The right audio volume

[Tabaqui]

Hi all!

I'm having trouble finding the right sound and music volume when composing/converting audio for my game. Sometimes the resulting volume is too high or too weak.

Are you guys using some particular trick to find out the right value for your sound and music volume?

Thank you in advance

[GVovkiv]

Hi all!

I'm having trouble finding the right sound and music volume when composing/converting audio for my game. Sometimes the resulting volume is too high or too weak.

Are you guys using some particular trick to find out the right value for your sound and music volume?

Thank you in advance

ears?
I just listen to sound and if it too loud, then i lower volume, if it to quiet then raise volume.

[BrotSagtMist]

I ran everything through the audacity normalizer first.

[Tabaqui]

ears?
I just listen to sound and if it too loud, then i lower volume, if it to quiet then raise volume.

That's what i'm doing at the moment but i'm not very consistent with it, so sometimes an audio track's volume will result different from other tracks.

I ran everything through the audacity normalizer first.

Thank you, i'll give it a try!

[MrFariator]

I personally boost every sound effect to maximum in Audacity, before they'd start "clipping". Then, for each sound effect and music track, I define the desired volume level in-code on a 0-1 scale. Additionally, music generally plays at lower volume than sfx (10~20% lower), so that effects do not get drowned. Unless player themselves changes the audio levels via settings, of course.

Code: Select all

-- from sfx.lua
-- player movement
jump = {
  file = "ft/ft-jump.wav",
  volume = 0.5
},
jump_from_hookshot = {
  file = "ft/ft-jump-from-hookshot.wav",
  volume = 0.5
},
jump_land = {
  file = "ft/ft-jump-land.wav",
  volume = 0.55
},
slide = {
  file = "ft/ft-slide.wav",
  volume = 0.45
},
sprint_start = {
  file = "ft/ft-sprint-start.wav",
  volume = 0.45
},
footstep = {
  file   = "ft/ft-footstep-sprint.wav",
  volume = 0.55,
},
ledge_grab = {
  file    = "ledge_grab.wav",
  volume  = 0.55,
},

As such, the formula for a sound effect when played back is basically

Code: Select all

local vol = soundEffectIndividualVolume * generalSfxVolume * masterVolume -- on a scale of 0-1

There's only a finite amount of sound effects I'll need, so doing this sort of fine-tuning by hand isn't too bad. I generally have my friend give suggestions on when to boost or lower a certain sound, too, so to maintain a balance.