Does the audio sound muffled to anyone else?

[Giant Woman Enjoyer]

I don't know what's wrong but for some reason all the audio in this game sounds really muffled and unclear, like I'm listening to the game audio on the other side of a thin wall. Is anyone else experiencing this?

[TourmyGemz]

Sounds fine to me, did you test your audio with other games?

[Giant Woman Enjoyer]

My audio is fine everywhere else but on this game specifically it sounds like it's being played through a wall.

[Mirio]

Sounds weird for me too. Also I swear the sound mixing is off in the Sonic portion at least? Boosting seems to make the music near impossible to listen to. I had to decrease the sound effects and increase the music to hear it while boosting lol. Plus the voices in cutscenes play a bit later than the subtitles appear and they have noticeably bad microphone quality, as if this build accidentally uses an early take for all the voices lol.

[Shadowlet]

Yes the audio mixing is terrible

[DJ Androm3da]

Its been happening for me too. I really hope they drop a day one patch that fixes it, because so far thats been my only issue with the game. Also does anyone know if this has been an issue on the console versions too?

[Jyrem]

Happening to me too. Everything else on my PC sounds completely fine, but all in-game audio for this game is low-quality/muffled.

[Vibe_Toaster]

I've got the same thing happening on my end. Everything else sounds fine except for the audio in-game.

[BlueKunai]

I'm glad it's not just me. My laptop has a Dolby Audio app that improves the sound quality on the limited speakers and this game sounds like the speakers do when that app is turned off. Though it still reads as being on when playing the game, and only this game. Dunno what exactly the reason is.

[KashKey]

This is a problem the game has had since the original in 2011, I have no idea what causes it. It's also worth noting that there's a distortion effect placed over the music and sound effects while using Boost, in a quite ill advised fashion I believe. It's meant to enhance the sense of speed, but it just results in the game feeling more muddied since you're boosting quite often.

[Jyrem]

Originally posted by KashKey:

This is a problem the game has had since the original in 2011, I have no idea what causes it. It's also worth noting that there's a distortion effect placed over the music and sound effects while using Boost, in a quite ill advised fashion I believe. It's meant to enhance the sense of speed, but it just results in the game feeling more muddied since you're boosting quite often.

The strangest part is that the 2011 original still sounds completely fine on the same setup with zero external changes made. It's just this game specifically...

[JonyPlayz]

Oh so it's not just me then. It sounds really muffled for me too. Has there been a fix for this?

[Paul2028]

Here this mod should help with the boost muffled music :https://gamebanana.com/sounds/76684

[Jyrem]

Originally posted by Rings:

Since launch, I've been wondering why this game sounded so terrible and loud, forcing me to set the volume to 17. To make matters worse, the SEGA logo was deafeningly loud at the beginning since it doesn't respect your volume setting and always plays at 100.

I found out that the reason for this is because for some reason, this game bypasses Equalizer APO. I don't know how they screwed up the audio like this, but here we are.

Here is what I did to fix it for anyone in the same boat:

1. Download a Virtual Audio cable from VB-Audio (get VBCABLE_Driver_Pack45, which was uploaded Oct 2024, since it allows you to use Windows volume control) and install + reboot as directed.
2. Go to Windows Sound settings
3. Playback tab > set the Virtual Audio cable as default device
4. Recording tab > locate the Virtual Audio cable, double click > Listen tab > check "Listen to this device"
5. Select your speakers in the dropdown below the "Listen to this device" checkbox
6. In Equalizer APO, install it to the Virtual Audio cable

Make sure you are only allowing Equalizer APO to control your speakers, not the virtual audio cable. I'm not even sure if step 6 is required, so let me know if you solve your issue without performing step 6 and I'll remove it from the guide.

I've posted a guide here: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3360218639

Figured this was the case, since the headset I'm playing with sounds god awful without EQ. No idea why this is a thing.