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What are the most common mistakes to avoid when working with game audio and sound effects?

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Game audio and sound effects are essential elements of creating immersive and engaging experiences for players. However, working with sound in games can also be challenging and prone to errors. In this article, you will learn about some of the most common mistakes to avoid when working with game audio and sound effects, and how to fix them or prevent them from happening.

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Ryan Javanshir

DevOps Engineer and Game Developer

1 Not optimizing your audio files

One of the most common mistakes is not optimizing your audio files for size, quality, and performance. Audio files can take up a lot of space and memory, especially if you use uncompressed or high-bitrate formats. This can slow down your game, increase loading times, and affect the overall user experience. To optimize your audio files, you should use formats that are suitable for your platform and target devices, such as OGG, MP3, or AAC. You should also reduce the file size by trimming unnecessary silence, lowering the bitrate, and applying compression. You can use tools like Audacity, FFMPEG, or Sound Forge to optimize your audio files.

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2 Not balancing your audio levels

Another common mistake is not balancing your audio levels properly. Audio levels refer to the loudness or volume of your sound sources, such as music, dialogue, sound effects, and ambient noise. If your audio levels are too high or too low, they can cause distortion, clipping, or masking. Distortion occurs when the sound exceeds the maximum level that the system can handle, resulting in unwanted noise or artifacts. Clipping occurs when the sound is cut off abruptly at the maximum level, resulting in loss of detail or quality. Masking occurs when the sound is drowned out by another sound that is louder or more prominent, resulting in loss of clarity or immersion. To balance your audio levels, you should use a tool like a sound meter, a waveform monitor, or a loudness meter. You should also use techniques like normalization, equalization, and mixing to adjust the levels of your sound sources.

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Ryan Javanshir

DevOps Engineer and Game Developer
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Make sure all of your music and sfx have the same base volume before they are imported into the game engine. You don't want to be manually tweaking audio clips in the engine because this quickly becomes unmanageable!

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3 Not testing your audio on different devices

A third common mistake is not testing your audio on different devices and environments. Audio can sound very different depending on the device, speaker, headphone, or room that you use to play your game. For example, some devices may have limited frequency range, dynamic range, or spatial resolution. Some speakers or headphones may have different sound profiles, such as bass-heavy or treble-heavy. Some rooms may have different acoustics, such as reverberation or echo. These factors can affect how your audio is perceived by the player, and how it matches with the visuals and the gameplay. To test your audio on different devices and environments, you should use a variety of hardware and software options, such as mobile phones, tablets, consoles, PCs, TVs, monitors, speakers, headphones, earbuds, and emulators. You should also test your audio in different settings, such as quiet, noisy, indoor, outdoor, and realistic.

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Ryan Javanshir

DevOps Engineer and Game Developer
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Get as many people to test your game (and therefore audio) as possible and ask for feedback specifically on the audio. You can't please everyone but if there's a consensus that the unproblematic (not whether the music is good), then you're probably OK. If you're getting a lot of feedback about how one audio source is louder than another, you should probably revisit that.

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4 Not using audio middleware

A fourth common mistake is not using audio middleware to manage your sound in games. Audio middleware is a software layer that sits between your game engine and your audio engine, and provides features and functions that make working with sound easier and more efficient. For example, audio middleware can help you with tasks like importing, editing, organizing, playing, and controlling your audio assets. It can also help you with aspects like spatialization, attenuation, occlusion, reverberation, and dynamic mixing. Some of the most popular audio middleware tools are FMOD, Wwise, and Fabric. By using audio middleware, you can save time and resources, improve your audio quality and performance, and enhance your creative possibilities.

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5 Not following audio design principles

When creating sound in games, it's important to follow audio design principles. These guidelines and best practices can help you achieve your audio goals and vision. Consistency is key - your audio should reflect the style, genre, mood, and theme of your game. Contrast is also important - use different sounds, pitches, volumes, and rhythms to create contrast between foreground and background, action and silence, and tension and relief. Feedback is essential; audio should provide feedback to the player about their actions, events, and outcomes. Lastly, using realistic, contextual, and spatial sounds can help create immersion for the player. By following these audio design principles, you can create sound that is effective, engaging, and enjoyable for your game.

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6 Not learning from other games

A sixth common mistake is not learning from other games that have excellent audio and sound effects. Learning from other games can help you improve your audio skills, knowledge, and inspiration. You can learn from other games by analyzing how they use sound to create atmosphere, emotion, narrative, and gameplay. You can also learn from other games by listening to how they balance, mix, and optimize their audio. You can also learn from other games by studying how they implement audio features and functions, such as dialogue, music, soundscapes, and interactivity. You can use tools like YouTube, Twitch, podcasts, blogs, or books to learn from other games.

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7 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?

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Ryan Javanshir

DevOps Engineer and Game Developer
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If you're using Unity, make sure you use audiomixers as this will save you a lot of time (especially when configuring the settings menu), and make sure ALL your audio is routed into the mixer. Centralised audio managers are also useful where possible, because you can easily lose track of where you've put your audio sources.

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What are the most common mistakes to avoid when working with game audio and sound effects?

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

1 Not optimizing your audio files

2 Not balancing your audio levels

3 Not testing your audio on different devices

4 Not using audio middleware

5 Not following audio design principles

6 Not learning from other games

7 Here’s what else to consider

Programming

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What are the most common mistakes to avoid when working with game audio and sound effects?

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

1 Not optimizing your audio files

2 Not balancing your audio levels

3 Not testing your audio on different devices

4 Not using audio middleware

5 Not following audio design principles

6 Not learning from other games

7 Here’s what else to consider

Programming

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