I am new to Unreal but have a lot of experience as an audio engineer. I am familiar with ambisonics and mix in dolby atmos. I hope to create a simple virtual band of instruments that play/mute when you click on them. However, I would also like this to be in spatial audio using headtracking. How exactly do I achieve this in Unreal?
I don’t even know where to begin. Can I use my daw (Nuendo & Reaper)? Is it built into Unreal? Do I need middleware like Wwise? I would appreciate any resources and even just a basic list of steps. Here is one for dolby atmos for example:
I think there are a few questions built in here so I’ll do my best. Please let me know if you want me to be more thorough or explain something else.
Can you use your DAW?
— Yes? While testing, maybe just make a short sample. I find that the way I export my audio makes a pretty big difference on how I end up repeating/randomizing phrases. Once you have the audio you want, just drag it into the content drawer in whatever folder you want.
— You can use UE stock assets or metasounds to make synth type audio, so if that’s something you want, you don’t necessarily “NEED” to use a DAW.
Wwise
— You can use Wwise if you prefer that workflow, but this doesn’t sound like a project that you would want to use that extra step unless you’re already super familiar with it.
Spatializing sound
— I am only making assumptions here since I have not worked with a headset
— You would likely be looking at “play sound at location” type of audio. Metasounds have the option for mono, stereo, 5.1, etc. In addition to that, when you post audio in a blueprint, you can choose a specific location, or a specific actor for it to be attached to.
Play/Stop
— This can be done in a few ways depending how you want the final result. You will basically have an “on click” event on the game object that will play/stop that track, metasound, or audio source, however you’re handling it. You can also just have it mute/unmute to keep it in time.
— With Quartz, you can pretty easily keep things on beat if you are using multiple audio sources.
If you haven’t yet, there’s some content on youtube for spatial audio in UE VR that might give you more precise answers but I hope I helped a bit.