Lamborghini has put together three Spotify playlists of choice tracks to celebrate the sounds of its internal combustion engines. The naturally-aspirated V12 and V10, and twin-turbo V8 engines are all immortalized in The Engine Songs, a 24-song playlist curated by music producer Alex Trecarichi working in tandem with Lamborghini’s sound engineers.
Trecarichi used high science to select the tracks by applying the formulas of the Fourier Transform to the music of the engine. The Fourier Transform is a mathematical function that the brain instinctively engages to break down a sound into its infinite subcomponents, and Trecarichi reproduced the brain’s natural ability in the studio using artificial intelligence.
“This procedure enabled me to find the basic frequencies of the engine coinciding with the three precise phases of its expressiveness: ignition (idling), the 4,000-rpm speed, and at maximum power,” says Trecarichi.
The sonic odyssey started with the V12 from the Aventador LP 780-4 Ultimae. Based on audio science, the engine at its lowest revs sings in F-sharp (92.50 Hz), same as “Canone Infinito” by Lorenzo Senni on the playlist. At 4,000 rpm, it tunes to G (98 Hz), a good cruising speed to listen to “Run Away” by Ben Böhmer and, at 8,000 rpm, the V12 rises to G-sharp (103.83 Hz) of Sam Collins’ “We Can All Dance.”
“One of the aspects I pay attention to is the harshness of sound that sets Lamborghini apart,” says Lamborghini sound engineer, Mario Mautone. “It’s that raw, metallic echo which is then embodied in the psychoacoustic experience, the chemical and emotional response to the sound wave that our brains transform into positive emotions and memories. This is why I associate the sound of the V12 with that of a violin: the instrument par excellence of high notes, capable of a crescendo from loudness to sharpness, and quite similar to what is generated by the Lamborghini V12.”
You can check out the Spotify Lamborghini V12 playlist here.
