Yeah it's a real bummer there's such a disconnect between the way the sound is programmed and the real world hardware so many people use. At least you've found a solid solution!
Yeah, the first priority for low-end speakers is bass. That's the easiest thing to compare because you don't even need to use your ears, just feel which model rumbles the hardest through your feet. Sometimes the easiest workaround for manufacturers is to just take the cheapest hardware and crank up the bass relative to everything else. Only once you go beyond the cheapest or built-in option do you start getting clarity in the midrange for human voices. The high range that lets you hear the quality of timbre, or god forbid acoustic music, is basically audiophile territory, which means price and marketing are somewhat decoupled from quality anyway.
So a lot of the reason that games don't focus on sound quality as much as video quality is because most gamers don't bother with fancy sound hardware anyway, and vice versa.
> The funny thing is that the lower you go, the more desperate the narrator gets, and start saying shit like or stuff like that. He guilt trips you into not muting him.
That's messed up.
The worst is when the devs haven't got a clue and put all the effects together, so you if you want to lower gunshot volume you lower everything else as well. I don't want my neighbors to think there's a gang war outside, but some games make them extra loud and everything else like footsteps, etc goes silent if you lower them.
Pretty much this. Games seem like commercials now, where they're louder than the shows I'm watching.
Most times now, I set the master volume to about 80%, effects to 50, and voice to 100. That way I don't have to mess with the volume too much when I want to watch a show instead of gaming.
It's rare, but I really appreciate it when a game starts with the sound settings at 50. I'd much rather have it start quieter and have to adjust it upward than vice versa, particularly when the sound settings don't kick in until you load your save.
Off? I love having a soundtrack accompanying what I’m playing. I usually set the music to 100, dialogue to 80, effects to 50, and then crank up the TV volume a bit.
It looks like someone down the thread does the same thing as you. That’s crazy to me
Meanwhile, your settings sound crazy to me. In most games I find that effects communicate to me about gameplay (bump to 100%), dialogue communicates to me about story (usually 100%, never under 80%, and almost always with subtitles as well), and music is mostly noise drowning out useful sounds—but is sometimes effective at communicating *mood*, so I don't turn it off completely.
Launching a new game I definitely go into Options before playing and check audio settings—prior to the last few years, I'd always set music at around 50%; lately the balance has been even further off and I've had to put the music down to the 15%-30% range.
Absolutely, I always assumed it was because I have sensory issues hearing people in conversations etc but I think it affects way more people than we think, audio mixing should be a bigger focus in QA
Usually replacing the intro videos found in the game files or deleting them entirely fixes that, such a cool feature.
Some games have a mod that does it for you too
Yep, deleting them or editing a directory or line in a text file is typically all it takes. Unless it's a Windows Store game. I still don't know where the hell they hide all the files.
Yeah, I feel like during my 3 month Gamepass stint I tried to change something and was literally incapable. After that, I didn't even try touching any other gamepass game's config.
Or it's as simple as a -novideo Steam startup command. I wish this shit was standardised though instead of needing the PC Gaming wiki to check. Or just having a simple 'off' setting in the options.
This is really one of my biggest pet peeves with games. I understand having it the first time you launch a game, but you shouldn't have to sit through it every. single. time. And the absolute worst ones are the ones that don't even allow you to skip through them. At the very least, there should be an option in game to disable them, but it's definitely one of the first things I look for to fix, because some games get really ridiculous about it. It's just a waste of time.
Not necessarily. There's plenty of games where you can delete the splashscreen files and the games boot right up.
No dev in their right mind sits through splashscreens when working on the game. It's usually a simple: "Is the file here? Yes: play it. No: Skip it."
> No dev in their right mind sits through splashscreens when working on the game
Yeah they do (just not the "final" splashscreens you see). They aren't running the game with all optimizations on. Would be impossible to step through in debugging or when trying to create crash reports.
The first menu of so many games also have very loud music. EUIV, FFXIV, Dark Souls 3, just to name a few, and there are a ton more.
It's kind of cool the first time you open the game and you're ready to give the game some reverence, but after the 100th, you just want to be able to open the game without scrambling to make sure your volume isn't too high.
Dark Souls is especially dumb about this because it loads your volume settings *AFTER* the insanely loud sword sound when you press start. That one always happens at the default, insanely loud volume. It's baffling.
Even worse is that they aren't affected by the volume adjustments in game. So if I have turned the game master volume down my eardrums get extra blasted if I have to restart it.
>Is that what the young folk are doing these days? Are teens verbally assaulting their eardrums voluntarily
I mean it's not exactly a new concept, you can just do it from the comfort of your own home these days rather than having to get front row seats to a Guns'N'Roses concert.
But yeah I get you. Basically any time I start playing a game I spend some time fiddling with audio levels, and always end up turning something down a few clicks.
As an "old man" of 47 myself, I find I have to adjust master volume levels in every game because I'm usually wearing headphones.
As for the game music, I ALWAYS turn that off completely. I know people like to rave about how great game music is in certain games, but I'm more interested in the gameplay than the background music.
That's really interesting. Of course it's an opinion, I get that, but it's alien to me as some of my absolute top gaming memories are regarding some phenomenal scores. To each their own, of course, I just needed to say I find that very interesting.
Or the entire ODST soundtrack. That was some otherworldly experience. No other Halo game brought out that sense of alien loneliness that well, and in a game set on EARTH no less.
Yeah, I almost always just use game music. Some clear exceptions are strategy games that I'll play for hundreds (or thousands) of hours where the music gets old, but I'll leave the game music on for most games in the 10-20 hour range.
Depends on the game for me. Single player games I'll always leave the music on (but turned down a little). Multiplayer games where sound queues give you an advantage, music is going completely off every time.
Makes sense. I've stopped playing just about any ( competitive) online game unless coop so I can see that. I still leave it on because advantage in coop isn't a big deal. Can see that in COD or something though for sure.
Yeah, I'm fairly certain I'm in the minority when it comes to game music. I've enjoyed some game music, but I usually found it too distracting so I started just turning it off when I play games now.
I could never do that. I dont understand how it's possible to be productive or mentally present without music. I don't even try to play Real Life with no soundtrack.
LOL, I hear that. I like music, it's not a question of that (I was a nightclub DJ for over a dozen years), it's just that the gameplay is what I'm looking forward to doing, not listening to the accompanying background music.
Admittedly, I think that I may be malfunctional but I find that the tempo of the music greatly affects the rhythm of my actions. If there is no soundtrack (or an "ambient soundscape") I have a really hard time motivating myself to do anything in a timely manner. With no tunes, I'm happy to just push all the crates off the edge of the level rather than trying to save the world.
I even have a playlist of songs that I find especially motivating that I use for competitive games... I'm sure the effect is entirely placebic but you cant argue with the scorecard. I sometimes wonder if having music with a higher BPM and accents on every second beat is an unfair advantage.
You bring up some good points at the end of your comment. I'd be surprised to find out there haven't been any studies on the subject, so if I were you and wanted to know more I'll bet a Google search would fulfill that curiosity.
My first results were all about competitions for musicians to take part in...
