Setting Metasounds Variable

[lantz.anna_1 (lantz.anna)]

I think I have about 5 MetaSound tutorials on UE Hub at this point, including the Using Presets one . Ironically I think the one that’s most help you is still in review.

Okay, so like, I actually think it’s worth backing up and making sure you understand what all those nodes are doing. Usually when I work with stuff I’m less familiar with, I start with “does this simple usage do what I expect.” So like, I actually think it would be worth trying to get steps like “loop one sound 20 times” working before trying to tackle the giant picture, because those are easier to build off of. MetaSounds can do a lot more things than Sound Cues can, but partly because it offers so much more control, it takes a bit more effort to explain to MetaSounds what exactly you want it to do.

That said, I am 90% certain putting ArrayIndex in RandomGet is not doing what you want. That’s not an Array Index input you’re connecting it to, it’s a Seed input, which you probably don’t need to worry about at the moment. Nor is the way you’re using the Shuffle command - you aren’t ever telling it to actually Shuffle. I really recommend putting nodes like this in the simplest context possible, until you are sure you understand what they do. And read the tooltips! There should be tooltips both on the node as a whole and on each input and output: they’re sort of like internal documentation, and in fact a lot of node-specific documentation is pretty much just copying and pasting the tooltips.

(As a very brief summary of Random Get - it’ll pick a new random number each time it’s triggered. So, if you want the Wave Player to play the same sound it did last time, you can just not trigger Random Get again. I.e., this will play you ten of the same random sound in a row:

But I strongly recommend not just copying and pasting it, but trying to spend time to understand why it’s behaving the way it is. I.e., move things around, take things out, make sure it’s still behaving the way you’d expect it to. In particular, I’d pay attention to the difference between the “On Trigger” connection and the “On Reset” connection.)

[DragonHeartSong]

Thank you. How do I see the tooltips?

I’m not finding an answer via searching, and the F1 help button in metasounds goes to an empty page : https://docs.unrealengine.com/5.0/en-US/working-with-audio/sound-sources/meta-sounds

[lantz.anna_1 (lantz.anna)]

You should be able to see descriptions of the nodes and of individual parameters if you hover your mouse over them

[DragonHeartSong]

Thank you so much for your advice, it helped tremendously!

Ebuch was able to help me with the random elements, this was the other part of the solution. Randomized Loops - #6 by ebuch

Here are a few minutes of output from the procedural percussion generator. There are a total of 531,441 possible combinations.

It’s mostly the way I’d like it, just gonna start playing with metasounds more and seeing what can be done. Plan on adding some electronic elements with built-in sound generation.

…

[Vacui (vacui.dev)]

Since this thread is pretty fresh, I just wanted to chime in here to say that @lantz.anna_1 you have been tremendously helpful for me as well! I just made a procedural song player using some of the help you gave here

Here’s what I have, I’m curious if you have any thoughts / comments / anything I’m doing here that I could be doing better/worse

Song:

Metasound_Outgame_Quiet_Procedural:

Random2WavArrayPlayer:

WavChainer:

RandConcat:

RandWav:

RandIdx:

[Bradical]

I am having trouble loading new SoundWaves into my metasound. I am succesfully changing floats/ints using this method. But maybe the Set Wave Parameter is not functioning? Is anybody else able to dynamically load soundwaves into their metasound?

The reason it can’t be in a preset array is that I am using SoundWaves recorded by the player in game.

[Bradical]

Oooook,

Turns out Set Wave Parameter is only for SoundCues. So don’t use it with MetaSounds. Instead use Set Object Parameter. And don’t forget to also re-trigger the metasound after loading the new wave. Phew!

[ebuch (ericbuchholz)]

@anonymous_user_4019da99dical

Turns out Set Wave Parameter is only for SoundCues. So don’t use it with MetaSounds.

For any future visitors to this thread—Set Wave Parameter does in fact work with MetaSounds. I’m not sure why it doesn’t work in @Bradical’s setup, but I have had no issues using it for mine.

I believe your MetaSound has to be triggered before using Set Wave Parameter (or any other “Set Parameter” function, for that matter).

Edit: Adding more to this post for additional clarity and helpfulness.

Here is my Blueprint setup:

I schedule my MetaSound to play using Play Quantized on a Quartz clock I’ve set up already. Then I set my MetaSound inputs.

This is part of my “Set Wave Assets and Volumes” function:

I have multiple WaveAsset inputs which are set in this function using the above graph.

Lastly, here is my MetaSound graph to show the inputs. Nothing fancy.

To summarize:

• Make sure your MetaSound has been triggered before using “Set Parameter” functions.
• Make sure have inputs set up in your MetaSound for receiving wave parameters—not variables.

I’ll update this post if I’m misinformed, or if things change in the future. Hope it helps!

[Kavan]

I have this song rocking in the background on loop… soo good!!

[khazum]

I have been trying to get this example to work but the Play Wave trigger wont connect , it says it will cause a loop! lol…very frustrating when a loop is precisely what i want

update: NM… it was the delayed get …now i get it got a nice 3-layer music piece i had prepped running great now! thx!