Hi,
I recently got tasked to work in unreal on audio using the native tools (not wwise). I’m having a hard time grasping the overall leveling of my mix. I notice my scenes don’t always match in loudness and that’s becoming a pain.
I was wondering if there is a sort of loudness meter i can use in unreal to visualize the overall output when playing and editing. This will ensure consistency and better optimization for the different platforms.
I was hoping to find something like the **LMN **](TC Electronic | Product | LMN)plugin used in various DAW’s.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=OXjeWFz68wY
Also SONY has made a suggestion for industry standardization on game loudness here which is hard to implement without such a tool.
Ty Tristan
https://mediadl.musictribe.com/media/sys_master/images/h82/hb6/8807549665310.png
We can monitor any submix(in this case the master submix probably most useful), and get a value for each channel(depending on if its outputting stereo, 5.1 or whatever). In this way we can get a lot of knowledge on the go.
Tuning loudness to some standard doesn’t make too much sense to me, it will be different for each platform/console/computer etc due to various factors…
Hi Tristan,
A variety of metering and monitoring tools are part of our long term roadmap and we absolutely recognize it as an essential development tool. We have only just made the new native Unreal Audio Engine default as of 4.24, and that comprises the fundamental framework for the audio renderer. We are beginning to turn our focus on UX development including tools which assist audio development visually.
Nonetheless, currently no special metering or real-time monitoring analysis has been implemented natively aside from FFT and an envelope follower, but the framework is there to implement a meter using the ISubmixBufferListener, assuming you need this tool and you have programming support. You will need to refer to the ITU papers for the specific math for implementing the exact weighted analysis you’re looking for.
You mention Sony, is Playstation one of your deliverables? I would suggest using Sulpha as they’ve already implemented all the tools needed for cert analysis.
However, if you don’t have engineering support and you aren’t working on a Playstation product, but you still need ITU 1770 metering mentioned in the Sony spec, one workaround would be routing your game output into your DAW and using your favorite metering tools there. I have this as a default setup in my office, as I use my audio interface as a monitor controller as well, so I have the game console output running back into the line ins on my audio device allowing me to A/B Editor and console mixes as well as get discrete surround recording for references or for promotional materials/marketing stuff. At home, I’m using an RME interface, so setting up loopback without fussing with cables is super easy.
If you don’t have the hardware support for that or are not sure how, you COULD implement our Submix Recorder on the Master Submix and then just record your output directly to a wav file which then you can bring into whatever analysis tool you need.
Either way, there are plenty of workarounds available and I wish you the best of luck on finding your particular solution.
If you run into any issues implementing any of the Unreal based solutions, give a shout and I’ll see if I can answer your question.
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