Best way to duck all other audio, for the audio for one event, without sidechaining

FMOD Studio
1

I can’t use sidechaining for this because parts of the one event are silent.
What would be the best way in the mixer, to Low pass cut off and automate the volume down on every single other bit of audio, to make way for one specific sound effect in it’s own event?

2

The easiest way to do this would be to use a snapshot to adjust the mix, and to trigger that snapshot by using a snapshot instrument in the event you want to duck everything else for.

4

Amazing! I was worried about the automation/modulation of the volume and filter cutoff, but that’s easy to implement using ADSR modulation of the intensity of the snapshot! Brilliant! Thanks Joseph.

Couple of questions:

  1. Is this triggered in Unity the same way an event is triggered?

  2. What would be your first thoughts on how to incorporate a riser that builds up to the end of the snapshot? - Is it possible to link a parameter to the snapshot? So when the snapshot is activated, it automatically activates a parameter?

5

Yes. Under the hood, snapshots and events use a lot of the same code, and so are triggered and instanced in exactly the same way.

If you switch the snapshot to tracks mode, you’ll find that it has a timeline sheet, and that you can add parameter sheets to it. You can’t put instruments on these sheets, but you can automate the properties scoped into the snapshot on any of the snapshot’s parameters. That should give you plenty of options.

At the time of writing (November of 2022), there is no way for a snapshot to set the value of a global parameter. Tasks related to this feature are present in our feature/improvement tracker, but have not yet been scheduled for development.

In the mean time, you can set global parameter values by using command instruments in events. A parameter set in this way won’t automatically set itself back to its original value when the event ends, but that’s a limitation you can potentially design around.

6

Thanks so much joseph. That’s real helpful.

One last question → The reason for this snapshot, is a slowdown in time. The audio to cut out will have sfx and music, and though it’s being cut out, it still needs to slow down at the same rate as the visuals in unity, so when the timeslow finishes, the music will be in the correct spot, if that makes sense.

Because, the start and stop of the snapshot is meant to align with music, and if the music doesnt slow with the visuals, it won’t kick back in at the right beat.

I feel like I can just match this with an ASDR on a pitch effect, but the issue is when there is a different track playing, with a different tempo. I’m not sure how to tackle this. Should I make a different snapshot for each song, which matches the tempo?
Or would it be better to use a parameter to control this time slow rather than a snapshot?

Really curious on your thoughts!

Thanks so much man

Or

7

I’m not sure I understand the problem you’re trying to solve. If you want to slow down a song to match a slowdown of your game’s visuals, surely the pitch adjustment required would just need to match the amount of slowdown in the game’s visuals? The song’s tempo wouldn’t come into it (unless the amount by which your game’s visuals slowed down was dependent on the song being played), so you should be able to use the same pitch adjustment for all songs, regardless of tempo differences.

8

Yes, that’s right, the amount the visuals are slowed down is dependent on the tempo of each track, because the beginning and start of the “timeslow” aligns with the beats of each track, with different tempos. So each track will have a different attack and release.
The visuals gradually timeslow to a slowest point, then speed up again, and the slower the tempo of the track, the longer the attack and release of the intensity modulation needs to be. So therefore I will need a different snapshot for each track right? Or is a parameter on a mixer group a better way to do this, so the parameter can just be aligned with the animation in each and every situation.

Thanks joseph

9

Either option would work. I therefore recommend doing whichever you feel more comfortable with.

Personally, I’d use one snapshot for everything except the pitch adjustment, and then either make one snapshot for each track’s pitch adjustment, or build the pitch adjustment into each individual music event as automation rather than putting it in the mixer. It’d be slightly easier to maintain, and would mean that the pitch adjustment for each event would be close to hand when I was working with that event.

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