Solo dev and game audio novice here. I posted a couple of weeks ago about having difficulty balancing sounds in Unity. Unfortunately I lack the budget for Fmod or Wwise. I have made some progress using Unity's inbuilt mixer and it is sounding a lot better.

I just wanted to check if there is anything I could/should be doing better with my mixing. I hope my screenshot paints the picture. I have separated my sound into Music, Dialogue and SFX. I have Music and SFX ducking for Dialogue. I have compression and high and low EQ boost on the SFX and some middle EQ boost for the Music.

https://preview.redd.it/up916mjj3d4e1.png?width=2555&format=png&auto=webp&s=73adc708b3e06e5b348f60d6357b7a7a7f879c0a

A think there might be some things I could do better. Like most stuff when you are first learning I am probably yanking too hard on the levers. One thing I probably should do is split the SFX into Ambient and Active maybe? So I can do different effects on each I am guessing. Any tips from those with more experience?

I’m doing sound design for a racing game, a bit on the retro side but it still needs to sound fairly realistic.

First of all what are your favourite sfx libraries for all kinds of car sounds including collisions etc?

For the car engine sounds are there game engine specific plugins that work directly in Unreal or Wwise?

Thanks in advance

Or do you use VST’s like Krotos Igniter?

Hello everyone,

I’ve purchased a few sound libraries already, but I’d love to experiment with recording my own sounds. However, room treatment isn’t an option for me right now. When recording sounds like metal clunks, door movements, etc., is room treatment as crucial as it is when recording instruments like a guitar?

Should I wait until I can properly treat my room and focus on manipulating library sounds in the meantime? Or is there a way to achieve high-quality recordings with a simple setup that works without treatment?

Thanks a lot for any input

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I can only think of the old CoD games as they would occasionally play some small musical pieces to set the tone in certain maps. Usually there isn't much music for obvious reasons - players need to be able to fully focus on what's going on around them. I was wondering if any game you played in this genre happens to maybe break this rule and if so for what reason, what is gained etc.?

Hi everyone!

I'm working on a new project and looking for high-quality grenade drop, roll, and bounce sounds. Surprisingly, it's been challenging to find something that fits well. Does anyone know of sound libraries that include these effects across different surfaces? I’m aiming for something similar to what you'd hear in Stalker 2 or sounds like this: https://sounddogs.com//search?keywords=10065144&share=true

Thanks in advance for any recommendations!

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Welcome to the subreddit weekly feature post for evaluation and critiques request for sound, music, video, personal reel sites, resumes , or whatever else you have that is game audio related and would like for folks to tell you what they think of it. Links to company sites or works of any kind need to use the self-promo sticky feature post instead. Have somthing you contributed to a game or you think it might work well for one? Let's hear it.

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Hello,

My coworker and I have generated and created the events, imported them in Unreal 5.3.2 from Wwise 2022.1.15. After testing them one by one, all of them work.

Our programmer then reaches out and says only specific events do not play any sound.

We are using Perforce to work asynchronously as well.

In short: Events in content drawer in UE5 works for me, but not for our programmer

Please help!

Edit: Problem is fixed, a bunch of files weren't added into perforce inside the folder "Wwise_Project/GeneratedSoundBanks"

I’m 20 years old and recently finished my degree in Popular Music Production. Last year, I became interested in video game audio and have since taken several media courses and certifications. However, in Spain, many companies in this field have closed recently, so opportunities are limited. I’m open to working abroad, though.

I believe my next steps should be specializing in tools like Wwise and Unreal Engine, building showreels, and collaborating on projects to improve my portfolio and enter the industry.

The challenge: My parents, while supportive, feel I’m not making tangible progress. They suggest I get certifications (e.g., Wwise, currently discounted) as they see these as concrete results.

Options I’m considering:

• Get a regular job and combine it with building my portfolio.
• Focus on certifications to show immediate progress.
• Explore other fields, like working in a studio or music projects.

Do you think pursuing video game audio is realistic? What would you recommend as the best path forward?

Thanks for reading, and have a great day!

I am a solo dev and a novice when it comes to sound design and am having a tricky time balancing my sounds in a 3D game using Unity's built in audiosources.