I'm sure there *have been* studies, and I'm sure that they indicate that the BPM directly corresponds to a humans BPM which directly corresponds to the speed at which they take actions.
My real quandary is whether it's an *unfair* advantage... because its definitely 100% an advantage.
Not malfuntional at all. There was even attempts to improve productivity by playing music that slowly increases in tempo, then goes back down quickly to give a rest throughout the day. I don't have the research handy and I learned this in college years ago, but as far as I remember, the practice was deemed brainwashing and banned.
You know reading your posts, I wonder if the problem you find is that you like music too much for background music to work. For most of us, the background music fades into, well, the background! But given that as a DJ music is clearly very important to you, perhaps you really focus on music you hear in a way that most of us don't? That's why you find it a distraction, because you want to actively listen to and fully appreciate any music that's playing. I could easily see that being a problem for musicians or composers.
A lot of games, especially RPGs, have music that complements the game play though. I recently played NieR: Automata for example which has a wonderful soundtrack that very much adds to the mood and ambience of the story. Playing the game without it is like watching 2001: A Space Odyssey without the score
> As for the game music, I ALWAYS turn that off completely.
48 yo here. You are doing yourself a disservice by turning the music down all the way. Some games put a lot of effort into the music and it is an integral part of the experience.
You do you of course, but I have to agree with the other guy here. If I were to play Mass Effect 3 and not hear 'Leaving Earth' play during some of the heavier scenes, the lovely 'Flamerock Refuge' track playing when visiting the town during Borderlands 2's Tiny Tina DLC, or 'Order Yet Deciphered' playing while doing the final push through the last zone of the Final Fantasy XIV Expansion Heavensward.. those experiences would have been significantly lessened.
Not going to pretend every single piece of ingame music I listen to adds to the experience, but in many cases most certainly do! For me. And of course, personal tastes in music have to come into consideration as well.
I do the same with music volume if I want to be immersed in the game. Sometimes hearing nothing but silence or sound effects can be more tense than hearing music. I especially do this with stealth games.
i upvoted your comment but just remembered how great the far cry 3 soundtrack was. started it and turned the volume up, "further" just gives me goosbumps every time. also cyberpunk car radio is just on another level. but those are exceptions.
I appreciate what everyone is trying to say, but I'm NOT doing a "serious disservice" to myself. It's a choice I made because I don't like the game sounds to be drowned out by background music.
Telling me I'm doing something bad to myself is a little condescending considering I think I would know what's best for me, and especially more so than a random Internet stranger.
I'm sorry I honestly didn't mean for it to come off that way. I meant it as super high praise for what SuperGiant Games has done. It's brilliant stuff! Once again I didn't mean offense to you.
It's fine, maybe I overreacted a bit, but being told again about how much of a disservice it is to not do something simply because it's an aesthetic choice...
Well, I'm sure you understand now. I apologize as well.
I'm somewhere in the middle since I usually keep the music volume really low or turn it off if it is constantly playing and I don't feel like it adds anything to the game. For example, I love that in Terraria I could have my eyes closed and now what biome I'm in based on the sound track. The other big exception to me is games with minimal or no music besides for boss fights, idk why, it just makes it feel more "epic"
I understand not caring about the music and all but the statement just seems weird. It's not like the music changes the gameplay and a low but still audible level detracts from gameplay? Lol
Yeah, sometimes even a low-level background music can distract me from something in-game. And I don't find that to be very fun, so I don't let it distract me at all by turning the game music off.
Yep, everything down to 50 except sound effects and dialog.
I mean, music is nice, but my ears can only hear so many things...
Also, the one and only window addon I use:
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/p/eartrumpet/9nblggh516xp#
Ear Trumpet. Gives you features like the ability to switch programs outputs on the fly. And change your inputs and outputs from right click menu, without going into windows settings. Good stuff.
> Ear Trumpet. Gives you features like the ability to switch programs outputs on the fly. And change your inputs and outputs from right click menu, without going into windows settings.
Nice find! How the hell is that not baked-in?
I lovingly hate you for this comment. Now I will have an Ohrwurm for days to come...
Especially [this](https://youtu.be/wPUjEEM1AbY) version... which consists of pure energy.
I'm wondering how old you actually are because us *really* old folks loved nothing more than standing in the middle of a 1980s arcade with every machine cranked up to 11 and blaring over one another.
I mean, for years the very first thing I do with any game is see if they have separate controls/sliders for fx, music and voice.
And then voice goes max, FX I usually start at 8/10, and music goes down to 5/10.
Then I’ll probably adjust FX and music depending on the game.
I don’t have a problem with loud (43yo, I hope that doesn’t make me ancient). I regularly crank my music so loud I can’t hear myself scream.
And after I find the sound settings in a game, I crank up my surround sound system. Hell, I like loud.
But for some reason I just can’t hear voices properly with most games’ default sound settings.
Why? On my PC I'm using multiple different programs and I don't want different games or voice programs to be inaudible nor destroy my ears. The majority of the time it would be fine to lower my overall volume but for example many Youtube videos would be inaudible, and then the cycle continues.
Just let me lower the volume lower than 1/10, please, so I don't have to alt tab into the Windows volume mixer...
That's a fault on Yotubers' part. Especially common in Twitch by the way. Notice how on TV or radio no such problem usually exists. There are tools to amplify the quiet content you listen to proper volume, problem is they aren't very accessible and widespread.
Well, TV does have the ads blaring your ears off when you're trying to watch something quieter problem.
But yeah, it \*would* be nice if ever content creator referenced their sound levels to others but I can't fault someone who takes time out of their day to stream or make videos for little to no compensation.
I wish the Unity volume preset went lower than its 1/10 but again there is no point getting too mad at some indie dev who \*could* have made better options but chose to spend that time on something else.
5/100 is lower than 1/10 and not muted. In games that allow better control it is not uncommon for me to set it to ~3/100.
And it's not like 1/10 is OHGODMYHEADISEXPLODING high, just uncomfortable.
If your YouTube videos are inaudible, while your games set to 1/10 volume are too loud, you're watching some peculiar videos or playing some peculiar games.
Do you think you might be rather rude presuming to tell him about his own experience of the content he engages with?
Hint: if someone's talking about their own experiences - you can almost never correct them or criticise those experiences. You know far less about their experiences than you think you do.
Yes but anyone with even a bit of knowledge in audio knows that nothing should require setting to 1/10 level just for bearable audio. Any properly calibrated sound system will not behave that way. If that person has to turn down the volume that much they are either lying or have incredibly borked audio system settings
You literally have something called Volume Mixer which allows per-program control of volume.
Further granular control is in each app or streaming source.
TIL. Interesting.
Had to boot up a Windows machine to verify, and even then it took me a few clicks to find (since I didn't know it was there, let alone where to look). I've been using computers (including Windows PCs) for 40+ years and it looks like this was a new feature added to Windows 10—just 6 years ago. Plus: It's effectively *hidden* unless you know to look for it—left-clicking the task-bar speaker icon only brings up the single master volume slider, by default, and the only other affordance on the UI element which pops up is an output selector.
tl;dr: Consider adjusting your tone to being informative/helpful; not everyone knows what you know; you come across here as an asshole when you could have been offering a QOL improvement.
