The audio engine is broken; please make ID aware

[Cyrix]

There is something very wrong with the audio engine in DOOM. This problem becomes most evident in large battles late in the campaign. Sound priority or spatialization is broken - simply put, things that should be loud are getting drowned out by things that should be quiet. This is a serious issue that ID is ignoring or not aware of. Hopefully if enough users speak up they'll acknowledge the problem and work on a fix.

Simple evidence: watch https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D9w5zxDJ9Jc starting at the 5-minute mark. For many sections of the combat up until 5:40, you can clearly observe that the audio balance is out of whack. The loudest sounds are monster groans and the imp fireballs. Sound effects generated by the player are lost in the mix; for example:

*5:15: When the player is firing the plasma rifle, the plasma rifle is almost inaudible
*5:20: No sound effects are audible for the glory kill
*5:25: No chainsaw sound effects are audible
*5:27: Just for comparison, notice that the imp fireball passing the player is very loud
*5:30 - 5:34: Imp fireball sound effects behind the player almost completely drown out the plasma rifle
*5:35: the Glory Kill sound effects are almost inaudible
*5:40: Notice that from this point, since there are only a few imps remaining, the player's weapons and actions are clearly audible

Another great example is https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kyIEbADkMpM starting at 5:17. You can observe the exact same types of issues: glory kills, chainsaw, and plasma rifle almost inaudible, while imp fireballs and similar sounds are very loud. At 6:00, you can see the extreme difference in volume between the player's punches and the mancubi's death sounds, the latter being far louder than anything else that's playing.

This is just a couple of examples. This problem is evident in all of the large-scale battles late in the campaign. Things like imp fireballs, explosions, and monsters roaring are too loud, and the volume of sound effects generated by the player is reduced when these other effects are playing until you can barely hear what the player is doing.

[JustOnePepsi]

I was talking to someone else about this recently on youtube.

I wish there were separate sliders for demon volume and SFX volume. Basically any sounds made by a demon would be controlled by the former, and everything else by the latter.

I got sick of the imps and everything else screeching in my ears constantly so I turned down SFX, but of course, that lessens the impact of all of my weapons as well.

I've learned to live with it, but it would be nice to have the ability to change them independently of one another to balance things out a little more.

[Cyrix]

Originalmente postado por JBTech:

It is interesting that you mention this issue as I was going to test removing my sound card to use the on-board Realtek but based on your feedback I doubt it would help. One of the more annoying glitches is when a Hell Razor gets close and his initial audio loops and cuts out until you move a bit and then it clears up. This is all going on with other sounds and soundtrack playing just fine so it isn't a sample or bit rate issue as Bethesda states on their FAQ.

I've tested using stereo headphones with the onboard RealTek (stereo) and Sound Blaster Z (stereo/virtual surround), a Corsair H1500 (stereo/virtual 5.1/ virtual 7.1, internal C-Media) and a Rosewill RHTS-8206 (5.1, internal C-Media). Other than minor differences that were probably my imagination, I have not noticed any significant changes between any of these hardware setups. Using the virtual surround in the Corsair or through the SBZ, I can't tell the difference between 2 channels and 7.1 channels. With the Rosewill (which actually has 6 speakers in each ear for true surround) I could discern that some sounds were playing out of the rear channels, but overall balance/priority problems were the same as the other setups. I typically game late at night and usually can't get away with speakers, so I haven't tested speakers much.

This game has no audio settings - there is nothing in the console, and nothing in any of the configuration files. This makes me think that audio was a low priority for ID and they probably haven't QA'd it thoroughly. Here's hoping they get their ♥♥♥♥ together.

I wish there were separate sliders for demon volume and SFX volume. Basically any sounds made by a demon would be controlled by the former, and everything else by the latter.

This would be masking the problem, rather than addressing it. The bigger problem is that DOOM doesn't prioritize sounds correctly. When too many effects are playing at once, it starts reducing the volume of different effects to keep the overall volume level from going too high (peaking, if you're familiar with audio mixing). It doesn't seem to reduce the volume levels equally - some sounds are given higher priority and aren't reduced as much as others. There's clearly a flaw in the system, and player sound effects like weapons and glory kills are being given a very low priority. Basically, this means that each additional imp fireball reduces the volume of your weapons and glory kills until you can't even hear yourself. There are other problem effects besides the imp fireball, but that one's easiest to notice.

