In the spatializer I am often missing the function to be able to draw the attenuation curve myself, so I can easily change all the curves on a preset in one go. Is this anywhere on the list to add to FMOD ?
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I second this. This would be a very good addition to the preset-effects workflow and make the most common 3D-audio tweakage (ie. setting correct Distance Curves) faster to do.
As of FMOD 2.01.04 to do a Custom Distance Attenuation Curve you have to do a multistep process to achieve this, and the settiings aren’t even saved so you can change it everywhere from a centralized place:
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First you need to change the Spatializer’s DistanceCurve to
Off
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Then do a new
Built-in: Distance-parameter, which also (normally) should correspond to the min/max distance of your spatializer (in this case 0-20)
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Then add this new parameter to your event.
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Then automate the volume of the event’s Master-track inside your new Distance-parameter.
And after all of these steps are made just to get your custom Distance Attenuation Curve working, then you can’t just apply the same curve by using neither a Default Event (since changes don’t propagate and can’t be applied to existing events), nor a Preset Effect, nor by adding your new Custom Distance Parameter to the other event. You’ll have to manually copy-paste the volume automation to each and every event that’s using your Custom Distance Parameter.
No Custom Distance Attenuation automatically set up:
Adding this option would greatly improve the workflow and versatility of FMOD, in that changes can be made after the fact and you’ll always stay agile during development. Especially that you’ll be able to add the same distance curve to a bunch of events by just adding eg. your new FMOD Spatializer-preset which contains the Custom Distance Attenuation-curve.
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It’s not part of the spatializer effect, but it’s already possible to create a custom attenuation curve that’s saved as a preset effect.
Rather than automating the track’s volume fader, use a gain effect. Gain effects are so cheap as to be almost negligible, and can be be made preset effects and used in multiple events, just as any effect can be.
That being said, you’re right that it would be more intuitive for this to be part of the spatializer effect. I’ll add a suggestion to our feature/improvement tracker.
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Interesting workaround, I’ll try it in the next project I’m working on. It still requires that you explicitly bind the gain effect to a distance parameter, but that may be unavoidable even with the Spatializer Effect.
But as you mentioned, it would be much more intuitive to have it as a part of the Spatializer Effect. Thanks for adding it to the feature tracker 
Speaking of feature requests, do you guys have a forum or tag for that? So that the community can post suggestions and in a way vote on what features they’d like to add?
/Pablo
No, there is no special place or method for making feature requests. If there’s a feature you want, just mention it in a forum post or (if your license includes e-mail support) an e-mail message. We read every post on this forum, and record every feature request we receive, even if it’s tangential to the topic of the thread.
There is also no means by which you can vote for specific features. This is because, if we did provide a formal mechanism for voting on feature requests, some users would naturally expect that their votes would determine which features would be implemented - and while we do look take into account the number of requests we’ve received for a feature when scheduling new features for development, it’s not the only thing we consider.
We also look at the underlying problem that each suggested feature is intended to address, and consider whether other solutions might be more effective or work in a wider variety of situations; we attempt to estimate what portion of users might benefit from a solution even if they haven’t explicitly requested it; and we weigh the time it would take to implement solutions against the severity of the problems they would address and the portion of our users who would benefit from them, so that we can provide the greatest benefit to the greatest number of users in a given period of time.
As such, we have no plans to implement a formal system by which users can formally vote for specific feature requests. Feel free to make “I would be interested in this too” posts, though - as I said above, we do take them into account when deciding what features to schedule next.
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Thanks for the informative answer @joseph!
Good to know that you guys take note of all the posts here.
Is it cheaper to use a gain effect than the instruments volume slider? Or is there no added benefit to adding gain in this context?
While gain effects are extremely cheap, adding an effect will always be more expensive than not adding an effect. The advantage of using a gain effect is not that it is cheaper, but that it allows the automation curve to be made a preset effect and re-used throughout the project, which is not possible when using the volume control of an instrument.
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