I have 2D music, 2D ambient sounds, 3D sound effects attached to objects like a fireplace with say a logarithmic drop off at 20 to 0. In trying to balance my sounds I have noticed if I lower the volume on an audiosource too low (say to 0.05) it starts having some odd effects.

It sounds alright when playing the game from the editor, but when I build the game Unity seems to mess with the volume of 2D and 3D sounds dynamically making a lot of things come out loud at times.

In reading some of the great posts on this board the wisdom seems to indicate you should balance your sounds (say in Audacity with Loudness Normalisation) rather than using the audio source volume too much. You should aim for about -23db LUFS for dialogue and immediate sound effects and maybe -30db LUFS for ambient background loops.

Have I got this right? Is that a reasonable approach to balancing a soundscape? I would love to hear from someone more experienced than me with Unity 3D sound to set me on the right track before I start rebalancing the hundreds of sounds in my game.

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Hi everyone!

I need some help with RME Fireface UFX+ and Wwise. The DAC seems to be routed well, Reaper and all media plays from the correct speakers, however Wwise plays the mono sounds through the left speaker only. It plays correctly in the Unity project. Even when I pan the sounds hard right using positioning, it'll play from the left. I'll attach a screenshot of the TotalMix palette.

Also, another inconvenience: This DAC has 96 channels and Wwise shows them all in the Meter window. It makes it very hard to see the output of the channels I actually use. It shows some 2 pixel wide strings bouncing when I play something. Is there a way to reconfigure this? I haven't found one so far.

(I'm working in Wwise 2022.1.5.)

Thanks in advance for the help!
Cheers

https://preview.redd.it/mi2cij3cvv1e1.png?width=1698&format=png&auto=webp&s=4cea9520592c84122a066d0811773cffbf6a9c86

Please help, I’m looking for a work placement for my 15 year old trans daughter who is massively into music production. The work experience needs to be hosted in July 2025 in the UK; they are interested in music for gaming specifically and are skilled in the use of FL Studio and Ableton… any advice? Thank you 🙏

Hi, everyone :p ! I'm interested in becoming a video game soundtrack composer, but I'm still trying to figure out the best way to get started. I have a little musical experience and can play some instruments at a basic level, which helps me to have a general foundation I think. I'm also starting to explore music production software and need a clearer path to follow.

1- I'd like to ask for specific tips from those who already have experience in the area or understand the subject:

2- Is there any instrument that is essential for a video game composer?

3- What kind of equipment would I need, such as microphones, headphones, MIDI controllers or acoustics?

4- Which DAWs do you recommend for creating soundtracks?

5- Is knowledge of sound design also necessary or is focusing only on composition enough?

6- Are there specific courses or specializations for those who want to work in this area or is freelance work the main gateway?

I'm a solo developer using Unity.

On every sound effect I add I find myself adjusting the volume (inside Unity) based on the current volume of sound system/window sound which creates inconsistencies as later when I verify the sound effect volume again, I might increase/decrease it because my sound system/windows level were different (without me realizing), and that goes for every sound I test in my PC.

I'm not sure what's the best approach here to maintain a level of consistency?

Making always sure that my system volume is at the right value when I work with sounds is tedious.

I'm new to this, and to sound design, I hope I'm making sense.

Hey guys,

I'm learning Unity + FMOD, and I've run into what seems to be a common scenario: implementing sounds in areas that take a long time for the player to reach or testing scenarios where the player needs specific conditions (e.g., drinking a potion first).

How would you temporarily change the player's status, position, or conditions to test the sound design without worrying about interfering with the game code?

My current idea is to write temporary scripts for testing and then delete them after, but I'm wondering if there's a more efficient or widely accepted practice for this.

Thanks in advance for your help!

Can anyone recommend a good unity project for learning FMOD, I've used Viking Village before but I wondered if there was anything a little more advanced out there?

Hi everyone,
For my final in my game audio class, we are recreating game sounds for a unity game. I would like to challenge myself by using only synthesis for this, but I don't know how achievable this is? I'm only getting into the game audio world this semester, so I'm still learning. Is it possible to recreate these effects using only a synth? Or will I still have to be layering samples on top of it?

