How to use AudioLink

Unreal Engine
1

Hey guys,
I am totally overwhelmed by AudioLink. The only thing I can get working is SoundWaves SoundCues to link with an Attenuation Asset and from there to an AudioLink Setting Asset, which contains the ProgrammerInstrument Event from FMOD.

I have no clue how to work with mixes etc.
In the documentation, it shows the submix asset with the activation of AudioLink and an empty? SoundLink Settings asset…

The use case for me in my project is, that we use a weather system from the UE Store, which comes with a lot of Sound, even spatialized lightning strikes - and all of that should be routed into FMOD, but with the spatialization from UE or a possibility, that these sounds which get spawned on the strike position get spatialized by FMOD.

I don’t know where to start as there are no tutorials etc. available.
I would love to see the FMOD team would revive the FMOD-TV YouTube Tutorials… :wink:

2

Hi,

To use the sub-mix try this:

  1. In the FMOD Audio Link Settings make sure there is a default Link Event:
    image
  2. Create an FMOD Audio Link Settings:
    image
    This should default to our Audio Link Settings Event.
  3. Now in the new sub-mix make sure to assign the new settings and enable Send to Audio Link:
    image
    I hope that helps with the sub-mix.

In the case of the weather system, could I grab its name in the UE store? Depending on how it is triggering it’s sounds will slightly change the implementation.

3

Thanks so far. I will try that.
The weather system we use is Ultra Dynamic Sky

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4

Hi,

Thank you for the link. Could I get a screenshot of the Sound Source used by the lighting strike in UE for example:
image

Thanks

5

Hi Connor,
here I have some screenshots from the weather system BPs:

grafik
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This is the soundcue with the UDS Sound class in it.

grafik
grafik1326×433 103 KB

I could not found any Attenuation Setting belonging to that, just that Audio Spawn and LPF-filter.

Furthermore, the Sound Class has no submix in it and the UDS system has no submix in it - that should I add, if I see it correctly to send the UDS_Weather Sound Class to FMOD, right? Or is there a better solution?
All other weather sounds, like rain and wind also have the UDS_Weather Sound Class.

Btw. in that project, where I took the screenshots FMOD is not updated to 2.02.20 yet.

6

All right, I got it with the mixes, however, can I get it into the mixes with all spatialization?
I use a test-level to practice the workflow.

7

Hi,

I believe the Attenuation Settings component is here:

image
image1344×922 155 KB

Could you create a Sound Attenuation:
image
and provide it with a valid AudioLink Settings:
image
image1132×857 46.5 KB

And let me know if that works.

Could you elaborate on the issue here? I believe that you will have to assign Attenuation Settings to each audio event to get spatialization to work.

8

Hi,

Did you have any luck getting Audio Link working? Was there anything else I could assist with?

9

Hi Connor,

I am stuck with 3D sounds. It does not work as I imagine and I can’t even pinpoint the issue. Not even in my simple test map.

Do I get this right: If I use Attenuation Settings I can’t use the mixes?
Or do I need that at all?

Second, if I have an attenuated UE Sound Cue I can’t disable the Attenuation (Spatialization) in Attenuation Setting, because if I do, the position of the sound comes from world origin. However, it seems spatialized by FMOD since the 2D Pan Mix works…
Another issue is, that if I go to far away from the 3D UE sound cue, the sound stopps (tested it with 2D Pan Mix).

I feel stupid now.

10

Normally, if I get it right, I have to say in the UE Attenuation Setting whether UE or AudioLink has the spatialization. Strangely enough, AL and therefore FMOD always has spatialization.
If I say that UE should have it (by activating it in the Attenuation Setting), the FMOD spat works correctly, if I say that FMOD should have it (by deactivating it in the Att setting), I have the World Origin problem, which means, that the sound is spatialized, but to the world origin.

11

Hi,

It is not that you cannot use the Submix while using Attenuation Settings, however, a source and Submix containing the same signal chain can cause data duplication and result in loud and undesirable audio stacking. Information found in Audio Link | Trouble Shooting.

Concerning the documentation, it is wrong and I have made a note to change it. Please keep the UE spatialization enabled for it to work correctly. There is also an issue with the events moving to their position in the map when they are played which we are aware of and are looking into a solution.

Thank you for bringing this to our attention, once there are updates for these issues I will update this thread.

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12

Hm, it seems, that as soon as I give an Attenuation Setting to a SoundCue the Soundclass (and Submix) gets ignored.

So, finally, my conclusion is:
2D Sounds via mix to FMOD is easy with AudioLink
3D Sounds don’t work with Submixes and should be handled as separate sounds and get mixed in the FMOD mixer.
The idea of a “catch-all” pre-mix in UE does not work probably and, at least currently, has more issues than it solves.

13

Hi,

Yes, we are currently looking into this.

Perfect!

They do work, but you wouldn’t want to use a 3D sound and a Submix. Each 3D sound and it’s world attributes are tracked separately so they need to be separate events in FMOD Studio.

Unfortunately, this is not the intended use for Audio Link. Passing everything to one Submix event would limit the mixing you could do in FMOD Studio. Let me know if I am misunderstanding.

Thank you for helping me investigate these issues, once I have updates on their progress I will let you know.

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14

Thanks for your help, Connor!
I think with this info so far I can work with it. :slightly_smiling_face:

You are right, that makes sense!

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