Sound design and mix in NMS vs ED

[Cmdr Eagleboy]

I watched some footage of NMS and while I have some cons and pros for gameplay, I am sure I can compare soundscapes of both games. To be fair, for NMS it feels a bit like missed opportunity. It blares something in your ears all the time. Comparing to it ED feels so much more nuanced in it's sound design. I know lot of people won't care - NMS looks fun game to play - but I felt I had to say this because I think we sometimes take ED sound for granted. Not all games are so well designed regarding sound.

 

[kofeyh]

I watched some footage of NMS and while I have some cons and pros for gameplay, I am sure I can compare soundscapes of both games. To be fair, for NMS it feels a bit like missed opportunity. It blares something in your ears all the time. Comparing to it ED feels so much more nuanced in it's sound design. I know lot of people won't care - NMS looks fun game to play - but I felt I had to say this because I think we sometimes take ED sound for granted. Not all games are so well designed regarding sound.

ED sound design is some of the best I have experienced. There are layers of audio; strip away the music and astronomical objects sing in GalMap, nebulae drone, system beacons pulse morse code, ships have a background soundscape.

Every time you disable some form of audio cue, you find another, and another, and another.

It can be incredibly haunting way out in the deep, shutdown all systems apart from life support and the universe comes alive with song and drone and atmosphere. It's just stunning.

 

[Cosmo]

ED has better sound effects, but NMS has better and more ambient music.

 

[Devari]

ED sound design is some of the best I have experienced. There are layers of audio; strip away the music and astronomical objects sing in GalMap, nebulae drone, system beacons pulse morse code, ships have a background soundscape.

I haven't payed much attention to the ambient sounds in Elite (usually because my ship/SRV is making too much noise to hear them) but I read about one CMDR who had learned to identify planet types based only on their sound, i.e., he could click on the planet on the system map and know if it was an Earth-like, etc., just based on the sound the planet made. Apparently the background noises are quite complex and distinct. There's also the issue that we have the morse code audio signals from UA/probes which must have taken quite a bit of work by FD to code that accurately into the game.

 

[[VR] Frank_G]

The ED Soundtrack is fantastic and the effects in the games are breathtaking. I really hope, they will release a second CD Set with the next update.

So far my hype from NMS was reduced step by step... First no HOTAS support, then no VR support, then the leaked game version, where the core was reached in 30 hours, the little escapade a few weeks ago with license problems, because the procedural system the game is based on is not theirs... I dont know... It looks like a load of potential with lots of missed opportunities.

 

[Yaffle]

Please use the NMS thread for discussing NMS.