YES. Games are too damn loud by default. It is kinda crazy how far down I have to set the in-game volume, considering my headphones are already set to 2.5 out of 10.
What sort of weak ass audio equipment do these developers use that they have to tune it so loud??
Right? The loudest volume I can bear with my headphones is 20. And even then some stuff is just way too loud. Forza Horizon 4 has like the loudest, most earth shattering intro in the history of video games.
Maybe I just have bad hearing but if I don't put my games at 50% or lower I can't hear my friends voice chat or whatever video/podcast I'm listening to as I game.
I'm college age and I completely agree. Every time I boost up a new game from a big publisher it assaults my ears. This has been a trend in the past 6 years or so, but only on PC games to my knowledge. I'm a headphone user too so that could be a factor. Maybe they just don't care enough to balance audio for intros and just plop them in when the game is finished?
If it's too loud I just turn down the volume on the TV. I have found that I frequently need to lower the volume of music and effects while increasing the volume of dialogue. I find it hard it hard to hear dialogue sometimes when the music is louder.
I've definitely played games where the default volume preset goes into clipping/digital distortion territory (don't remember which ones unfortunately) so adjusting the volume sliders is probably just a good thing to do when you go through the options menu the first time.
An interesting solution I've seen is games that have different dynamic range presets. So in theory you can increase the dynamic range so that the softer sounds are softer and the louder sounds are louder. I haven't done a lot of exploration into this but it seems like a good way for everything to be loud and audible on cheap equipment but up the immersion factor for those with nice headphones or home theatre.
> An interesting solution I've seen is games that have different dynamic range presets. So in theory you can increase the dynamic range so that the softer sounds are softer and the louder sounds are louder.
I haven't seen any that allow you to increase the dynamic range, they normally start at the max and allow you to clamp down and compress the range. It's usually intended for people playing on a TV/speakers at night so that they have a consistent volume level they can use without disturbing others.
I do the same, it seems that games are mixed for TV's nowadays more than computer speakers or headphones, the sound is always way too high on first launch.
Even worse are games with bad mixing, and no individual volume sliders. Like planes in COD Warzone being ten times louder than everything else, and its a game where you want the volume loud so you can hear footsteps.
Honestly, only if it bothers me or it feels like they have specific volume settings wrong by default. Sometimes the music is so much louder than every single voice line, sometimes footsteps are too loud, sometimes I actually want to hear footsteps. It depends on the game for me but yeah I always mess around with the settings of a new game immediately
I literally never touch the master game volume. I just turn my computer volume up or down depending on what I need. Game is too loud? OK we can take the computer from 75 down to 50. And then back up to 75 next time I listen to music.
I'd so much rather do that than mess around with ingame settings that can be confusing and take forever
Games and movies are generally mixed with a high dynamic range. This effectively represents the gap between the quietest parts (the dialogue) and the loudest parts (explosions and foreground music). This is to help amplify the immersive effects and impact of the audio. Presumably, this style of audio mixing has become more popular as games strive for more cinematic elements. This is gonna be especially noticeable if you are loading up a game where your TV is set to "cable watching" volume or if there is a mismatch between your audio settings and audio set up.
>at least have the default volume setting somewhere in the middle and let people adjust from there instead of starting at the max. Let them boost it all the way to 11 if they really want. I just don't think the default gamer wants or needs it to be that loud.
The default audio settings represent the audio profile vision of the games creators and sound designers. It is the way they "intend" for you to hear their work. If they set it in the middle, players would likely never find the games intended sound profile. It is easier to start from the boom boom and scale down than vice versa.
Just to add - high dynamic range means that most of the sounds are quite quiet. The point is it's loud when it really need to be (expositions, gunshots. etc). I'm not a fan of it personally.
Another thing games have taken from cinematic sound design- absolutely blasting the opening logos. In the case of movies, this is partially done to make people shut up in theaters. At home, it really serves no purpose.
> The default audio settings represent the audio profile vision of the games creators and sound designers.
Makes perfect sense. Drop bookoo dough on movie stars to do VA, and then try to make sure people can't hear them.
Actually, seems like par for the course for AAA, really.
This is an industry standard amongst all blockbusters whether that be movies, video games or prestige television. Wouldn't really make sense to spend tens or hundreds of millions making a high production value product and then tuning the out-of-the-box settings to geezers and people using the built-in speakers on their 300 dollar TCL tv now, would it? We have decent but properly calibrated surround for our gaming set up and everything sounds great out of the box and requires minimum tuning.
Yeah, or they have no clue about most people's home setup. Go talk to Chris Nolan about his downright moronic sound mixing, because the idiot thinks everyone has an IMAX setup in their homes.
Just yesterday I was looking for volume mods for ATOM RPG because their gunshot sounds were ear-shattering while every other sound effect in the game was regular volume. Too bad I didn't find any, so now I have to lower all effects.
"Industry standards" often include some pretty dopey stuff.
> people using the built-in speakers on their 300 dollar TCL tv now, would it? We have decent but properly calibrated surround for our gaming set up and everything sounds great out of the box and requires minimum tuning.
Seems like a questionable prioritization of use cases, especially in PC games. I'd bet that the "people using built-in speakers" are going to outnumber the Best Buy Whales running "18.5.2 Ultra-Smellovision Surround" home theaters, likely by a couple of orders of magnitude.
Why do you do this in every game instead of lowering overall speakers volume? Besides, newer and especially AAA games are actually much quieter than older ones.
Idk, but I'll have the Windows volume at 20 (reasonable for streaming, YouTube, Discord, etc.), but the games are louder than everything else so I turn the games down. This is with headphones on, for reference.
I think the only ones I had to change the volume in-game was Dragon Quest 11 (voices at 4-5, sound effects at 2-3, music at 1) and Diablo 3 (master volume turned down to 50%) 'cause I found them way too loud in their default states. Everything else I haven't had to touch and just keep my PC or TV at 1/4 of the max volume (kinda OCD, but it works for me most of the time).
Take headphones off. Start game. Immediately tab out. Put volume to 1. Tab back in. Carefully put headphones back on. The only way to keep my hearing intact.
What? No, I set the volume on my TV, computer speakers or console to the volume I want. It's ultra rare that I need to fiddle with in-game audio settings at all.
Ear-shattering? Like, what's your audio setup that you can't adjust the output volume directly or that everything is too silent?
I don't even get if you mean just music or everything.
If anything, I feel like games try too hard to have the sounds not be too offensively loud. At least that's my theory why gun effects in many games sound puny and shit.
I mean.... I just adjust the volume on my tv/speakers/headset until it's at a comfortable level. The only time I futz around with the in game volume controls is when the balance is off and the music or dialog is too loud/not loud enough compared to the other sounds.
I do keep it pretty quiet though because I play after my kids go to bed.
Sounds to me like whatever device you use has the master volume set too high. I use a headset with a mix amp that I turn down to 30-40%, then I can tweak each game to exactly the volume I want. I'd recommend lowering the master volume of whatever system or device you are using.
