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Unity 5 Mixer/Audio feedback

Discussion in 'Unity 5 Pre-order Beta' started by Shapefarm, Jan 28, 2015.

  1. Shapefarm

    Shapefarm

    Joined:
    Dec 10, 2014
    Posts:
    17
    Hey guys,
    I saw that there's no Unity 5 mixer discussion being active? Feel free to pin Sir Moderator!

    I have some feedback for you regarding the audio implementation in Unity. After working with it a couple of weeks there are a couple of things that become apparently lacking in the current implementation. Mostly visual feedback but also pure functionality. These are a couple concerns that i'm having:

    • Snapshot blending/transition

      The snapshots are a great idea. Being able to fade in and out sound and effects, especially different ambience sounds, is something that i need daily when working on Vane. There is something that feels very overlooked here though, and that is the transition functions. What all the different transition types (linear, smoothstep etc) do at the moment is just stopping audio in different ways. I might have overlooked something and i would be very happy if someone has a solution that doesn't include faking a crossfade by having a third mixed channel to "smooth out" the transition.
    Here are two examples and a picture to illustrate my point:

    Current smooth step transition between the same sound (color noise)
    smoothstepTransition.jpg
    Sound from unity:
    https://soundcloud.com/cronium/transition-smoothstep/s-22Zkx

    How a crossfade transition works (crossfading between two clips with the same loudness wouldn't result in any audible loss in volume)
    crossfade.jpg
    And how it'd sound:
    https://soundcloud.com/cronium/transition-crossfade/s-L8M9C

    • Another thing that would be very valuable to have would be some way to visualize what snapshot is currently playing. Just hilight it in the mixer window!

    • It would be very nice to be able to override the snapshot transition type in the trigger script.
     
  2. Shapefarm

    Shapefarm

    Joined:
    Dec 10, 2014
    Posts:
    17
    • Reverb presets for the SFX Reverb would be very appreciated!
     
    Stormy102, laurentlavigne and CWolf like this.
  3. Shapefarm

    Shapefarm

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    Dec 10, 2014
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    • As well would the ability to copy paste settings for effects. Not only apply them to all snapshots (when would you want to do that really?)...
     
  4. Shapefarm

    Shapefarm

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    Dec 10, 2014
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    • When you hide a group in the mixer it would be great (and logical) if the children are also hidden. Just like the layer grouping in Photoshop, Ableton Live etc works.
     
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  5. Shapefarm

    Shapefarm

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    Dec 10, 2014
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    • (Low prio) It'd be great with a filter on the echo effect to simulate the loss of energy after each bounce.
     
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  6. CWolf

    CWolf

    Joined:
    Oct 24, 2011
    Posts:
    106
    Audio was much neglected in previous versions of Unity. Great job with the feedback. I have yet to use Unity 5 as I'm waiting for it to mature a bit more but hopefully the devs pay attention to your feedback @Shapefarm
     
    Shapefarm likes this.
  7. Teku-Studios

    Teku-Studios

    Joined:
    Sep 29, 2012
    Posts:
    257
    Very useful feedback, indeed. Hope Unity hears you and uses your ideas.
     
    Shapefarm likes this.
  8. Shapefarm

    Shapefarm

    Joined:
    Dec 10, 2014
    Posts:
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    • Hello Unity. I did some mockup UI design for you to showcase how the snapshots could be improved. It's vital that you see what you're doing, especially when the scenes grow more complex and you might have several snapshots fading in and out.



      There is also a bug (i don't think this was by design) that when you click "Edit in Play Mode" all the snapshots reset to the "Start Snapshot". What you would want it to do is to give you control over the snapshot you're currently in. It's extremely annoying to be kicked out from the snapshot and out of you "mixing zone". That's what the little red record button (and the blink and the progressbar) in the gif is for. Visual feedback should not be underestimated.

      The "progress bar" should be representing the weight of that snapshot.
     
    Last edited: Feb 4, 2015
  9. RupertMcG

    RupertMcG

    Joined:
    Dec 20, 2014
    Posts:
    8
    Just chiming in to say that this is excellent feedback. C'mon Unity, heed this man's word!
     
    Shapefarm likes this.
  10. Jingle-Fett

    Jingle-Fett

    Joined:
    Oct 18, 2009
    Posts:
    614
    I haven't played with the audio stuff too much yet, but from what I have tried with replicating my old music system, the stuff you mentioned like the transition fade and ability to copy/apply fade settings to multiple snapshots simultaneously were the two big things that first came to mind.
     
  11. Teku-Studios

    Teku-Studios

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    Sep 29, 2012
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    Your feedback in just amazing. It would be nuts if Unity does not consider adding/fixing all this.
     
  12. smetzzz

    smetzzz

    Joined:
    Mar 24, 2014
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    Great idea Shapefarm! I would love to see this too.
     
  13. jerotas

    jerotas

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    Sep 4, 2011
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    5,572
    All those suggestions are great!