Warping noise with sounds when entering/exiting Audio Volume

We’re working on a project in 4.11.2 that has been brought up through the versions (most recently from 4.8).

We have audio volumes in our map to produce “reverb” effects to sounds from our shooter.

For example, we have metal containers that you can run through. If you are shooting your weapon, or making movement sounds, etc; there is an Audio Volume within that container that gives you the metal style echo affect.

After running our initial tests in 4.11; we started noticing that if you’re shooting your weapon when you run into and out of the Audio Volume, there is the kind of dip in the sound effect volume, followed by what I can only describe as a “warp”. It’s like taking a sheet of metal and bending it to make a “whomp” sound. Sorry, its hard to describe.

If I disable the audio volume, there is no issue.

I’m suspecting that this is the bug referenced in the 4.12 release notes about attenuation getting applied to 2d sounds, but would like someone to confirm if these are symptoms of that bug.

We do compile the code from source, so if I were pointed to where that bug fix was implemented, I’d be happy to incorporate the code. We are not moving to 4.12 at this time; so upgrading the entire engine is not a viable option presently.

Hey TX.AlphaMale,

It is going to be hard for me to tell if what you are experiencing is related to the known fixed issue as I do not know if you are using the ‘Play Sound 2D’ function within blueprints.

Reverb Effects are a definable asset with several properties that can be easily adjusted and applied to any Audio Volume placed in your level. With a Reverb Effect, you can adjust settings that will allow you to control elements like the echo density, overall reverb gain, air absorption, and more to help craft the overall feel you may be after.

Since this issue does not occur when you disable the Audio Volume, it sounds like it could just be a setting within the Reverb effect, like the mentioned air absorption setting. I have heard this ‘whooshing’ you describe before, and in my case it was related to not having the proper volume ducking set up for sounds.

In order to assist you, I am going to need some steps to reproduce this issue on my end in a blank project with minimal assets, or an example project where the issue occurs.

Let me know if you have further questions.

Thank you,

I was able to find the solution. Previously, it was a simple matter of disabling the audio volumes until they could be investigated later… Then, on 4.15; unchecking the “enabled” option for the volumes is no longer respected, and thus the problem returned.

The only solution (of disabling) would be to completely delete the volumes altogether; which is not viable.

After much research and trial/error, I figured out that the problem is because the sound source is inside the audio volume before the sound listener is. The solution was simply to override the listener and attach it to the character (which is where the sounds having problems are attached).