Sounds are too LOUD

[Old Surehand]

In 1.6 you knew where sounds were coming from, and the quality of the sounds was good.

Go play a quick match of 1.6 and compare it to CS 2.

The gun sounds in CS 2 are still super loud, you can't hear anything else, and the headshot bang is still ear destroying after a decade.

There are no options to actually improve any of this, thus playing the game with headphones becomes unbearable. And with speakers it's just not good.

Headphones Hi-Fi Sennheiser HD 560S. Playing around with the volume, in-game and windows, just doesn't really help. It just becomes muffled, and weird.

Valve can you add some accessibility settings, or something?

Any help, please?

Thank you

[egs]

Have you tried "smooth" eq option in the game.

[POPO Sandh]

and for me the gun sounds in cs2 are less loud then cs 1.6, i have both games at max volume and cs 1.6 is loud as heck while cs2 is so dang quite man

[Old Surehand]

Originally posted by His way or the highway:

Have you tried "smooth" eq option in the game.

Yes, I tried all the various options. It's always the gun sounds super loud, and everything else quiet. Footsteps can't even be heard, while gun shots and grenade sounds overpower everything else. And it actually hurts my ears.

I just don't understand. It's not a problem in any other game, regardless of the volume.

[egs]

I noticed people are more often uses walk so you can't hear the footsteps because there is none of. The sound delay also increase over time so it's hard to locate sound source after 1-2 matches in game. Combining both you can't hear the enemy the last moment he peaks you out of the corner, because at the moment you hear the shot you're dead already.
As for loudness, on my devices it doesn't sound as loud and inconsistent as 1,6, CSGO and L4D2.
I think we should wait for the latency issue fixes.

Originally posted by Old Surehand:

I just don't understand. It's not a problem in any other game, regardless of the volume.

Look for fletcher-munson curves, how they look and think what you can do with your setup to equalize volumes across the spectrum. Use pink noise as a reference and make it "flat".
In-game EQ is a generic fix which might not work for everyone and every headset model.

[Old Surehand]

Originally posted by His way or the highway:

I noticed people are more often uses walk so you can't hear the footsteps because there is none of. The sound delay also increase over time so it's hard to locate sound source after 1-2 matches in game. Combining both you can't hear the enemy the last moment he peaks you out of the corner, because at the moment you hear the shot you're dead already.
As for loudness, on my devices it doesn't sound as loud and inconsistent as 1,6, CSGO and L4D2.
I think we should wait for the latency issue fixes.

Originally posted by Old Surehand:

I just don't understand. It's not a problem in any other game, regardless of the volume.

Look for fletcher-munson curves, how they look and think what you can do with your setup to equalize volumes across the spectrum. Use pink noise as a reference and make it "flat".
In-game EQ is a generic fix which might not work for everyone and every headset model.

I tried playing with a couple of cheaper headphones, but that's even worse. Going back to 1.6 for a quick test, the difference is just night and day for me. Everything is clear and balanced, without any adjustments whatsoever.

Thank you for that potential solution, but what you're saying seems a bit too technical for me! From reading other complaints about the sounds, dating back to when CSGO was released, it seems things are not quite right, one way or another.

I'll just wait for more patches, although I'm sure nothing will change. I'll keep the volume low in the meantime, and just try to have some fun with some Counter Strike after a decade.

I'll also keep an eye on threads such as this one - https://www.reddit.com/r/cs2/comments/16x280m/the_best_audio_settings_for_most_people/

Cheers!

[LaGgIs]

Sounds like you have some problem or misconfiguration on your sound settings, the weapon sounds perfect not to high and not to low

[egs]

Originally posted by Old Surehand:

I tried playing with a couple of cheaper headphones, but that's even worse. Going back to 1.6 for a quick test, the difference is just night and day for me. Everything is clear and balanced, without any adjustments whatsoever.

If I recall CS 1.6 had no dynamics in sound, everything was sounding at equal very loud level, so some little frequency inconsistency was not that noticeable.
CS2 has more dynamic, detailed sound, which may cause more issues.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5tPAaGQGvsM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5nwdcKzAz40

Originally posted by Old Surehand:

.. I'll keep the volume low in the meantime, and just try to have some fun with some Counter Strike after a decade.
...

That's a mistake. The easy way is to to increase the volume instead and use some EQ to reduce the most loud range of 1000-7000 Hz if necessary.
Another way is to set low or low-medium volume and increase lower and higher ends instead.

[76561198172971267]

I hope there's an option to separate the gun sounds and footsteps because personally I find the gun sound too loud and distracting sometimes. In my opinion, it would be amazing to be able to lower the gun sound without affecting the footsteps, personally.

[Lowrein]

I've had that issue since I got my new pc. Here is how you can make it work ; Go to Systems/Sounds/All sound devices/Properties then go Spatial sound make sure it is Off. i was playing with dolby Atmos when I change it to off everything is good for me.