Flight simulator graphics have become increasingly sophisticated since the games first started cropping up in the 1980s—but the audio is still catching up. That’s where the F-16’s ‘voice’ comes in.
F-16 Fighting Falcons from the New Jersey Air National Guard will be lending their ‘voice’ to the popular Microsoft Flight Simulator (MSFS) video game series.
Tyler Bolhuis, who runs Echo 19 Audio Productions, spent a day with the 177th Fighter Wing, last February, recording the Atlantic City, New Jersey-based F-16s. Soon, the recordings will be enshrined within the code of MSFS.
“The audio will feature in an upcoming module for the 2024 and 2020 editions of Microsoft Flight Simulator,” Air & Space Forces Magazine reported.
Now Everyone Can Listen to the F-16’s ‘Voice’
Bolhuis recorded a wide range of sounds from the Fighting Falcon: cockpit switches and buttons, the aircraft’s battery turning on, the canopy opening and closing, the engine start-up—of course—and even the aircraft flying at low altitude. The idea was to give virtual pilots an immersive sensory experience flying, in this case, the F-16—an experience that Bolhuis feels has often lacked a proper audio component.
“Even at a young age, I was like, ‘this just doesn’t sound right,’ which was frustrating,” said Bolhuis, who has also made high-quality sound effects for military games like Arma and Digital Combat Simulator. “Flight simulation audio is a very niche business, but it’s worked out well so far. The graphics look so good in modern-day video games, but sound really drives emotion.”
Bolhuis is correct about the graphics, which have become increasingly sophisticated since flight simulators first started cropping up in the 1980s. MSFS, long a leader in the industry, has come a long way itself, from the pixelated imagery of the 1990s to the Google Earth-enabled scenery of modern simulators—which relies upon satellites to produce true fidelity landscapes.
But the audio is still catching up. That’s where Bolhuis comes in; Bolhuis has recorded sound for the F/A-18, F-35, C-17, P-51, a variety of civilian fixed- and rotary-wing aircraft, and now the F-16.
No Taxpayer Money Was Wasted on the F-16 Recording Session
Each recording session requires special planning. To record the F-16s, for example, Bolhuis planned his visit to sync with planned maintenance and practice flights so that the taxpayer wouldn’t be stuck with the bill for a video game recording session.
And then there’s the recording equipment. “You could capture those sound [engine] sounds on your iPhone, but it’s going to sound a lot different compared to a $1,000 or $1,500 microphone designed to pick up specific frequencies,” Bolhuis said.
Bolhuis noted that it “becomes really important to know the aircraft that you’re recording,” because, with the F-16, different engines have different sounds. For instance, “the F-16’s General Electric engine has a slightly different tone while sitting idle or ramping up RPMs compared to the Pratt & Whitney F-16 engine.”
“We spend a lot of time researching and talking with the developers about the unique features of the aircraft,” Bolhuis said. “We essentially create layers so that we can create a mix of certain sounds and frequencies that we want to highlight…It’s cool to be able to give these iconic planes the sounds that they truly deserve.”
About the Author: Harrison Kass
Harrison Kass is a senior defense and national security writer with over 1,000 total pieces on issues involving global affairs. An attorney, pilot, guitarist, and minor pro hockey player, Harrison joined the U.S. Air Force as a Pilot Trainee but was medically discharged. Harrison holds a BA from Lake Forest College, a JD from the University of Oregon, and an MA from New York University. Harrison listens to Dokken.
Image: Shutterstock / GP PIXSTOCK.
