The sound effects and sound issues in ED discussion thread

[Bacon Sarnie]

The only way I could do any recordings would be to use my phone, I'll give it a shot and see if it comes across in the phone well enough, if it does I'll add it to my ticket

Its actually recorded the issue very well, will add them to ticket then I'll link to ticket

 

[Kubicide]

Hi everyone,

Thanks for all the feedback. It’s very much appreciated.

Seems like there are a number of different issues here.

Firstly, let me just reassure you that we do not go and mess with stuff for no reason. That’s totally not how we work here in the audio department.

Both in-house at Frontier (QA and audio departments), and at my home, the game is sounding fine, we are not hearing most of these issues at all. So we need more info to investigate. (However we are getting the missing sounds on the landing pad lift, and the problems with the engine sounds on the clipper. These are both bugs which we will be addressing over the next few days)

If something is broken, it’s a bug and we will fix it. So please post a ticket with some specific info on what the problem is, ideally with an audio or video clip that we can refer to. If you private message me the ticket number, I will look at it sooner.

Please trust us to do our job ... we want the game to sound as good as possible ... in fact I passionately want the game kick audio ass even more than you do, having poured my soul into it over the last 18 months, and been a fan of the Elite franchise since I was a child. I know the rest of the audio team feel exactly the same way too. We are on your side honestly.

So if there is a problem, please communicate the specifics ... help us fix it, and we will.

Again my apologies for all the problems, and thank you for caring so much about the audio! That in itself is just wonderful.

As someone experienced in audio I hope you're listening to the customer feedback here!

Please go back (if you can) and compare the sounds in beta 2 to what we have today. Many of us really enjoyed the audio and effects as they were in beta. The changes made for gamma then release to what we have now in 1.1 have made the audio experience worse. Seems like you and your team really had it right back in beta.

 

[Bacon Sarnie]

Right, heres what Im having to put up with since update
http://www.sendspace.com/filegroup/BNSXlsA4420yNo7k1cd3eg

No amount of fiddling with audio settings alters anything, it sounds terrible even with low volume.

 

[Mr_Blastman]

I seem to be using the exact same sound card and also a lot of midi equipment hooked onto it.
What midi sequencers do you have ?

I have :
Roland Sound Canvas 55 MKII
Roland Sound Canvas 8850
Roland MT-32 (first generation)

I love old dos games and dosbox made my life a bit better without having to configure an old DOS machine again.
Also if you want to hook up multiple MIDI devices on your computer i use a MIDI solutions Quadra thru box that can transfer 1 midi signal from the computer to 4 different midi devices without delay or degradation.
I use a manual dial switch to switch between the audio output of the different midi devices. That i loop back to the line in on my PC.

I'm so happy to see another fellow midi lover

Elite dangerous 1.1 on the other hand makes me sad again (see my previous posts in this thread).

Very nice!

I've got a Roland SC-55 (vanilla)
Roland MT-32 (first gen)
Roland PC-200 MK II Midi Keyboard

I have the MT-32 chained through the SC-55 using midi-thru and I just mute the SC-55 when I'm using the MT-32 (and turn the MT-32 off when not using it). That quadra is a neat thing. I haven't gotten one yet but might someday. I also use a *highly* modified version of dosbox to mimic CRT properties like screen curvature, phosphor glow, grain etc. Of course, I can also get the same result on my dedicated DOS PCs but it is nifty having my LCD look like a real CRT.

I love old games. I wasn't about to let my five year old enjoy Sierra classics without the full experience.

I've also tinkered with the MT-32 as a pure synthesizer to try and create my own sounds. That can be a lot of fun all by itself.

 

[sbock]

Hi everyone,

Thanks for all the feedback. It’s very much appreciated.

Seems like there are a number of different issues here.

Firstly, let me just reassure you that we do not go and mess with stuff for no reason. That’s totally not how we work here in the audio department.

Both in-house at Frontier (QA and audio departments), and at my home, the game is sounding fine, we are not hearing most of these issues at all. So we need more info to investigate. (However we are getting the missing sounds on the landing pad lift, and the problems with the engine sounds on the clipper. These are both bugs which we will be addressing over the next few days)

If something is broken, it’s a bug and we will fix it. So please post a ticket with some specific info on what the problem is, ideally with an audio or video clip that we can refer to. If you private message me the ticket number, I will look at it sooner.