Another problem is that any time an explosion occurs, the volume of all sound effects is reduced by a few decibels, even if the explosion is far away and shouldn't have induced temporary hearing loss.

[JustOnePepsi]

Originalmente postado por Cyrix:

Originalmente postado por JBTech:

It is interesting that you mention this issue as I was going to test removing my sound card to use the on-board Realtek but based on your feedback I doubt it would help. One of the more annoying glitches is when a Hell Razor gets close and his initial audio loops and cuts out until you move a bit and then it clears up. This is all going on with other sounds and soundtrack playing just fine so it isn't a sample or bit rate issue as Bethesda states on their FAQ.

I've tested using stereo headphones with the onboard RealTek (stereo) and Sound Blaster Z (stereo/virtual surround), a Corsair H1500 (stereo/virtual 5.1/ virtual 7.1, internal C-Media) and a Rosewill RHTS-8206 (5.1, internal C-Media). Other than minor differences that were probably my imagination, I have not noticed any significant changes between any of these hardware setups. Using the virtual surround in the Corsair or through the SBZ, I can't tell the difference between 2 channels and 7.1 channels. With the Rosewill (which actually has 6 speakers in each ear for true surround) I could discern that some sounds were playing out of the rear channels, but overall balance/priority problems were the same as the other setups. I typically game late at night and usually can't get away with speakers, so I haven't tested speakers much.

This game has no audio settings - there is nothing in the console, and nothing in any of the configuration files. This makes me think that audio was a low priority for ID and they probably haven't QA'd it thoroughly. Here's hoping they get their ♥♥♥♥ together.

I wish there were separate sliders for demon volume and SFX volume. Basically any sounds made by a demon would be controlled by the former, and everything else by the latter.

This would be masking the problem, rather than addressing it. The bigger problem is that DOOM doesn't prioritize sounds correctly. When too many effects are playing at once, it starts reducing the volume of different effects to keep the overall volume level from going too high (peaking, if you're familiar with audio mixing). It doesn't seem to reduce the volume levels equally - some sounds are given higher priority and aren't reduced as much as others. There's clearly a flaw in the system, and player sound effects like weapons and glory kills are being given a very low priority. Basically, this means that each additional imp fireball reduces the volume of your weapons and glory kills until you can't even hear yourself. There are other problem effects besides the imp fireball, but that one's easiest to notice.

Another problem is that any time an explosion occurs, the volume of all sound effects is reduced by a few decibels, even if the explosion is far away and shouldn't have induced temporary hearing loss.

I think some of it is intentional though. For instance, glory kills cull the soundtrack by about 80% temporarily over the duration of the animation.

I think one of the reasons why things like Imp fireballs remain so loud is because id wants you to be able to hear enemies and their projectiles more than other sounds, which are arguably less important when it comes to a game like this, which has a certain level of skill/finesse involved with dodging enemy attacks.

Basically, I don't think this is a bug.

I think giving us a slider to adjust different kinds of effects would help. And/or a toggle for a less extreme audio occlusion system.

[Salamand3r-]

Try changing your sample rate.to 48kHz.

May not be your issue, but Doom's audio subsystem is notorious for many, many problems at other sampling rates.

[Cyrix]

I think some of it is intentional though. For instance, glory kills cull the soundtrack by about 80% temporarily over the duration of the animation.

And why would they go that far and then make the imp fireballs louder than the glory kills and have glory kills become completely inaudible if there is enough action happening? Maybe some of it is working as intended, but it's definitely not all working as intended.

I think one of the reasons why things like Imp fireballs remain so loud is because id wants you [...] dodging enemy attacks.

I don't think that 99% of people will be able to dodge fireballs based entirely on the sound. More importantly, by the point in the campaign where these audio issues become apparent, imp fireballs are the least of your worries. And again, there are other unimportant noises that seem to be getting a very high priority, the fireballs are just the easiest to point out.

Originalmente postado por Salamand3r:

Try changing your sample rate.to 48kHz.

It's already at 48khz.

[Nicholas Steel]

I notice this a lot in the first level and from there onwards. The weakest enemies (The Posessed) sound like they are standing adjacent to you when they are far off in the distance. It's incredibly dumb.