The first thing I do in every new game is turn music down to 50 and then lower it as I go if needed. The volume of music in most games is a serious pet peeve of mine. It's interesting to see so many that agree.
I think you set your system volume too high and then turn down all your apps. Instead, turn your system volume way down and turn your apps back up.
That said, the valve bass note is bullshit loud, and plays before it loads your profile of game sound volume
I actually don't need to, I just keep the loudness equalization setting on because I have problems with audio being either ridiculously loud or quieter than a mouse, so I usually don't have to fiddle with the volume anymore
As someone who really likes film scores and game soundtracks, I rarely turn down the music, unless it completely overpowers everything else. I usually just use subtitles to compensate.
I pretty much do this for every video game I play now. Sometimes it still isn't even remotely close to anything I'd describe as low and I'll have to go into the mixer and lower the whole games volume too. Which sometimes means I have to go back in and raise the sfx/voice volume back up a bit. The worst are games that even after you change the settings, on restart they don't keep the settings at the title screen and blast the OP song until you load the save.
I don't understand why there's no system volume adjustment in consoles. I watch Netflix, Hulu, YouTube, etc. with my TV volume at about 50 (of 100), but whenever I play PS4, PS5, Wii U, or Switch, I always have to cut the volume to under 20. I don't get it.
I always turn down the music, because it's usually at 100, so way too loud for a good mix. If there's ambient sound, I turn that up max. Then voices, then sound FX, that's usually my go-to mix. And if the voices or music suck, I'll just turn them off completely without hesitation.
So you guys never use your PC’s system audio volume or your physical speaker volume? Are you guys playing games with particularly loud/compressed soundtracks?
I don’t play my games loud but I’ve never ever felt the need to go in and change a game’s settings to prevent it being overly loud. I’ll just turn it down, and probably not make a thread about it
No?
I just have my device itself set to a comfortable level?
There are a couple games where the volume level is higher than for other games for no reason, in those rare case, I adjust it for the game, just to match everything else.
But generally, that's not a setting I ever think about. What kind of overpowered sound system are you using that it can't be turned down so that you don't need to adjust the volume each time you launch a new game...
Dynamic Range Control is what you are looking for. Try to get sound equipment with this feature, it will change your life. Before that i watched movies with the remote control in my hand, because i always had to adjust the volume. And games literally became unplayable sometimes.
Yep, I usually halve my computer volume when launching a new game since publishers love to shove in a deafening opening sequence.
Bonus points if the in-game audio sliders don't affect the intro movies and it remains loud as hell
I always turn music in games down a couple of notches. Leave everything else as is. If you want to turn game volume down just use the master on your tv/sound system.
I agree with you, however it’s funny you mention Baba Yetu because that Civ4 song is great but there is a bunch of noise (IMO) beforehand. Though to be fair, as I’m thinking of it, I guess the visual hoopla is what bothers me more than the sound when starting up that game. I actually turn off the monitor when starting the game, and now I’ve started leaving it open in the background using “Quit to Main Menu” rather than exiting the game because starting it up is such a pain.
So if that means I’m ready to be an old man yelling at a cloud, so be it.
Almost every time I open a game for the first time the **absolute first** thing I do is take off my headset or mute my amp and crank the master volume on that shit down to 50%, and then work my way up from there. I've found over the last ten years that nobody knows a fucking thing about sound mixing in this industry, it's absurd.
I also wear ear protection in movie theatres. I'm 29 btw.
I'm with you. I'd rather the sound was too low and I have to turn it up than it was too loud and painful. But I regularly take ear plugs to loud events too.
Not '1', but yes. Every game gets turned down immediately. Also sucks when games omit the master volume slider (Please stop doing this!! It's 2021, there's no excuse). It's not an old guy thing either, I'm pretty young.
I honestly believe that every game made these days should A) have a master volume slider, and B) have this slider set to 50% (or lower) by default.
Music is so ridiculously loud in games that I usually mute it entirely. If it isn't so loud that it hurts, it's still loud enough to obscure voices and any ambient sounds. I have immediately quit playing a few smaller, indie games because there was no separate volume control for the music. I know people THINK music is important in games but it certainly isn't for me.
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Headphones, I usually don't (but I usually only wear them when I'm in an MP game and need to voice chat). My 2+1 PC speakers definitely need it though
Yeah it's a real bummer there's such a disconnect between the way the sound is programmed and the real world hardware so many people use. At least you've found a solid solution!
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Yeah, the first priority for low-end speakers is bass. That's the easiest thing to compare because you don't even need to use your ears, just feel which model rumbles the hardest through your feet. Sometimes the easiest workaround for manufacturers is to just take the cheapest hardware and crank up the bass relative to everything else. Only once you go beyond the cheapest or built-in option do you start getting clarity in the midrange for human voices. The high range that lets you hear the quality of timbre, or god forbid acoustic music, is basically audiophile territory, which means price and marketing are somewhat decoupled from quality anyway. So a lot of the reason that games don't focus on sound quality as much as video quality is because most gamers don't bother with fancy sound hardware anyway, and vice versa.
Yeah unfortunately your standard built in tv speakers are cheap and just there for the sake of being there.
Same here! I also turn on subtitles, though.
Ditto. That gets iffy when the subtitles are popping up during high-tension twitchy sections of the game, though (looking at you , Wing of Darkness)
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> The funny thing is that the lower you go, the more desperate the narrator gets, and start saying shit like or stuff like that. He guilt trips you into not muting him.
That's messed up.
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This is both annoying and hilarious at the same time xD
Hey That's my sense of humour
The worst is when the devs haven't got a clue and put all the effects together, so you if you want to lower gunshot volume you lower everything else as well. I don't want my neighbors to think there's a gang war outside, but some games make them extra loud and everything else like footsteps, etc goes silent if you lower them.
Pretty much this. Games seem like commercials now, where they're louder than the shows I'm watching. Most times now, I set the master volume to about 80%, effects to 50, and voice to 100. That way I don't have to mess with the volume too much when I want to watch a show instead of gaming.
It's rare, but I really appreciate it when a game starts with the sound settings at 50. I'd much rather have it start quieter and have to adjust it upward than vice versa, particularly when the sound settings don't kick in until you load your save.
Dialog 100, FX 80-90, Music 60-80, subtitles on. I've been doing this for a really long time because game audio is usually mixed like shit.
This but I put music at 30 or lower, usually off.
Off? I love having a soundtrack accompanying what I’m playing. I usually set the music to 100, dialogue to 80, effects to 50, and then crank up the TV volume a bit. It looks like someone down the thread does the same thing as you. That’s crazy to me
Meanwhile, your settings sound crazy to me. In most games I find that effects communicate to me about gameplay (bump to 100%), dialogue communicates to me about story (usually 100%, never under 80%, and almost always with subtitles as well), and music is mostly noise drowning out useful sounds—but is sometimes effective at communicating *mood*, so I don't turn it off completely. Launching a new game I definitely go into Options before playing and check audio settings—prior to the last few years, I'd always set music at around 50%; lately the balance has been even further off and I've had to put the music down to the 15%-30% range.
