Current Events > Sound mixing in video games is ridiculously terrible at times.

(+) Yeah! (+)

You can barely hear the voice acting over the sound of the music volume in cutscenes. Bayonetta is a great game but sometimes I actually don't hear what she's saying and rely on subtitles because the music gets so loud.

Same thing with a lot of other games. I wonder why it's such a problem for developers.

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I missed the big speech at the end of FFXV cause they blasted music over it.

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Ahh so you're getting pretty close to finishing Bayonetta for the first time

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Even the best sound has to deal with the fact that a lot of people will experience it on shitty TV speakers.
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Tales of Vesperia: Definitive Edition is horrible about this. The original came out in like 2008, then there was an extended version that came out in 2009 with content that never saw a translated release until much later. Unfortunately they couldn't secure the protag's voice actor so they used a different guy, which in some cases lead to the voice actor changing from one line to the next during cutscenes.
Also, the sound balance between skits recorded for the 2008 release and the ones they recorded for the Definitive Edition is horrible, the new skits sound terrible. I'm recording a let's play for that game and just gave up complaining about these things because they happen so often.

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Xenoblade Chronicles X was pretty bad about this.

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Feel like this isn't exclusively a video game thing. There's plenty of movies where the music is way too fucking loud and the dialog is too quiet

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Antifar posted...

Even the best sound has to deal with the fact that a lot of people will experience it on shitty TV speakers.

This. I also set my receiver to different modes depending on I'm watching to optimize sound quality (ie TV logic for dialogue-driven TV shows, multichannel PCM for 5.1/7.1 movies, etc).

sauceje posted...

Unfortunately they couldn't secure the protag's voice actor so they used a different guy

It's not that they couldn't secure him, they didn't even approach Troy Baker about it at all. Which is a real shame considering he loved the character and would've jumped at the chance to voice him again.

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BignutzisBack posted...

Ahh so you're getting pretty close to finishing Bayonetta for the first time

Am I?

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Ever read about this in music too? Mixing in music used to be far more varied.

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Like any of us are using tv speakers. Plus, if you have to change your setting to accommodate their bad mixing, it's still their bad. Why does 95% of games work fine but not theirs? That's my fault? Fuck dot.

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Kircheis posted...

It's not that they couldn't secure him, they didn't even approach Troy Baker about it at all. Which is a real shame considering he loved the character and would've jumped at the chance to voice him again.

Oh, well WTF. Maybe his rates were just too high then

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Antifar posted...

Even the best sound has to deal with the fact that a lot of people will experience it on shitty TV speakers.

That's really just an excuse. Even with the fanciest of sound systems, dolby what-have-you stuff, etc, there's no denying the fact that the higher your turn up the volume, the louder the background music and sound effects will be, so it will still drown out the voice acting. It's something innate to how the developers present the game.

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sauceje posted...

Tales of Vesperia: Definitive Edition is horrible about this. The original came out in like 2008, then there was an extended version that came out in 2009 with content that never saw a translated release until much later. Unfortunately they couldn't secure the protag's voice actor so they used a different guy, which in some cases lead to the voice actor changing from one line to the next during cutscenes.
Also, the sound balance between skits recorded for the 2008 release and the ones they recorded for the Definitive Edition is horrible, the new skits sound terrible. I'm recording a let's play for that game and just gave up complaining about these things because they happen so often.

Eerie Coincidence, I'm actually planning on playing vesperia after beating bayo. And yeah I heard something about them changing voice actors which is unfortunate enough, but having poor sound balance as well? Ugh.

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saspa posted...

Eerie Coincidence, I'm actually planning on playing vesperia after beating bayo. And yeah I heard something about them changing voice actors which is unfortunate enough, but having poor sound balance as well? Ugh.

Well I hope you enjoy the game anyway

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Kircheis posted...

It's not that they couldn't secure him, they didn't even approach Troy Baker about it at all. Which is a real shame considering he loved the character and would've jumped at the chance to voice him again.