There's also some environmental sounds in the first level that are incorrectly positioned as well and will sound incredibly loud when standing in certain places and super quiet in other places, there's no in-between/gradual fall off of audio volume as you move away.

When the game first released these audio issues didn't exist or weren't anywhere near as bad as this.

[Nicholas Steel]

Some examples of the bug I experience:
https://youtu.be/eQzy4RwmvgI https://youtu.be/5bV64LP2MYA https://youtu.be/Ik0cwLN8Hds

When within activation range of certain sounds the sounds will be played at full volume regardless of my distance from the audio source. Also the suggestions to adjust my soundcard to use 48KHz or 44.1KHz doesn't affect the situation.

[Nicholas Steel]

Bump, I'd love to see a patch that fixes the issue.

[Tyler]

So I'm not just crazy. What could they have done to break this? Noticing a lot of audio inconsistencies both in my current playthrough and the streams of the game I've been watching lately. Makes me hesitant to pick up the new game.

[(HELL)WTFMAN]

Try changing the sample rate to C++ 48khz and enabling the aim assist function ingame for doom online

Originalmente postado por Salamand3r:

Try changing your sample rate.to 48kHz.

May not be your issue, but Doom's audio subsystem is notorious for many, many problems at other sampling rates.

[Nicholas Steel]

Changing the audio sample rate in Windows has zero effect.

[rbnphrs]

after this many years and obviously many players complaining to id about the mater and it still hasn't been fixed only shows that id doesn't really care about the issue. not gonna waste my money

[Doom Sayer]

Originalmente postado por Cyrix:

There is something very wrong with the audio engine in DOOM. This problem becomes most evident in large battles late in the campaign. Sound priority or spatialization is broken - simply put, things that should be loud are getting drowned out by things that should be quiet. This is a serious issue that ID is ignoring or not aware of. Hopefully if enough users speak up they'll acknowledge the problem and work on a fix.

Simple evidence: watch https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D9w5zxDJ9Jc starting at the 5-minute mark. For many sections of the combat up until 5:40, you can clearly observe that the audio balance is out of whack. The loudest sounds are monster groans and the imp fireballs. Sound effects generated by the player are lost in the mix; for example:

*5:15: When the player is firing the plasma rifle, the plasma rifle is almost inaudible
*5:20: No sound effects are audible for the glory kill
*5:25: No chainsaw sound effects are audible
*5:27: Just for comparison, notice that the imp fireball passing the player is very loud
*5:30 - 5:34: Imp fireball sound effects behind the player almost completely drown out the plasma rifle
*5:35: the Glory Kill sound effects are almost inaudible
*5:40: Notice that from this point, since there are only a few imps remaining, the player's weapons and actions are clearly audible

Another great example is https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kyIEbADkMpM starting at 5:17. You can observe the exact same types of issues: glory kills, chainsaw, and plasma rifle almost inaudible, while imp fireballs and similar sounds are very loud. At 6:00, you can see the extreme difference in volume between the player's punches and the mancubi's death sounds, the latter being far louder than anything else that's playing.

This is just a couple of examples. This problem is evident in all of the large-scale battles late in the campaign. Things like imp fireballs, explosions, and monsters roaring are too loud, and the volume of sound effects generated by the player is reduced when these other effects are playing until you can barely hear what the player is doing.

True. Noticed demons made no noises.

[Doom Sayer]

Originalmente postado por GenerallyTyler:

So I'm not just crazy. What could they have done to break this? Noticing a lot of audio inconsistencies both in my current playthrough and the streams of the game I've been watching lately. Makes me hesitant to pick up the new game.

Its only really a late game thing. I maybe wrong but only think LONG sessions cause it. Dont expect fixes this is bethesda. Also dont expect fan patches since this game is locked down harder than..........

[Tyler]

Originalmente postado por Degeneracy:

Originalmente postado por GenerallyTyler:

So I'm not just crazy. What could they have done to break this? Noticing a lot of audio inconsistencies both in my current playthrough and the streams of the game I've been watching lately. Makes me hesitant to pick up the new game.

Its only really a late game thing. I maybe wrong but only think LONG sessions cause it. Dont expect fixes this is bethesda. Also dont expect fan patches since this game is locked down harder than..........

Long sessions? I played two missions.