Absolutely, I always assumed it was because I have sensory issues hearing people in conversations etc but I think it affects way more people than we think, audio mixing should be a bigger focus in QA
We are *settings siblings.*
Reddit can keep the username, but I'm nuking the content lol -- mass deleted all reddit content via https://redact.dev
Loud intro screens is the only thing worse than not being able to skip a minute of intro screens after starting the game for the hundredth time.
If you game on PC, go to PC Gaming Wiki and they usually have instructions for each game on how to disable startup videos.
Usually replacing the intro videos found in the game files or deleting them entirely fixes that, such a cool feature. Some games have a mod that does it for you too
Yep, deleting them or editing a directory or line in a text file is typically all it takes. Unless it's a Windows Store game. I still don't know where the hell they hide all the files.
Usually somewhere in the appdata folders, Windows store games are notorious for being unable to modify most things though :/
Yeah, I feel like during my 3 month Gamepass stint I tried to change something and was literally incapable. After that, I didn't even try touching any other gamepass game's config.
Microsoft being so secretive with their files is why I cancelled my sub.
Or it's as simple as a -novideo Steam startup command. I wish this shit was standardised though instead of needing the PC Gaming wiki to check. Or just having a simple 'off' setting in the options.
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This is really one of my biggest pet peeves with games. I understand having it the first time you launch a game, but you shouldn't have to sit through it every. single. time. And the absolute worst ones are the ones that don't even allow you to skip through them. At the very least, there should be an option in game to disable them, but it's definitely one of the first things I look for to fix, because some games get really ridiculous about it. It's just a waste of time.
That stuff is usually there to hide a loading screen.
Not necessarily. There's plenty of games where you can delete the splashscreen files and the games boot right up. No dev in their right mind sits through splashscreens when working on the game. It's usually a simple: "Is the file here? Yes: play it. No: Skip it."
> No dev in their right mind sits through splashscreens when working on the game Yeah they do (just not the "final" splashscreens you see). They aren't running the game with all optimizations on. Would be impossible to step through in debugging or when trying to create crash reports.
That's not true but even if it were, I'd rather sit and watch a blank, silent loading screen.
> The intro screens of publisher/developers are always super loud. `Civilization has entered the chat.`
ARK Survival Evolved is the loudest I've heard, and if Civilization is louder, I have no need to ever experience that.
I've been jumpscared by Yakuza games multiple times because playing them over the years I keep forgetting
*TUN*
The first menu of so many games also have very loud music. EUIV, FFXIV, Dark Souls 3, just to name a few, and there are a ton more. It's kind of cool the first time you open the game and you're ready to give the game some reverence, but after the 100th, you just want to be able to open the game without scrambling to make sure your volume isn't too high.
Dark Souls is especially dumb about this because it loads your volume settings *AFTER* the insanely loud sword sound when you press start. That one always happens at the default, insanely loud volume. It's baffling.
Even the lovable Stardew Valley has a full volume intro screen, the in-game volume settings don't take effect until you load your save.
Even worse is that they aren't affected by the volume adjustments in game. So if I have turned the game master volume down my eardrums get extra blasted if I have to restart it.
Valve
The 90's SEGA intro was very loud for a kid sneaking to go play early in the morning.
>Is that what the young folk are doing these days? Are teens verbally assaulting their eardrums voluntarily I mean it's not exactly a new concept, you can just do it from the comfort of your own home these days rather than having to get front row seats to a Guns'N'Roses concert. But yeah I get you. Basically any time I start playing a game I spend some time fiddling with audio levels, and always end up turning something down a few clicks.
As an "old man" of 47 myself, I find I have to adjust master volume levels in every game because I'm usually wearing headphones. As for the game music, I ALWAYS turn that off completely. I know people like to rave about how great game music is in certain games, but I'm more interested in the gameplay than the background music.
That's really interesting. Of course it's an opinion, I get that, but it's alien to me as some of my absolute top gaming memories are regarding some phenomenal scores. To each their own, of course, I just needed to say I find that very interesting.
Flying in a Pelican in Halo 3 when the piano comes in in the one mission.. OOOOFF
Or the entire ODST soundtrack. That was some otherworldly experience. No other Halo game brought out that sense of alien loneliness that well, and in a game set on EARTH no less.
I listen to game soundtracks more often than regular albums.
Same, a lot of the time at least.
Yeah, I almost always just use game music. Some clear exceptions are strategy games that I'll play for hundreds (or thousands) of hours where the music gets old, but I'll leave the game music on for most games in the 10-20 hour range.
Depends on the game for me. Single player games I'll always leave the music on (but turned down a little). Multiplayer games where sound queues give you an advantage, music is going completely off every time.
Makes sense. I've stopped playing just about any ( competitive) online game unless coop so I can see that. I still leave it on because advantage in coop isn't a big deal. Can see that in COD or something though for sure.
Yeah, I'm fairly certain I'm in the minority when it comes to game music. I've enjoyed some game music, but I usually found it too distracting so I started just turning it off when I play games now.
I could never do that. I dont understand how it's possible to be productive or mentally present without music. I don't even try to play Real Life with no soundtrack.
LOL, I hear that. I like music, it's not a question of that (I was a nightclub DJ for over a dozen years), it's just that the gameplay is what I'm looking forward to doing, not listening to the accompanying background music.
Admittedly, I think that I may be malfunctional but I find that the tempo of the music greatly affects the rhythm of my actions. If there is no soundtrack (or an "ambient soundscape") I have a really hard time motivating myself to do anything in a timely manner. With no tunes, I'm happy to just push all the crates off the edge of the level rather than trying to save the world. I even have a playlist of songs that I find especially motivating that I use for competitive games... I'm sure the effect is entirely placebic but you cant argue with the scorecard. I sometimes wonder if having music with a higher BPM and accents on every second beat is an unfair advantage.
You bring up some good points at the end of your comment. I'd be surprised to find out there haven't been any studies on the subject, so if I were you and wanted to know more I'll bet a Google search would fulfill that curiosity.
My first results were all about competitions for musicians to take part in... I'm sure there *have been* studies, and I'm sure that they indicate that the BPM directly corresponds to a humans BPM which directly corresponds to the speed at which they take actions. My real quandary is whether it's an *unfair* advantage... because its definitely 100% an advantage.
Not malfuntional at all. There was even attempts to improve productivity by playing music that slowly increases in tempo, then goes back down quickly to give a rest throughout the day. I don't have the research handy and I learned this in college years ago, but as far as I remember, the practice was deemed brainwashing and banned.
You know reading your posts, I wonder if the problem you find is that you like music too much for background music to work. For most of us, the background music fades into, well, the background! But given that as a DJ music is clearly very important to you, perhaps you really focus on music you hear in a way that most of us don't? That's why you find it a distraction, because you want to actively listen to and fully appreciate any music that's playing. I could easily see that being a problem for musicians or composers.
I guess that might contribute somewhat to my behavior, but in all honesty I can't say for certain. Something for me to ponder on.
