Mono Sounds Half as Loud as Stereo Sounds

Development Audio
1

Hi,

I am using Unreal Engine 4.26.1 and hearing mono sounds half as loud as stereo sounds. Here’s a capture of Windows mixer with the same sound in mono form, and stereo form:

e804db25-0a7e-4cae-b0e0-f64c7b525292.png

Is that behaviour expected? If so, what’s the recommended way to work around this - set the volume multiplier for mono sounds to 2.0, or prefer using stereo waves over mono waves?

Here’s the test project/data:

Thanks,
Alan

2

When a stereo file is summed to mono, if it’s content is correlated, amplitude will go up by 2x, +6db.

I am not sure what exactly is your setup or how Windows volume meter deals with stereo sources, since it’s just one bar of volume.

I guess just watch out for it when you switch between non spatialized to spatialized sounds over distance. Does it sound weird? Unexpected volume jumps? If no, just don’t worry about it and just do your best to make things sound good together. :slight_smile: