SoundCheck is the first “virtual monitoring” system for Unity. It combines accurate gaming device speaker profiles and real-time processing to greatly improve your sound implementation workflow.
SoundCheck
By incorporating SoundCheck into your workflow, you can quickly check how your mix will sound on other “virtual” band-limited systems to ensure a perfect sound translation. While implementing audio in your game, SoundCheck helps you decide how to master your sound for devices like mobile phones and tablets, flat panel televisions, laptops, multimedia speakers, etc.
*Listening through a good set of headphones or through a decent set of speakers is recommended. The final result is determined from the combination of your listening equipment and room configuration.
Related documents: Release Notes
Keep reading to learn
Why we developed SoundCheck…
…and why you need it
The Gap that Needs to be Bridged
Gone are the old days that the developer had full control over the device that the game would be played on...
With so many platforms arising and cloud gaming advancing by the day, you cannot be prepared for every device your game will be played on.
Sound people often work in a controlled environment, unlike the rest of the team, resulting in re-works and ill-communication regarding the game...
This may lead to poor decisions as game designers, level builders and sound designers cannot be on the same page while collaborating real-time.
Checking sound is a tedious and difficult process!
Testing takes time
Building your project to test the sound for a specific target platform takes time, your most valuable resource. Sound testing for many target platforms becomes an impossible task. This crucial quality assurance process is frequently disregarded.
Limited access to hardware
Every team member should be able to listen to the game through all target devices. Even when it comes to resourceful studios, testing the sound in a wide variety of devices can be prohibitively expensive.
Critical listening is difficult
Even if you have access to ultra-fast building processes and endless hardware, nature is not your ally. Your brain cannot hold the detailed characteristics of sounds in order to compare them, for longer than a few seconds. Therefore, you cannot perform insightful and valid tweaks without instant comparison.
All these problems in the production lead into degradation of the player’s general experience. A common pitfall is mismatching between audio and visuals that can break immersion. Player also loses important sound cues, that either increases the game’s difficulty or makes it boring.
Long story short, your players feel like this
The Solution
A real-time in-editor virtual monitoring simulation!
Ensure perfect translation of the key sound elements
Make sure that the players hear all those beautiful sounds that you made for them, the way you designed them to be heard!
And your players will feel like this
It’s so easy
Tuning the sound of your game for any platform and device was never easier!
1
Import SoundCheck into Unity and insert it on the Master Mixer in the final Master Group that processes all of your project’s sound output.
2
Select the category of devices that you would like to simulate their sound.
3
Select the device, make sure that the “Bypass” button is de-activated and that was it! Now you listen how your game will sound when played through that device. It’s that simple!
4
If you like detail, you can also try activating the “Damping” function and select the amount of damping from the slider. Damping simulates attenuation of high frequencies due to several reasons. In a smart-phone it might be because the player’s hands partially cover the speakers, in a living-room it can be because of heavy carpets and curtains. Play and listen.
5
You can switch the simulation on-off with the “Bypass” button, alternating between hearing the simulation and your original sound.
6
Now you can start editing your game, implementing audio, editing agent behaviors or building levels. Tweak your game’s sound with precision for the desired target device. You are in control!
Key features
Choose from an increasing number of accurately measured and simulated gaming devices.
Switch instantly between simulations or bypass SoundCheck altogether to compare original and desired device.
Simulate the loss of high frequency content in various scenarios, depending on the environment and the use of the device.
Whatever version of Unity you are using, SoundCheck will adapt its skin to ease your eyes.