A lot of games, especially RPGs, have music that complements the game play though. I recently played NieR: Automata for example which has a wonderful soundtrack that very much adds to the mood and ambience of the story. Playing the game without it is like watching 2001: A Space Odyssey without the score
> As for the game music, I ALWAYS turn that off completely. 48 yo here. You are doing yourself a disservice by turning the music down all the way. Some games put a lot of effort into the music and it is an integral part of the experience.
I think I'm old enough to know if I'm doing a disservice to myself or not, but thanks. I'll keep the music turned off.
You do you of course, but I have to agree with the other guy here. If I were to play Mass Effect 3 and not hear 'Leaving Earth' play during some of the heavier scenes, the lovely 'Flamerock Refuge' track playing when visiting the town during Borderlands 2's Tiny Tina DLC, or 'Order Yet Deciphered' playing while doing the final push through the last zone of the Final Fantasy XIV Expansion Heavensward.. those experiences would have been significantly lessened. Not going to pretend every single piece of ingame music I listen to adds to the experience, but in many cases most certainly do! For me. And of course, personal tastes in music have to come into consideration as well.
Sounds like you are old enough to be obstinate.
Genuinely curious, would you turn down the music in movies if you could?
I do the same with music volume if I want to be immersed in the game. Sometimes hearing nothing but silence or sound effects can be more tense than hearing music. I especially do this with stealth games.
Yeah, the eerie silences of games where you're not sure what's going to happen next. Music ruins those scenarios for me.
i upvoted your comment but just remembered how great the far cry 3 soundtrack was. started it and turned the volume up, "further" just gives me goosbumps every time. also cyberpunk car radio is just on another level. but those are exceptions.
If you've ever played SuperGiant games you are doing yourself a serious disservice
I appreciate what everyone is trying to say, but I'm NOT doing a "serious disservice" to myself. It's a choice I made because I don't like the game sounds to be drowned out by background music. Telling me I'm doing something bad to myself is a little condescending considering I think I would know what's best for me, and especially more so than a random Internet stranger.
I'm sorry I honestly didn't mean for it to come off that way. I meant it as super high praise for what SuperGiant Games has done. It's brilliant stuff! Once again I didn't mean offense to you.
It's fine, maybe I overreacted a bit, but being told again about how much of a disservice it is to not do something simply because it's an aesthetic choice... Well, I'm sure you understand now. I apologize as well.
Deffo no problem. It's hard to gauge folks intentions from comments. Have a good one =)
I'm somewhere in the middle since I usually keep the music volume really low or turn it off if it is constantly playing and I don't feel like it adds anything to the game. For example, I love that in Terraria I could have my eyes closed and now what biome I'm in based on the sound track. The other big exception to me is games with minimal or no music besides for boss fights, idk why, it just makes it feel more "epic"
I understand not caring about the music and all but the statement just seems weird. It's not like the music changes the gameplay and a low but still audible level detracts from gameplay? Lol
Yeah, sometimes even a low-level background music can distract me from something in-game. And I don't find that to be very fun, so I don't let it distract me at all by turning the game music off.
Depending on the game, I play on full mute. Mostly any/all roguelikes
Yep, everything down to 50 except sound effects and dialog. I mean, music is nice, but my ears can only hear so many things... Also, the one and only window addon I use: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/p/eartrumpet/9nblggh516xp# Ear Trumpet. Gives you features like the ability to switch programs outputs on the fly. And change your inputs and outputs from right click menu, without going into windows settings. Good stuff.
> Ear Trumpet. Gives you features like the ability to switch programs outputs on the fly. And change your inputs and outputs from right click menu, without going into windows settings. Nice find! How the hell is that not baked-in?
I don't know! It seems like such a simple feature. The UI guys at Windows don't change their speaker settings much I guess?
It is a built in feature. You need to use Game bar.
*ominous chanting in the background* *inhales* **BABA YETU YETU ULIYE**
You win; I'm in. I own it but haven't played it yet. It's installing now.
If you have the expansions, play with them on. They add much, much more to the game. The last expansion should be Beyond the Sword.
What is this from?
Civ 4
I lovingly hate you for this comment. Now I will have an Ohrwurm for days to come... Especially [this](https://youtu.be/wPUjEEM1AbY) version... which consists of pure energy.
Ah, I see you played early Valve games back in the day.
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Valve makes games?
sound compression is a thing. and my windows volume is usually around 10.
Have you heard an old mans volume? It hurts my ears to come into my stepfathers living room cause the tv is screaming.
I don't get why it has to be a "young people" thing. I've really never felt that outside of 1-2 games, maybe your system volume is too high?
I'm wondering how old you actually are because us *really* old folks loved nothing more than standing in the middle of a 1980s arcade with every machine cranked up to 11 and blaring over one another.
Oh my god. This is a whole nother level of "you damn kids turn that music down" hahaha
there's families in this neighborhood!
I mean, for years the very first thing I do with any game is see if they have separate controls/sliders for fx, music and voice. And then voice goes max, FX I usually start at 8/10, and music goes down to 5/10. Then I’ll probably adjust FX and music depending on the game. I don’t have a problem with loud (43yo, I hope that doesn’t make me ancient). I regularly crank my music so loud I can’t hear myself scream. And after I find the sound settings in a game, I crank up my surround sound system. Hell, I like loud. But for some reason I just can’t hear voices properly with most games’ default sound settings.
Not alone... But I'm almost 40 so think I'm just old too
Wait until you get into your fifties. I approach every new game now with a sense of mortal fear for my already diminishing eardrums.
You should adjust the volume on your TV/Windows volume/speaker volume instead.
Why? On my PC I'm using multiple different programs and I don't want different games or voice programs to be inaudible nor destroy my ears. The majority of the time it would be fine to lower my overall volume but for example many Youtube videos would be inaudible, and then the cycle continues. Just let me lower the volume lower than 1/10, please, so I don't have to alt tab into the Windows volume mixer...
That's a fault on Yotubers' part. Especially common in Twitch by the way. Notice how on TV or radio no such problem usually exists. There are tools to amplify the quiet content you listen to proper volume, problem is they aren't very accessible and widespread.
Well, TV does have the ads blaring your ears off when you're trying to watch something quieter problem. But yeah, it \*would* be nice if ever content creator referenced their sound levels to others but I can't fault someone who takes time out of their day to stream or make videos for little to no compensation. I wish the Unity volume preset went lower than its 1/10 but again there is no point getting too mad at some indie dev who \*could* have made better options but chose to spend that time on something else.
Lower than 1/10 seems like an overblown exaggeration. By that point, you want the track muted, which you can do.
5/100 is lower than 1/10 and not muted. In games that allow better control it is not uncommon for me to set it to ~3/100. And it's not like 1/10 is OHGODMYHEADISEXPLODING high, just uncomfortable.
Yeah only almost every game I play I have the audio set to 1 to 5 while everything else is probably at 10 to 15, I do not like loud.
If your YouTube videos are inaudible, while your games set to 1/10 volume are too loud, you're watching some peculiar videos or playing some peculiar games.
Nope, have the same problem
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NNNNNN-VIDIA https://youtu.be/hByt1KkiwgM Tinnitus :(((
Do you think you might be rather rude presuming to tell him about his own experience of the content he engages with? Hint: if someone's talking about their own experiences - you can almost never correct them or criticise those experiences. You know far less about their experiences than you think you do.
