sound design ?

[Don Vincenzoo 57]

hi

what about the sound design ?
some people try it with Good STEREO headphone ? (the way devs recommand it to be played)

how is sound design compare to 1st one ?

[patrick68794]

It's better than the first game but definitely not as good as their audio director was trying to hype it up to being. The physical surround sound mix is also pretty poor

[Tragedia]

I really like the sound, especially the voices and music from Heilung. The expectation of great binaural sound was the reason for the purchase.
I think the first game had a better soundscape, but that may be subjective because I played in full immersion in VR and the game seemed cooler.
Sony WH1000XM3

[Demystificator]

I feel the mix is milder in Saga. Some inner-voices sound less impactful but it might be intended by the story.
You will feel being next to Senua into the wilds though.
And combat has very good sound design imo.

[ventrix]

The devs recommends headphones because the actual suround mixxing is atrocious.

[DM]

Originally posted by ventrix:

The devs recommends headphones because the actual suround mixxing is atrocious.

But bad audio mixing is only ever amplified by wearing headphones. They aren't going to get you to wear headphones to hide bad audio, it just doesn't work that way.

[dinosauriac]

It's.. fine. Feels very current year, with a lot of heavy bass whooshes and distortion effects in the more intense moments. That's pretty much it's only impressive point though.

Binaural audio CAN be great, but this is a very lopsided presentation, voices are often 100% in one channel or the other. The lack of any internal monologue reverb means it almost feels like one of your headphones has stopped working. I'm sure I remember it feeling more natural in the first game.

The lack of reverb in general is weird. You'll be going through a deep, dank cave and there's no echo on your footsteps. Your breathing doesn't reverberate in the space, neither does your voice. It makes the characters not feel very connected to the world and the whole game just falls kinda flat because of it.

[Fulgerion]

Originally posted by patrick68794:

It's better than the first game but definitely not as good as their audio director was trying to hype it up to being. The physical surround sound mix is also pretty poor

That is because it's not surround sound, It's binaural. There is a difference. Surround sound isn't a terrible option if you don't have headphones, but not ideal.

For Senua's Sacrifice I used the free ear buds that came with my Switch case and it sounded great. I used KPH40s from Koss for this one.

[Fulgerion]

Originally posted by dinosauriac:

It's.. fine. Feels very current year, with a lot of heavy bass whooshes and distortion effects in the more intense moments. That's pretty much it's only impressive point though.

Binaural audio CAN be great, but this is a very lopsided presentation, voices are often 100% in one channel or the other. The lack of any internal monologue reverb means it almost feels like one of your headphones has stopped working. I'm sure I remember it feeling more natural in the first game.

The lack of reverb in general is weird. You'll be going through a deep, dank cave and there's no echo on your footsteps. Your breathing doesn't reverberate in the space, neither does your voice. It makes the characters not feel very connected to the world and the whole game just falls kinda flat because of it.

The voices in one channel is intentional. They are two different entities. Imagine them on your shoulders. Except they are in your head. One speaks in your left ear, the other speaks in your right.

Why in the hell would internal monologue have reverb??

Do you have reverb when you think? Internal voices from psychosis isn't going to have reverb. Unless your brain somehow simulates that effect after hearing it before. I am not sure if that would work.

[Fulgerion]

Originally posted by ventrix:

The devs recommends headphones because the actual suround mixxing is atrocious.

No it's not. It's not mixed for surround sound. That's why. You are not meant to use this with surround sound. Surround sound is a different recording process. They used a specific technique that can not be done accurately with surround sound. That is why they are audio engineers, and you are not.

[theshape31]

It sounds better than the first game for sure. But was a missed opportunity to stay limited to stereo and not create a Dolby Atmos mix. This could have been one of the all-time great sound designs.

[joridiculous]

Originally posted by Fulgerion:

Originally posted by ventrix:

The devs recommends headphones because the actual suround mixxing is atrocious.

No it's not. It's not mixed for surround sound. That's why. You are not meant to use this with surround sound. Surround sound is a different recording process. They used a specific technique that can not be done accurately with surround sound. That is why they are audio engineers, and you are not.

any idiot at home can recorded good binaural sound. Al you need it a good Binaural or Omni-Binaural mic and a little bit of creativity.

[nbean16]

Originally posted by Fulgerion:

Originally posted by ventrix:

The devs recommends headphones because the actual suround mixxing is atrocious.

No it's not. It's not mixed for surround sound. That's why. You are not meant to use this with surround sound. Surround sound is a different recording process. They used a specific technique that can not be done accurately with surround sound. That is why they are audio engineers, and you are not.

Where did you come up with this stupidity? What is the technique that cannot be used with surround sound?

[nbean16]

I use surround with a fairly high end home theater system and I think this is one of the best sounding games I have ever played. The presentation is front heavy but I also like the surround mix. I have zero complaints. Not sure what ♥♥♥♥♥♥ speakers people are using that dont like the sound design.

[joridiculous]

Originally posted by nbean16:

Originally posted by Fulgerion:

No it's not. It's not mixed for surround sound. That's why. You are not meant to use this with surround sound. Surround sound is a different recording process. They used a specific technique that can not be done accurately with surround sound. That is why they are audio engineers, and you are not.

Where did you come up with this stupidity? What is the technique that cannot be used with surround sound?

binaural sound doesn't work with Surround headphones. Its a completely different technique.
It sort of works on a good home theatre setup, but it will newer be right.
It takes you a few seconds to use a search and read up on it.

[nbean16]

Originally posted by joridiculous:

Originally posted by nbean16:

Where did you come up with this stupidity? What is the technique that cannot be used with surround sound?

binaural sound doesn't work with Surround headphones. Its a completely different technique.
It sort of works on a good home theatre setup, but it will newer be right.
It takes you a few seconds to use a search and read up on it.

It works fine in home theater. You didnt mention surround headphones specifically.