• Sword Swing
• Pot Breaking
• Bush Destroyed
• Rupee Collected
• Boomerang
• Bomb Fuse
• Bomb Explosion
• Enemy Damage
• Player Damage
• Player Death SFX

If anyone has any insight, or can point me in the right direction, that'd be great! Also, I use Ableton suite and have access to Ableton synths, as well as serum to be specific.

Thank you!

I have a good desktop PC (intel i-12900k 64gb ram), but with the built-in Intel GPU. Do you think a good GPU is required when sound designing in game audio?

I tried to play Dark Souls III, and had to reduce the resolution a bit for the game to run smoothly. I guess that if I do audio implementation I can always just reduce the resolution, but maybe for creating a portfolio it might be a problem?

Thanks a lot in advance!

EDIT: I'm just starting out, working with Unity+FMOD

Hi im actually a student at the university of Montreal in musique numériques and I wanna learn more about sound design especially sfx for video games and movies, I just wanna know if a sound designer in Montreal can be interested to help me learn more and give tips and tricks or online course that can help me learn about creating sound

Thanks in advance!!

I was wondering if other sound designers use things like tape, tube saturation etc not in a creative way but a “subtle” way, like you could use in music producing and etc. I was experimenting with it while mixing music and I was thinking that maybe it could be cool to use it in all or almost all the sounds in a project to give it some subtle coherence, maybe in a more stylized game. What do you think?

Personal Works Evaluation Requests

Welcome to the subreddit weekly feature post for evaluation and critiques request for sound, music, video, personal reel sites, resumes , or whatever else you have that is game audio related and would like for folks to tell you what they think of it. Links to company sites or works of any kind need to use the self-promo sticky feature post instead. Have somthing you contributed to a game or you think it might work well for one? Let's hear it.

If you are submitting something for evaluation, be sure to leave some feedback on other submissions. This is karma in action.

Subreddit Helpful Hints: Mobile Users can view this subreddit's sidebar at /r/GameAudio/about/sidebar. Use the safe zone sticky post at the top of the sub to let us know about your own works instead of posting to the subreddit front page. For SFX related questions, also check out /r/SFXLibraries. When you're seeking Game Audio related info, be sure to search the subreddit or check our wiki pages;

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I just started using Fmod and am a beginner entirely to audio and soundscapes. I was trying to make a sound travel around to every individual speaker, but I'm not sure how to move the sound and have Fmod "record" its position and replay it. Does this make sense, is it possible??

Hey hey, Reddit! I'm looking for some help on a small issue I've run into while trying to incorporate some dynamic music! Right now, I have a music section that I want to transition into another but have it occur after the first finishes playing. However, the caveat is that I want to tell the playlist when exactly that transition should occur, having the first track loop until that point! Is there a way to do that? Thank you!

Hey guys, hope you're all doing well. I was hoping that somebody could help me with a problem that I ran into.
I've created a simple play event in Wwise and a simple first person project in Unreal, with the aim of just getting a sound to play 2D when I hit play. To do this I've just done a basic post event. As you can see from the photo in the link below when I do a capture session in Wwise it shows that the event is being triggered and you can even see graph moving on the output peak, suggesting that there is audio playing. With that said though there is no sound coming from the event inside of Unreal.
If I play the event inside of the Wwise Browser (what used to be called picker) then I can hear the audio perfectly well, but if I then try to play that same event from within the content browser there is also no audio.
Any suggestions of where to go from here?

https://i.imgur.com/x5wYe2M.png

I see it's now on 50% sale, if I get it right it's supposed to be 10% of each of their libraries. Has anyone got it and satisfied?

Thanks in advance

I saw people recommend Edward Ultimate Suite, and there's also Boom library Virtual Foley Artist – Footsteps. Are they good specifically for game? Has anyone had good experience with them, or another library?

Thanks in advance!

Game Sound Related Blogs

Updated March 2022

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Hey guys,

I’m working on improving my sound design skills and thought analyzing a few games would be helpful. I’m not much of a gamer, so I’m a bit lost on where to start, but I’d like to play a selection of quality games across different genres. Is there an economical way to go about this, besides buying individual games on Steam? Maybe a subscription service with a good range of options?

I’m not too picky about the games themselves, just looking for high-quality ones to learn from.

Thanks in advance for any advice, and please excuse my lack of knowledge