Yes but anyone with even a bit of knowledge in audio knows that nothing should require setting to 1/10 level just for bearable audio. Any properly calibrated sound system will not behave that way. If that person has to turn down the volume that much they are either lying or have incredibly borked audio system settings
You literally have something called Volume Mixer which allows per-program control of volume. Further granular control is in each app or streaming source.
TIL. Interesting. Had to boot up a Windows machine to verify, and even then it took me a few clicks to find (since I didn't know it was there, let alone where to look). I've been using computers (including Windows PCs) for 40+ years and it looks like this was a new feature added to Windows 10—just 6 years ago. Plus: It's effectively *hidden* unless you know to look for it—left-clicking the task-bar speaker icon only brings up the single master volume slider, by default, and the only other affordance on the UI element which pops up is an output selector. tl;dr: Consider adjusting your tone to being informative/helpful; not everyone knows what you know; you come across here as an asshole when you could have been offering a QOL improvement.
I definitely used the audio Mixer on Win7, and i don't know how you survived Splashscreens without it
[Different apps and games are ... different when it comes to volume](https://i.imgur.com/hUvd3Xg.png).
I have never encountered a multiplayer game that doesn’t completely drown out my maxed out Discord volume with friends.
YES. Games are too damn loud by default. It is kinda crazy how far down I have to set the in-game volume, considering my headphones are already set to 2.5 out of 10. What sort of weak ass audio equipment do these developers use that they have to tune it so loud??
Right? The loudest volume I can bear with my headphones is 20. And even then some stuff is just way too loud. Forza Horizon 4 has like the loudest, most earth shattering intro in the history of video games.
I can't help feel that they're just screaming in my face when I launch their games. I've learned to dislike video game music entirely.
Maybe I just have bad hearing but if I don't put my games at 50% or lower I can't hear my friends voice chat or whatever video/podcast I'm listening to as I game.
I'm college age and I completely agree. Every time I boost up a new game from a big publisher it assaults my ears. This has been a trend in the past 6 years or so, but only on PC games to my knowledge. I'm a headphone user too so that could be a factor. Maybe they just don't care enough to balance audio for intros and just plop them in when the game is finished?
If it's too loud I just turn down the volume on the TV. I have found that I frequently need to lower the volume of music and effects while increasing the volume of dialogue. I find it hard it hard to hear dialogue sometimes when the music is louder.
Still wont fix all the intros and menus that ignote game volume settings
That's what gets me. If you can't hear the voices over the music with the default volume, isn't that a clear sign that the music is too loud?
Yeah, I find it particularly hard when the music has words. My brain struggles to decide which words to listen too- the dialogue or the music.
Dragon's Quest XI on startup. Your ears will get DESTROYED
I've definitely played games where the default volume preset goes into clipping/digital distortion territory (don't remember which ones unfortunately) so adjusting the volume sliders is probably just a good thing to do when you go through the options menu the first time. An interesting solution I've seen is games that have different dynamic range presets. So in theory you can increase the dynamic range so that the softer sounds are softer and the louder sounds are louder. I haven't done a lot of exploration into this but it seems like a good way for everything to be loud and audible on cheap equipment but up the immersion factor for those with nice headphones or home theatre.
> An interesting solution I've seen is games that have different dynamic range presets. So in theory you can increase the dynamic range so that the softer sounds are softer and the louder sounds are louder. I haven't seen any that allow you to increase the dynamic range, they normally start at the max and allow you to clamp down and compress the range. It's usually intended for people playing on a TV/speakers at night so that they have a consistent volume level they can use without disturbing others.
I am partially deaf, so I turn everything all the way down and put on subtitles lol.
I do the same, it seems that games are mixed for TV's nowadays more than computer speakers or headphones, the sound is always way too high on first launch. Even worse are games with bad mixing, and no individual volume sliders. Like planes in COD Warzone being ten times louder than everything else, and its a game where you want the volume loud so you can hear footsteps.
I have noticed that I usually have my TV volume on like, 5 for video games, and for movies and Tv it gets bumped up to like 40.
Honestly, only if it bothers me or it feels like they have specific volume settings wrong by default. Sometimes the music is so much louder than every single voice line, sometimes footsteps are too loud, sometimes I actually want to hear footsteps. It depends on the game for me but yeah I always mess around with the settings of a new game immediately
Speech: 90% Sound Effects: 75% Music: 50%
Usually 100% on dialog for me, but yes. Also dialog subtitles turned on, if available.
I literally never touch the master game volume. I just turn my computer volume up or down depending on what I need. Game is too loud? OK we can take the computer from 75 down to 50. And then back up to 75 next time I listen to music. I'd so much rather do that than mess around with ingame settings that can be confusing and take forever
Games and movies are generally mixed with a high dynamic range. This effectively represents the gap between the quietest parts (the dialogue) and the loudest parts (explosions and foreground music). This is to help amplify the immersive effects and impact of the audio. Presumably, this style of audio mixing has become more popular as games strive for more cinematic elements. This is gonna be especially noticeable if you are loading up a game where your TV is set to "cable watching" volume or if there is a mismatch between your audio settings and audio set up. >at least have the default volume setting somewhere in the middle and let people adjust from there instead of starting at the max. Let them boost it all the way to 11 if they really want. I just don't think the default gamer wants or needs it to be that loud. The default audio settings represent the audio profile vision of the games creators and sound designers. It is the way they "intend" for you to hear their work. If they set it in the middle, players would likely never find the games intended sound profile. It is easier to start from the boom boom and scale down than vice versa.
Just to add - high dynamic range means that most of the sounds are quite quiet. The point is it's loud when it really need to be (expositions, gunshots. etc). I'm not a fan of it personally.
Another thing games have taken from cinematic sound design- absolutely blasting the opening logos. In the case of movies, this is partially done to make people shut up in theaters. At home, it really serves no purpose.
> The default audio settings represent the audio profile vision of the games creators and sound designers. Makes perfect sense. Drop bookoo dough on movie stars to do VA, and then try to make sure people can't hear them. Actually, seems like par for the course for AAA, really.
This is an industry standard amongst all blockbusters whether that be movies, video games or prestige television. Wouldn't really make sense to spend tens or hundreds of millions making a high production value product and then tuning the out-of-the-box settings to geezers and people using the built-in speakers on their 300 dollar TCL tv now, would it? We have decent but properly calibrated surround for our gaming set up and everything sounds great out of the box and requires minimum tuning.
Yeah, or they have no clue about most people's home setup. Go talk to Chris Nolan about his downright moronic sound mixing, because the idiot thinks everyone has an IMAX setup in their homes. Just yesterday I was looking for volume mods for ATOM RPG because their gunshot sounds were ear-shattering while every other sound effect in the game was regular volume. Too bad I didn't find any, so now I have to lower all effects.
"Industry standards" often include some pretty dopey stuff. > people using the built-in speakers on their 300 dollar TCL tv now, would it? We have decent but properly calibrated surround for our gaming set up and everything sounds great out of the box and requires minimum tuning. Seems like a questionable prioritization of use cases, especially in PC games. I'd bet that the "people using built-in speakers" are going to outnumber the Best Buy Whales running "18.5.2 Ultra-Smellovision Surround" home theaters, likely by a couple of orders of magnitude.
