CK2 Dev Diary #30 - Audio Mix

[Asiak]

ambient sound effects

Which ambient sound effects? I mean what the building stuff, the battle stuff? You already had to zoom in to hear those I thought.

Also, interface sound effects play at a pleasant volume and do not interrupt the music.

Oh but I like the loudness of the UI sounds and they are so well chosen in their ambiance. From the grumbling of the council to the construction of the technology screen I thought they were already well balanced with the music.

Though some of the metal does come rather suddenly.

 

[CassCD]

. . . which means that now you don’t have to worry about the Metal music exploding your speakers when you turn on the game.

Pffft, that's the only acceptable way of starting up a game of CK2.

 

[Enriador]

Greetings!

After showing Doomdark some of the subliminal messages in a few tracks by Judas Priest and delving into deeper studies of other groups and media, I decided that I needed a break and put my mind into something else for now. So... a perfect opportunity for me to write a new Dev Diary! I would love to talk about some of my findings so far but I need to do more research to be sure that what I have discovered is true.

For this entry I’ll talk about something both I and other people have wanted me to do with Crusader Kings II for a long time:

Mixing!

What kind of sorcery is this?

This is a process that you’re usually doing at the end of production which I was able to do for Stellaris & Hearts of Iron IV, but never got to do for Crusader Kings II for the simple reason that it was released before I started working at Paradox.

It means that I have gone through all current audio assets and adjusted the overall audio volume for them. Later on I mixed and adjusted all the different audio assets ingame, so for example all the ambient sound effects are lower in the background until you zoom in. Also, interface sound effects play at a pleasant volume and do not interrupt the music. I can also reveal that I have mixed all music in the game, including all the separate Music DLCs, which means that now you don’t have to worry about the Metal music exploding your speakers when you turn on the game.

So, in brief this means it will feel like a new experience for you once you start the game with the new mix. Perhaps you will start hearing audio you have never noticed before, and discover that the notification sound effects are a bit “softer”.

What a about a sample?

 

[Metal King]

Pffft, that's the only acceptable way of starting up a game of CK2.

It is perhaps the most Metal way start the game? \m/

 

[Federalist girl]

My neighbors will be glad that the loading music is no longer ear splitting. Though part of me associates a tremendously loud theme with opening up the game, it'll be good to be rid of that... 4 years later.

 

[BrokenSky]

There is an option in one of the game options (probably under audio), where you can set it to disregard requirements on songs. Otherwise some tracks will only play under very very restrictive conditions. And then you'll get it really often when those are fulfilled.
If you toggle that off you get a pretty even mix in my opinion; the only bad thing being that it then also mixes in the Christmas song which is annoying when you aren't in the Christmas Season. @Metal King any chance of that disregard requirements toggle not disregarding real World triggers. I.e. so that song, like the Christmas one, which has a requirement only to play in certain real World months still won't play at other times of the year? And still will play frequently in December, like intended.

Turn off the songs of yuletide DLC, and only turn it on when you want to hear the Christmas songs. Then have context sensitive music off for the rest of them. It's not the best solution, but its an ok bodge.

 

[Sanny]

Your work is excellent. I always regard the audio assets of PDS games as the final completing component (though they may be the first bits of a project to finish). I do some sound production and mixing myself

 

[Thuron Steel]

Cool. Some new sound effects would be nice.

 

[stoneroots]

This looks interesting.

 

[geckoman1011]

you’ve truly sold me something I didn’t even know I wanted.

This. So much this.

 

[queermobile]

Neat. Will you be showing us some of the new things you've been working on like you did with RD later on? Are there any new special effects planned?

 

[Axe99]

Cheers for the DD Metal King, and great work on the mixing . I've always held the soundtrack/soundscape as key features in games, and the soundscape in Paradox games these days is top-notch . Question (perhaps not entirely serious....) - do you think it would be as good if, instead of being into metal, you were heavily into Justin Bieber instead?

 

[Ranamga]

Since opening the console and typing nextsong whenever it starts playing isn't too hard, but it's annoying to have to do.

They added a button next to the minimap that does the same thing, actually.

 

[Falc]

Out of curiosity, you mention Stellaris and HoI4, but not EU4. What's the situation there?

 

[chrnno]

Nice, been really close to muting the game and put music from elsewhere because the differing volume of songs meant I had to keep changing volume if I wanted to always hear a song while playing.

 

[prismaticmarcus]

Which ambient sound effects? I mean what the building stuff, the battle stuff? You already had to zoom in to hear those I thought.



Oh but I like the loudness of the UI sounds and they are so well chosen in their ambiance. From the grumbling of the council to the construction of the technology screen I thought they were already well balanced with the music.

Though some of the metal does come rather suddenly.

i think it means more the birds'n'stuff

 

[Metal King]

Cheers for the DD Metal King, and great work on the mixing . I've always held the soundtrack/soundscape as key features in games, and the soundscape in Paradox games these days is top-notch . Question (perhaps not entirely serious....) - do you think it would be as good if, instead of being into metal, you were heavily into Justin Bieber instead?

Thanks for your kind words! I'm glad to hear that you enjoy my work.

Well.. It would perhaps been a interesting mix in that case. Don't if I would have started to through VO line in such as "Baby, baby, baby" whenever a child is born.

 

[Metal King]

i think it means more the birds'n'stuff

You're right. Now it will be easier to hear ambient sounds such as birds, winds and city ambients.

 

[Gunthah]

Cool man. Cant wait for the new dlc. That notification bell starts to get annoying after a while.

I replaced it with a silent sound file, which I highly recommend. The bell was driving me insane.

 

[Calantyr]

Needs more Wilhelm Screams.