Please trust us to do our job ... we want the game to sound as good as possible ... in fact I passionately want the game kick audio ass even more than you do, having poured my soul into it over the last 18 months, and been a fan of the Elite franchise since I was a child. I know the rest of the audio team feel exactly the same way too. We are on your side honestly.

So if there is a problem, please communicate the specifics ... help us fix it, and we will.

Again my apologies for all the problems, and thank you for caring so much about the audio! That in itself is just wonderful.

Great. Thanks for the info. I just want to say how much I like the sound design of Elite Dangerous. It's one of the best sounding game of this generation.
I noticed no real regression in the 1.1 build yet but I'm confident that you don't rest until the last bug is fixed...

 

[TeRRoRiTe]

Odd, I noticed the sound changed on my Cobra as well, but that one sounds a lot beefier instead.

 

[Mr_Blastman]

When trying to read between the lines the audio mix in the new patch seems to be made for owners of decent (read as 'very good') headphones. The docking pad lift noise is one of the major improvements for me. I LOVE it! And the "missing punch" from leaving hyperspace was something that almost was killing me before. Because of that and because it's not separately adjustable I had to turn down the volume before much more than I otherwise would have. Big improvement in my ears!
If I want to gather an inkling of what you're all talking about I'd had to switch back to my (also not quite shabby) studio loudspeakers. There are worlds between them and my headphones.

A possible solution for all could be in two separate mixes for loudspeakers and headphones, switchable via option menu.

If this were the case then my Fa-003Ti's would sound phenomenal after this patch. They don't. They sound way worse.

 

[DidierDrbois]

Confirmed, sounds are ROYALLY broken. So are frame rates btw.

Immersion was what kept this game alive and kicking and that is now gone. What's left is an inconsequential grind that sounds like paintballing porcupines on a landfill and is about as visually fluid as a powerpoint presentation controlled by a two year old.

Good news for me is, I can now go check out that Kojima game I've been postponing sine 16. 12. 2014. Kojima knows how to make games. And then not break them. One would've thought that the not breaking part goes without saying. Sadly, in times of EA, Ubisoft, and now Frontier, one would be badly mistaken.

 

[Colonel Kenney]

Hi everyone,

Thanks for all the feedback. It’s very much appreciated.

Seems like there are a number of different issues here.

Firstly, let me just reassure you that we do not go and mess with stuff for no reason. That’s totally not how we work here in the audio department.

Both in-house at Frontier (QA and audio departments), and at my home, the game is sounding fine, we are not hearing most of these issues at all. So we need more info to investigate. (However we are getting the missing sounds on the landing pad lift, and the problems with the engine sounds on the clipper. These are both bugs which we will be addressing over the next few days)

If something is broken, it’s a bug and we will fix it. So please post a ticket with some specific info on what the problem is, ideally with an audio or video clip that we can refer to. If you private message me the ticket number, I will look at it sooner.

Please trust us to do our job ... we want the game to sound as good as possible ... in fact I passionately want the game kick audio ass even more than you do, having poured my soul into it over the last 18 months, and been a fan of the Elite franchise since I was a child. I know the rest of the audio team feel exactly the same way too. We are on your side honestly.

So if there is a problem, please communicate the specifics ... help us fix it, and we will.

Again my apologies for all the problems, and thank you for caring so much about the audio! That in itself is just wonderful.

Sound hasn't worked for me properly since regular beta. Popping, static, and cutting out of sound periodically has been the norm. dxdiag info was uploaded etc... sound works perfectly in all my steam library of games. I ticketed it and it was ignored during the transition to live. I haven't tried 1.1 yet though so we'll see tonight.

 

[salad]

Hi everyone,

Thanks for all the feedback. It’s very much appreciated.

Seems like there are a number of different issues here.

Firstly, let me just reassure you that we do not go and mess with stuff for no reason. That’s totally not how we work here in the audio department.