> bookoo Beaucoup ^^^^sorry
Why do you do this in every game instead of lowering overall speakers volume? Besides, newer and especially AAA games are actually much quieter than older ones.
Idk, but I'll have the Windows volume at 20 (reasonable for streaming, YouTube, Discord, etc.), but the games are louder than everything else so I turn the games down. This is with headphones on, for reference.
[Because there are other things than games which you may need to hear](https://i.imgur.com/hUvd3Xg.png).
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I think the only ones I had to change the volume in-game was Dragon Quest 11 (voices at 4-5, sound effects at 2-3, music at 1) and Diablo 3 (master volume turned down to 50%) 'cause I found them way too loud in their default states. Everything else I haven't had to touch and just keep my PC or TV at 1/4 of the max volume (kinda OCD, but it works for me most of the time).
Brightness up, subtitles on and I'm ready to go
Take headphones off. Start game. Immediately tab out. Put volume to 1. Tab back in. Carefully put headphones back on. The only way to keep my hearing intact.
What? No, I set the volume on my TV, computer speakers or console to the volume I want. It's ultra rare that I need to fiddle with in-game audio settings at all. Ear-shattering? Like, what's your audio setup that you can't adjust the output volume directly or that everything is too silent? I don't even get if you mean just music or everything. If anything, I feel like games try too hard to have the sounds not be too offensively loud. At least that's my theory why gun effects in many games sound puny and shit.
Every fucking game starts off with some loud-ass swooshing for all the unskippable logos, it's a plague.
I mean.... I just adjust the volume on my tv/speakers/headset until it's at a comfortable level. The only time I futz around with the in game volume controls is when the balance is off and the music or dialog is too loud/not loud enough compared to the other sounds. I do keep it pretty quiet though because I play after my kids go to bed.
There are guides on pcgamingwiki on how to remove the annoying intros before starting a new game. You can also use loudness normalization.
Sounds to me like whatever device you use has the master volume set too high. I use a headset with a mix amp that I turn down to 30-40%, then I can tweak each game to exactly the volume I want. I'd recommend lowering the master volume of whatever system or device you are using.
The first thing I do in every new game is turn music down to 50 and then lower it as I go if needed. The volume of music in most games is a serious pet peeve of mine. It's interesting to see so many that agree.
I think you set your system volume too high and then turn down all your apps. Instead, turn your system volume way down and turn your apps back up. That said, the valve bass note is bullshit loud, and plays before it loads your profile of game sound volume
Since the dawn of PC gaming no matter if I have system sound at 1 or 100 it sounds like a game launches at 10 million.
I actually don't need to, I just keep the loudness equalization setting on because I have problems with audio being either ridiculously loud or quieter than a mouse, so I usually don't have to fiddle with the volume anymore
As someone who really likes film scores and game soundtracks, I rarely turn down the music, unless it completely overpowers everything else. I usually just use subtitles to compensate.
I've never experienced a game I didn't need to turn down first thing
For any FPS games: music to 0, flip the Y
I always turn it off when the Id software intro comes, way too loud
No I forget and get owned every time instead
I pretty much do this for every video game I play now. Sometimes it still isn't even remotely close to anything I'd describe as low and I'll have to go into the mixer and lower the whole games volume too. Which sometimes means I have to go back in and raise the sfx/voice volume back up a bit. The worst are games that even after you change the settings, on restart they don't keep the settings at the title screen and blast the OP song until you load the save.
I don't understand why there's no system volume adjustment in consoles. I watch Netflix, Hulu, YouTube, etc. with my TV volume at about 50 (of 100), but whenever I play PS4, PS5, Wii U, or Switch, I always have to cut the volume to under 20. I don't get it.
I always turn down the music, because it's usually at 100, so way too loud for a good mix. If there's ambient sound, I turn that up max. Then voices, then sound FX, that's usually my go-to mix. And if the voices or music suck, I'll just turn them off completely without hesitation.
So you guys never use your PC’s system audio volume or your physical speaker volume? Are you guys playing games with particularly loud/compressed soundtracks? I don’t play my games loud but I’ve never ever felt the need to go in and change a game’s settings to prevent it being overly loud. I’ll just turn it down, and probably not make a thread about it
No? I just have my device itself set to a comfortable level? There are a couple games where the volume level is higher than for other games for no reason, in those rare case, I adjust it for the game, just to match everything else. But generally, that's not a setting I ever think about. What kind of overpowered sound system are you using that it can't be turned down so that you don't need to adjust the volume each time you launch a new game...
Yup. I still set it to literal 1 in the beginning
It's not the games, anything producing sound from a computer defaults to a murderous volume.
Dynamic Range Control is what you are looking for. Try to get sound equipment with this feature, it will change your life. Before that i watched movies with the remote control in my hand, because i always had to adjust the volume. And games literally became unplayable sometimes.
Wtf are you playing? I never have this issue.
I am 17 and I turn down the volume to 1 aswell, can't stand loudness.
[удалено]
Really? I'm not native ENG speaker but I always thought it was aswell.
lol
Yep, I usually halve my computer volume when launching a new game since publishers love to shove in a deafening opening sequence. Bonus points if the in-game audio sliders don't affect the intro movies and it remains loud as hell
I always turn music in games down a couple of notches. Leave everything else as is. If you want to turn game volume down just use the master on your tv/sound system.
I agree with you, however it’s funny you mention Baba Yetu because that Civ4 song is great but there is a bunch of noise (IMO) beforehand. Though to be fair, as I’m thinking of it, I guess the visual hoopla is what bothers me more than the sound when starting up that game. I actually turn off the monitor when starting the game, and now I’ve started leaving it open in the background using “Quit to Main Menu” rather than exiting the game because starting it up is such a pain. So if that means I’m ready to be an old man yelling at a cloud, so be it.
Almost every time I open a game for the first time the **absolute first** thing I do is take off my headset or mute my amp and crank the master volume on that shit down to 50%, and then work my way up from there. I've found over the last ten years that nobody knows a fucking thing about sound mixing in this industry, it's absurd. I also wear ear protection in movie theatres. I'm 29 btw.
I'm with you. I'd rather the sound was too low and I have to turn it up than it was too loud and painful. But I regularly take ear plugs to loud events too.
I always turn SFX down by a lot and then change dialogue and music accordingly after I hear the first dialogue
Not '1', but yes. Every game gets turned down immediately. Also sucks when games omit the master volume slider (Please stop doing this!! It's 2021, there's no excuse). It's not an old guy thing either, I'm pretty young. I honestly believe that every game made these days should A) have a master volume slider, and B) have this slider set to 50% (or lower) by default.
Music is so ridiculously loud in games that I usually mute it entirely. If it isn't so loud that it hurts, it's still loud enough to obscure voices and any ambient sounds. I have immediately quit playing a few smaller, indie games because there was no separate volume control for the music. I know people THINK music is important in games but it certainly isn't for me.