Limiting max output of a group

Just as the title says really. I’m looking to limit the max output of all footsteps sounds within a group so that one footstep sounds just as loud as, say, five.

I figured the limiter would do a grand job of this, but it only seems to want to boost volumes. I’ve settled the matter for now by tweaking a compressor, but this doesn’t seem the most elegant solution and it feels like this would be a common enough issue that there would be a handy tool available.

I’m not sure I understand why you are trying to do this. What problem are you trying to solve?

Just wondering if there was a neater way of limiting the output of a group

Without knowing what your goal is, there’s no way for us to know what advice would best help you achieve it.

For context, it’s extremely rare for someone to want to limit the output of a group. Doing so generally results in less-realistic output and increases the resource cost of the project without providing any clear benefit. We’re therefore uncertain why you’re trying to do it.

Are you trying to limit the overall output volume of your game? To save computational resources? To produce a specific and unusual audible effect? To reduce the apparent number of playing event instances? To simplify your workflow?

Ah, I suppose I didn’t say that I’m aiming to limit the output volume of the group.

But why are you doing trying to limit the output volume of a group? To what end? What benefit do you think it will provide to your game?

Hello! Bumping into this thread because I’m looking to do something similar.

I’m working on a drum rhythm game. I worked on the mix to make sure when the player hits a drum:

  • a drum sound is played in addition of the music track
  • the drum sound is well mixed with the music track, not too loud but clearly audible
  • adding the drum sound to the music track does not cause clipping

My issue comes when a player hits two drum simultaneously. I want to play two instances of the drum sound so there is an audio feedback for having hit two simultaneous notes, but just playing the instance twice breaks the mix because it’s much louder that a single instance and therefore causes clipping.

Is there a way to setup an event so the volume is set to a value for one instance, and a reduced value for two instances and so on? Other that setting up a compressor/limiter to be triggered by the loudness of two or more instance but not for a single one?

Well… An FMOD limiter effect would definitely be the easiest option, but if you don’t want to do that, there are other possibilities.

You could, for example:

  1. Automate the volume of your drum beat event on a global parameter, such that it’s loudest when the parameter is at its maximum value.
  2. Set that parameter’s initial value to its maximum value, and give it a velocity such that it gradually increases to its maximum value over time when it’s not already at that value.
  3. Place an “increment parameter” command instrument at the start of that event, such that it reduces the value of the global parameter by a small amount each time the event starts.

The result would be that each instance of the drumbeat event would reduce the volume of all instances of that event for a short while, but that the volume would return to its maximum value if no drumbeats were played for a while. This would ensure that if multiple drumbeats were played in quick succession, they would be quieter than if a single drumbeat was played in isolation.