Both in-house at Frontier (QA and audio departments), and at my home, the game is sounding fine, we are not hearing most of these issues at all. So we need more info to investigate. (However we are getting the missing sounds on the landing pad lift, and the problems with the engine sounds on the clipper. These are both bugs which we will be addressing over the next few days)

If something is broken, it’s a bug and we will fix it. So please post a ticket with some specific info on what the problem is, ideally with an audio or video clip that we can refer to. If you private message me the ticket number, I will look at it sooner.

Please trust us to do our job ... we want the game to sound as good as possible ... in fact I passionately want the game kick audio ass even more than you do, having poured my soul into it over the last 18 months, and been a fan of the Elite franchise since I was a child. I know the rest of the audio team feel exactly the same way too. We are on your side honestly.

So if there is a problem, please communicate the specifics ... help us fix it, and we will.

Again my apologies for all the problems, and thank you for caring so much about the audio! That in itself is just wonderful.

Remember to take it with a grain of salt, some people have no Idea what they're talking about.

Especially Audio-related stuff.

 

[Cryptonomica]

Recording of the sounds on my system from a short intersystem trip:

https://www.sendspace.com/file/qg86zb

 

[Slacker]

What does ED send the sound as, PCM?

In that case how does it decide how many channels to send? Is it the setting for the sound card in the sound options or set elsewhere?

Though I'm finding headphone sound fine (all I have) it sounds to me like some of the people in here are missing whole channels, particularly the centre channel.

 

[Phier]

Remember to take it with a grain of salt, some people have no Idea what they're talking about.

Especially Audio-related stuff.

Right, my game sounds like crap now because I have no idea what I'm talking about. Thanks for your input.

 

[erroch]

Seems like everyone who has problems also has a fancy audio setup with an actual named sound card, and everybody (including me) whose sound is the same as it always was has bog-standard no-name audio. So, if that really is the case, you guys need to come up with the common factor you all share, apart from "fancy". Same hardware? Same drivers? 3rd party audio software?

No, I'm having similar issues on my son's computer with the onboard 'realtec audio' sound and a pair of $20 sennheiser headphones from bestbuy plugged in. No changes since launch in the system at all. The audio music cuts out a few seconds after jumping, no landing gear sound, and everything sounds far more muddled then it used to.

Fancy isn't anything near what I'd use to describe his computer.

 

[Thourion]

I also see .. or should i say hear, no problems with the sound. Plus in fact i wanted to thank the sound team, cos they brought the overall music, up in the mix.
Also im now catching many sound details, that weren't obvious before the patch.

So yeah.. dunno whats the story of other people. Maybe its a specific H/W sound setup that does weird things for them ? Or maybe a particular ship has issues (like the clipper that i don't currently own ?)

EDIT: @erroch: Maybe your issue is with the headphones? You tried a normal 2.1 speaker setup in that computer?

 

[salad]

Right, my game sounds like crap now because I have no idea what I'm talking about. Thanks for your input.

Chill out, it was not meant for you.

Too many people buy expensive headphones/sound cards and think they are audio experts nowadays.

I too have audio glitches when theres too many ships in a combat zone or near capital ships in combat zones. Since day one.

 

[Phier]

Chill out, it was not meant for you.

Too many people buy expensive headphones/sound cards and think they are audio experts nowadays.

I too have audio glitches when theres too many ships in a combat zone or near capital ships in combat zones. Since day one.

Ok chilled, too many FD can do no wrong posts have gotten to me

 

[tasev1]

Has anybody considered the possibility that perhaps the original sounds may have been 'cool', but in fact were overkill? I do see what you mean (I hear it in my ASP), but I don't believe it sounds any less real or engaging than before. Just rebalanced. This is likely something that had to be done to accommodate the new sound settings, such as "night", etc...

 

[Stryk3r46]

The same has happened to the ASP... used to roar ... now it whimpers... very sad... please bring back the old ship sounds

 

[dannyboy]

I have an external Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi 5.1 set up and the new sound is immense, so much bigger, fuller and richer than before and the changes to the music too. Great stuff.

I have the same setup as you (X-Fi, 5.1 speakers), but haven't had a chance to try v1.1 yet. After reading most of this thread I'll be interested to see whether the audio has changed for the better or worse, from my standpoint.