# Custom attenuation shapes for FMOD
**URL:** https://qa.fmod.com/t/custom-attenuation-shapes-for-fmod/23258
**Category:** Unreal Engine
**Created:** [August 22, 2025, 8:03am UTC](https://qa.fmod.com/t/custom-attenuation-shapes-for-fmod/23258 "2025-08-22T08:03:19Z")
**Posts on this page:** 2
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@J\_Bakaimis](https://qa.fmod.com/u/J_Bakaimis)
#### Post date: [August 22, 2025, 8:03am UTC](https://qa.fmod.com/t/custom-attenuation-shapes-for-fmod/23258/1 "2025-08-22T08:03:19Z")
Hi there, I’ve been trying to find a solution to this for a while, and I’m hoping the community can help. I’m trying to place an ambient sound in an inaccessible area outside the house the player is in. While fine-tuning the attenuation, I’ve run into an issue where the sound is bleeding into another room of the house. On top of that, I’d like to set a roll-off point so that the closer the player gets to the windows, the more they hear the street ambience.
Normally, I’d create a rectangular attenuation shape and map out the space using the UE5 audio tools, but since I’m using FMOD, I don’t have that option. From what I can tell, the FMOD spatializer only supports spherical attenuation. Worst case, I could handle this specific bit of sound design with a UE5 sound cue, but surely there must be a way to achieve something this straightforward in FMOD.
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### Author:  [@joseph](https://qa.fmod.com/u/joseph)
#### Post date: [August 25, 2025, 1:51am UTC](https://qa.fmod.com/t/custom-attenuation-shapes-for-fmod/23258/2 "2025-08-25T01:51:45Z")
This is doable in a few ways.
Personally, I’d create a [snapshot](https://www.fmod.com/docs/2.03/studio/mixing.html#snapshots-and-the-tracks-view) in FMOD Studio that reduces the volume of the group bus the event routes into to -oo dB, then [tie](https://www.fmod.com/docs/2.03/unreal/user-guide.html#reverb-zones) that snapshot to an Unreal [audio volume](https://dev.epicgames.com/documentation/en-us/unreal-engine/audio-volumes-in-unreal-engine?application_version=5.4) that fills the room in which I don’t want the sound to play. That covers preventing outdoor sounds from playing indoors.
Then, to make sounds become audible when the player nears a window, I’d create another snapshot, which sets the volume of the group bus to 0 dB and has a snapshot priority slightly higher than that of the first snapshot. Then, I’d give it a built-in distance parameter, and automate the intensity of the snapshot on that distance parameter such that intensity is 100% when the listener is close, and 0% when the listener is far away. I _wouldn’t_ associate this new snapshot with an audio volume; instead, I’d create instances of the snapshot as if they were event instances at every window in my building.
Because the second snapshot is a higher priority than the first snapshot, the second snapshot will override the first whenever the player is near to a window, and the slope of the automation curve ensures that this change to the mix ramps up and down in intensity as the player moves toward or away from such a window.