Sim racers are all different, and our poll on what they listen to when in the rig showed that again: Engine notes top music notes for most of our community - but there were also a few surprises.
Most of us, at one point, have probably attempted to distract ourselves from the monotony of motorway driving by turning on the radio. Whether it is listening to Born To Be Wild by Steppenwolf, Radar Love by Golden Earring or Ace of Spades by Motörhead, it can just reinvigorate anyone who is bored of the open road, turning any journey in a eurobox into something resembling Vanishing Point or Bullitt.
With sim racing though, you are not restricted to your Opel Corsa and the M62. You can drive a bellowing V12 beast on the Nordschleife if you so want, so do you drive with more than just that sweet engine music and other people like your fellow drivers in your ear? Instead you put on actual music or maybe even have some people talking as part of a podcast?
That is what we asked recently, and the results surprised us a bit. So let's run through what the community question article's results were.
It may or may not be beneficial to us on the open road, but a race track is a whole other assault on the senses that can be compromised by the playing of aggressive or even relaxing music. It is why many people go into the sound settings of certain racing games with music on by default to switch it off, Gran Turismo for example which for GT7 even added a game mode centred all around driving to the music.
Nevertheless, there was still a bit more variety than many of us expected. With 16.5% of the vote, there are people who do listen to music when sim racing. Maybe for some of the longer haul races driving around on your own, it is somewhat understandable. Then with the remaining total of the votes, 'Sometimes' was not that much more at 18.6%.
Along with that, there were some interesting reasons provided by many of our community members.
But much like on the open road, a free roam drive is always nicely accompanied with music. Although in the case of our own @Rene / GRunner, late night stints in 24-hour races where the main aim is just to keep the car in the race whilst your teammates sleep, some music could help there.
User @Kulibob even went as far to claim that they listen to podcasts. Considering how different podcasts are to consume than music as they have to be actively and not passively consumed, it must be quite the task when in a close-quarters battle. Maybe not as much when driving casually in a free roam setting - or maybe it is just calming
In a further comment, Kulibob explains:
"(in) league races I sometimes put my podcasts on to actually protect me from overconcentration. I pause it when I’m in door-to-door battles (can reach keyboard easily from the wheel), but when I’m alone on the road, it helps me relax. When I don’t have it on, I tend to “overconcentrate” when I start overthinking every corner entry and that makes me slower, or I start to hypnotize the gap to car ahead, usually following with a crash. So podcasts help me cool down, drive not fast, but helping with stable times. And I actually know what they talked about!"
Certainly an interesting method to increase consistency in longer races - and maybe one to try just to see if it helps! Additionally, the OverTake RoamFree playlist on Spotify might also be worth a shot for a relaxed vibe.
What is your go-to song to get you in the mood for some driving? Let us know in the forum thread and in the comments below!
Most of us, at one point, have probably attempted to distract ourselves from the monotony of motorway driving by turning on the radio. Whether it is listening to Born To Be Wild by Steppenwolf, Radar Love by Golden Earring or Ace of Spades by Motörhead, it can just reinvigorate anyone who is bored of the open road, turning any journey in a eurobox into something resembling Vanishing Point or Bullitt.
With sim racing though, you are not restricted to your Opel Corsa and the M62. You can drive a bellowing V12 beast on the Nordschleife if you so want, so do you drive with more than just that sweet engine music and other people like your fellow drivers in your ear? Instead you put on actual music or maybe even have some people talking as part of a podcast?
That is what we asked recently, and the results surprised us a bit. So let's run through what the community question article's results were.
The Unsurprising Majority
With a sizeable margin over the other options given of over 100 extra votes and 65% of the total, not having any external audio is considerably the most popular selection. Not difficult to understand why, with the ability to pick a very nice sounding engine and enjoying those sweet notes. Plus there are many studies that have been conducted that prove the effect music has on those driving.It may or may not be beneficial to us on the open road, but a race track is a whole other assault on the senses that can be compromised by the playing of aggressive or even relaxing music. It is why many people go into the sound settings of certain racing games with music on by default to switch it off, Gran Turismo for example which for GT7 even added a game mode centred all around driving to the music.
Nevertheless, there was still a bit more variety than many of us expected. With 16.5% of the vote, there are people who do listen to music when sim racing. Maybe for some of the longer haul races driving around on your own, it is somewhat understandable. Then with the remaining total of the votes, 'Sometimes' was not that much more at 18.6%.
Along with that, there were some interesting reasons provided by many of our community members.
Conditions Varying
It would appear from the majority in the comments on our initial article that it purely depends on the type of driving they are doing. For the laser-focused attacking of the track where you need to be on the limit the majority of the time, music is off.But much like on the open road, a free roam drive is always nicely accompanied with music. Although in the case of our own @Rene / GRunner, late night stints in 24-hour races where the main aim is just to keep the car in the race whilst your teammates sleep, some music could help there.
User @Kulibob even went as far to claim that they listen to podcasts. Considering how different podcasts are to consume than music as they have to be actively and not passively consumed, it must be quite the task when in a close-quarters battle. Maybe not as much when driving casually in a free roam setting - or maybe it is just calming
In a further comment, Kulibob explains:
"(in) league races I sometimes put my podcasts on to actually protect me from overconcentration. I pause it when I’m in door-to-door battles (can reach keyboard easily from the wheel), but when I’m alone on the road, it helps me relax. When I don’t have it on, I tend to “overconcentrate” when I start overthinking every corner entry and that makes me slower, or I start to hypnotize the gap to car ahead, usually following with a crash. So podcasts help me cool down, drive not fast, but helping with stable times. And I actually know what they talked about!"
Certainly an interesting method to increase consistency in longer races - and maybe one to try just to see if it helps! Additionally, the OverTake RoamFree playlist on Spotify might also be worth a shot for a relaxed vibe.
What is your go-to song to get you in the mood for some driving? Let us know in the forum thread and in the comments below!
