ADVICE - Balance the sound of both engines, real and in-game!

[Yours Truly]

Balancing Real-life and In-game Sound Effects

 

 

 

A pet peeve of mine is unbalanced RPMs. If none of you get what I mean, I mean that the in-game RPM doesn't match what the real car's RPM sounds like. In other terms, 7000 RPM sounds like 8000 RPM or vice versa. Back around a year ago I made a tiny, forum-released experimental sound modification to the Murcielago's sound BNK that made it rev to 7500 RPM instead of sounding like it was revving at 9000 RPM. The video below was a WIP version of the sound mod, with the RPM corrected, but some glitches are blatantly present. Oh, and excuse the poor driving skills. :fp:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ASlvp7om4Ek

I'd also like to address another particular issue involving RPM balancing, and that is the art of balancing your off-tones and your on-tones in the BNK you are modifying. In reality it's just a matter of matching the off tone's RPM with the on tone's RPM. Many artists (I'm not calling out names) seem to never do this, and overall it ruins the experience. I know that sounds either cynical or picky, (pick your poison) but depending on my mood, that's my nature, even though I don't show it a lot.

Now, here is one underlying problem of RPM balancing. That is the matching of the duration of the original BNK sound file and the pitch. As most sound editors know, if you pitch down a sound, you'll obviously get a lower-toned note, but the thing I'm focusing on is a distinctive "phasing" noise generated. That makes it harder to make a high quality sound mod with this type of editing. Another problem is the natural gift of learning by ear. Some people aren't able to gain this, and that makes it harder for them to understand how many RPM's they are getting out of just a sound editor. However, if you are able to do this, this is what I've been doing, if I can remember correctly (I haven't done this in a year or so!).

 

 

• I first start up whatever BNK editor I use to get the BNK file's contents.
  
• I then unpack those contents.
  
• Once I have launched TDU, I then get the car I'm editing.
  
• I then go back to the unpacked files and open a sound file (usually I pick the highest one).
  
• I listen to the RPM of the sound file (I'm actually pretty good at judging what the RPM is by ear) and then try to match that sound in game.
  
• If I see something uneven, such as 5500 RPM in the sound file and 6500 RPM in-game, I adjust the sound file's pitch to match the game's RPM,
  
• and do my best to avoid a mismatch between the time duration of the original file and the edited file, but still retain the original's quality.
  
• I then exit TDU and repack the sound files, and, making a backup, replace the original BNK with the new one.
  
  
• If there are any lingering problems present, I do my best to fix those.
  

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That's a basic run-through of what I do to fix any RPM balancing issues present in a sound file. I hope the advice helps. Good luck, and have fun editing!

:thumbsup:

Cheers,

 

Yours Truly

P.S.: If this wasn't posted in the right area, any moderators are free to move it. The word "support" in the sub-forum is probably not this kind of support, but that's how I interpreted it.