Seriously? Why would bamco do that

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sauceje posted...

Well I hope you enjoy the game anyway

It's annoying, but the sound mixing issue is just something I tend to sigh and live with in games that are otherwise really fun to play. Just one of those things.

As for vesperia, I haven't played a tales game in over a decade and this has been a game I've wanted to play since that time so we'll see if I still like the series like I did as a teen. Been a lot of build up

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saspa posted...

Seriously? Why would bamco do that

They probably figured it'd be less expensive than bringing back a union actor just for some extra lines or something, I dunno.

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Solar_Crimson posted...

Xenoblade Chronicles X was pretty bad about this.

Yep. Love the game, but there's consistently a lot of "what did they say!?" moments in that game. Especially with vocal tracks playing amidst dialogue...that's not good. If it ever gets a Switch port I hope they fix the sound mixing and/or let you change the volume on various things.

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ThyCorndog posted...

Feel like this isn't exclusively a video game thing. There's plenty of movies where the music is way too fucking loud and the dialog is too quiet

This is like every modern movie. Dialogue sounds like whispering so you turn it up...then next scene there's yelling and explosions and it's literally shaking the entire house and waking up the neighbors and hurting your ears. I don't get who is deciding that this is what people want...turning the volume up and down constantly throughout a movie.

YellowMustard69 posted...

This is like every modern movie. Dialogue sounds like whispering so you turn it up...then next scene there's yelling and explosions and it's literally shaking the entire house and waking up the neighbors and hurting your ears. I don't get who is deciding that this is what people want...turning the volume up and down constantly throughout a movie.

It's pretty much why I use closed captions a lot of times.

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I had this problem with borderlands 3 in that I wanted to hear more of the music but I could barely hear it because of how loud the sound effects are. Going through the different sound options barely helped. Forget about it if you are playing 4 players with explosions going off every second or two.

Had to go on youtube to listen to that cool katagawa jazz boss theme in that one place since I barely heard it during gameplay.

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Likewise, subtitles are a must.

But even still, it's weird. I recently beat DMC 4 SE, and there's a scene where Dante does a whole bunch of double entendres when he gets Lucifer

https://youtu.be/PK6UaPnRYcc?t=41

I remember this scene, and I don't remember it being that difficult to listen to what Dante's saying. It's like they're unable to increase the volume of his voice so that we can hear it over the music.

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I think this is why a lot of games let you adjust different types of sounds separately.

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sauceje posted...

Tales of Vesperia: Definitive Edition is horrible about this. The original came out in like 2008, then there was an extended version that came out in 2009 with content that never saw a translated release until much later. Unfortunately they couldn't secure the protag's voice actor so they used a different guy, which in some cases lead to the voice actor changing from one line to the next during cutscenes.
Also, the sound balance between skits recorded for the 2008 release and the ones they recorded for the Definitive Edition is horrible, the new skits sound terrible. I'm recording a let's play for that game and just gave up complaining about these things because they happen so often.

I'm playing through Tales of Vesperia: Definitive Edition for the first time right now and I haven't encountered a single issue with the audio being off. however I am just now coming to Dahngrest

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because graphics and gameplay are what sells games so no real reason to focus on what you'll be hearing.

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Perascamin posted...

I'm playing through Tales of Vesperia: Definitive Edition for the first time right now and I haven't encountered a single issue with the audio being off. however I am just now coming to Dahngrest

Give it time. A lot of the expanded content becomes available later in the game.

They were able to secure everyone except Troy Baker for recording, so the extra stuff has the alt's voice, but yeah early in the game there is hardly a difference from the 2008 game to the definitive/expanded edition.

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Perascamin posted...

I'm playing through Tales of Vesperia: Definitive Edition for the first time right now and I haven't encountered a single issue with the audio being off. however I am just now coming to Dahngrest

Once you get one of the new skits you'll definitely notice it. It's quite jarring.

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