous sounds were realistic if the new sounds sound totally different? What's the realistic part? The often heard phrase that the sound engine is 100% real time with real time generated sounds (=no samples at all in the engine sounds) was just forgotten at the time when the truth was "found out". LFS isn't so different at all from the other sims, but certainly it must have the best sounds, no matter if they actually sound very bad. :doh:

And the sounds still have the same flaws as they have always had. Even if they were massively updated! Oh, but they just a bit weak

All in all the patch was imho good (knock wood) but the sound "update" was never good enough to be released.[/rant][/moan]{return=0}[nub!=false}

Quote from Markz :

Random... But I hate how some of the cars sound just plain "congested" or whatever, like they're being held back... Really don't know how to describe it.

Muffled. And it is the main complaint about the sounds as they are now. The sounds definitely should not be muffled when we get proper stripped down interiors for the race spec cars. I'm not an open wheeler fan. Are the sounds muffled in those as well?

Though DaveWS's sounds are fantastic, they just don't fix what needs fixing in the sounds. I still use CSR as well as DaveWS's sounds to give me the best of both worlds. In fact, I guess I could just say I use DaveWS's sounds since it's his CSR sounds I'm using as well.