Sony for a very long time has spearheaded the effort to standardise loudness in games. The recent PS4 SDK update (2.500) includes a mastering suite -- Sulpha analysis tools -- to help developers master their titles for a variety of playback systems, from full range surround sound systems to TVs, to mobile devices. It features a 4-band equaliser, a 3-band dynamics processor, … [Read more...]
New Mobile Loudness Research Results from TC Electronic
TC Electronic recently published the results of a five-year study of most major mobile devices' audio capabilities. The findings show a broad diversity in performance from platform to platform; with a variation of up to 20 db output between devices! In light of these differences, how should sound designers working on mobile projects mix and prepare their audio files? The … [Read more...]
Finding Your Way With High Dynamic Range Audio In Wwise
Guest Contribution by: Louis-Xavier Buffoni – Software engineer at Audiokinetic HDR in a Nutshell HDR (“High Dynamic Range”) audio is a technique which draws its inspiration from the local adaptation method used in HDR imaging, which “attempts to maintain local contrast, while decreasing global contrast.” [1] In audio, this local/global dichotomy applies to time, and contrast … [Read more...]
Thank You to our February Contributors!
The month is wrapping up, and tomorrow we start a new featured topic. It's that time, once again, to thank all of the wonderful people who contributed guest articles and participated in interviews with us here on the site. Owen Green, who contributed not just one, but two articles about loudness and metering Tomoya Kishi, of Capcom, for his herculean effort in sharing … [Read more...]
Loudness In Game Audio
Finishing up Loudness Month here at Designing Sound I asked the good folks at Audiokinetic (makers of Wwise), Firelight Technologies (makers of FMOD) and G.A.N.G. IESD about what is happening in game audio in regards to loudness metering. From the G.A.N.G. IESD Committee: "Loudness and monitoring levels have been very high on the IESD's agenda since the the organization … [Read more...]
Does Bit or Sample Rate Reduction Affect Loudness Measurements?
A few nights ago, I was struck by an idea that hadn't occurred to me previously. I was prepping for a presentation on loudness metering at a game development studio that would take place the following day. It was a question... Would bit rate or sample rate reduction affect the loudness measurement of sounds metered using ITU-R BS.1770? Both are practices common to game … [Read more...]
Loudness and Metering (Part 2)
Guest contribution by Owen Green [This is the second of a two part series on loudness, mixing, metering and the new ITU loudness spec] The New Loudness Standards, and What They Might Mean for Us Depending on the field in which one worked, standard production practices have tended to be orientated around peak normalisation of material. That is, lining up recordings by their … [Read more...]