Hello,
as you know, the new sounds have been a hot topic recently and there has been a lot of discontent over it. The_Chieftain, a NA Military Specialist has given his opinion on the matter and also described part of the recording process of these sounds, will quote:
“Way back when I was being trained in customer service in my IBM days, it was observed that on average, someone who ‘dislikes’ something is about nine times more likely to tell people about it than someone who ‘likes’ something, if not otherwise prodded to do so.
I have absolutely no idea what the ‘real’ opinions are of the new sounds. Personally, other than the critical hit notifications, I very much like them.
And, yes, we do go to real vehicles. We did a number of recordings last year. At the bottom of this post is part of the contract agreement we had with one location I was involved with recording a collection of WW2 vehicles. If memory serves, we did about three vehicles a day as the process takes so long.
My guess is that people complain because either (a) as mentioned, the hardware they have won’t properly produce the right sound, or (b) they have a false idea of what a tank actually sounds like when done in high fidelity at the tank itself. It was referred to me as ‘The Coconut Effect’, that people expect a certain sound and complain if they don’t get it. My personal point of reference is the cannon sounds, with people complaining that they want the impressive ‘boom’ back. But that’s not what a tank cannon really sounds like.
Anyway, below is how we recorded. This particular requirements list was for the contract which covered M7 HMC, M3A1 Light, Valentine, JgdPz38(t), M4A1, M5 Light, M18 and M24, and it was far from the only recording session we did. If you run the game and you don’t think any of these vehicles sound ‘right’, the chances are that the problem’s on your end.
Recording the tanks in two modes: On the move and static.
A) Static (without movements but with the engine).
We will record the sounds inside and outside on the permanently installed microphones near the tank plus one microphone is inside the tower. A soundman (representative of WG) will be recording close to the exhaust system, another operator will be recording inside the turret plus one soundman is on distance of 50 meters, and will be recording in a different angles.
Take list:
1. Engine start.
2. Shutdown the engine
3. Engine start and warming up (low RPM) – 1 minute.
4. Running the engine at medium speed (mid RPM) – 1 minute.
5. Running the engine at high rpm (high RPM) – up to 1 minute.
6. Running the engine at varying intensity – 2 minutes
7. Smooth and very slow increase from low RPM to high RPM – 3 times.
8. Switching off the engine
9. Checking of the recorded take – 10 minutes.
B) Static (with engine off) We will record mechanisms inside and outside the turret (of the electrical or hydraulic drives )
Take list:
1. Rotation mechanism inside the turret- 3 … 5 times (a few turns on a small angle and a few on large)
2. Opening and closing the hatches – 5 minutes
3. Mechanisms shutter of barrel – 10 minutes
4. Toggling of different switches – 5 minutes
5. Technical measurements of the sound level – 5 minutes
C) Recording on move
We will record sounds inside and outside on the permanently installed microphones on the tank hull plus some microphone in the hands of the sound engineers. A soundman ( representative of WG is in the open hatch of the tower during movement ) another soundman – operator of the recording equipment installed inside the tower ( the representative of WG is in the turret while driving ) plus one soundman is on distance of 100-200 meters and will record the overall sound atmosphere ( representative of WG).
Take list:
1. Engine start
2. Straight-line acceleration (smooth surface without slope) in the first or second transfer with minimal acceleration – 3 times
3. Full stop of the tank after reaching the maximum RPM for the gear – 3 times
4. Straight-line acceleration on the first (second) transfer with maximum acceleration – 3 times
5. Abrupt stop after reaching the maximum RPM for the gear – 3 times.
6. Switching off the engine
7. Preliminary checking of the recorded take – 5 minutes.
8. Engine start.
9. Straight-line acceleration (smooth surface without slope) with increasing transmission with minimal acceleration (up to 3 or 4 assists) – 4 times
10. Rectilinear movement (smooth surface without slope), the downshift from 4 to minimum speed transmission – 2 times
11. Rolling on neutral gear to the full stop – 2 times.
12. Straight-line acceleration (smooth surface without slope) with increasing transmission with maximum acceleration (up to 4 or 5 assists) – 4 times
13. Abrupt stop upon reaching the maximum speed – 2 times.
14. Dynamic engine braking – 2 times.
15. Switching off the engine
16. Preliminary checking of the recorded take – 5 minutes.
17. Engine start
18. Straight-line acceleration (motion downhill, imitation load) in the first (second) transfer with minimal acceleration – 2 times
19. Rolling on neutral gear to the full stop – 2 times.
20. Rectilinear motion (movement downhill imitation load) with overdrive with maximum acceleration (up to 4 or 5 transfer) – 2 times
21. Dynamic engine braking – 2 times.
22. Switching off the engine – 1 times.
23. Preliminary checking of the recorded take – 5 minutes.
24. Engine start
25. Maneuvers: reversing move – 100-200 meters
26. Maneuvers: reversing a left turn – 100-200 meters
27. Maneuvers: reversing a right turn – 100-200 meters
28. Maneuvers: reversing a turning to the right / left (imitation maneuvering) – 100-200 meters
29. Maneuvers: the movement in the first (second) transmission from turning to the right / left (imitation maneuvering) – 100-200 meters
30. Maneuvers: turn on the spot.
31. Switching off the engine
32. Preliminary checking of the recorded take – 5 minutes.
33. Engine start
34. Tank movement over rough terrain at different speeds with maneuvering left / right with a few stops and turns on the spot – about 5 … 10 minutes ( depending on field )
35. Switching off the engine “
Like I said before, I believe the new sounds are a great addition to the game (although wish I could discard the repair and six sense ones), the vehicles now sound more realistic.
If you think the new gun sounds are underwhelming then lower every other slider and keep the gun audio slider to 100%.
Just make it louder, it should work just fine.
Does not fix the fact that they failed to make gun sounds have any relation to caliber though.
Realism is good but if I accept sounds need to be 100% realistic and 0% arcade then what about the rest of the game?
WG made the game arcadish where they felt was needed and realistic in those aspects they could afford to and succeeded in creating a largely successful game.
So why not do the same with the audio and sacrifice some realism in the interests of helping the gameplay?
The old sounds may not have sounded as realistic but they were a lot more informative.
New sounds are nice but confusing gameplay-wise.
These new sounds are theoritically more informative. You just have to learn them.
IMHO they are a huge improvement.
Don’t listen to all the keyboard commandos they hide there and type away.
I am fully prepared to believe that the sounds are more realistic now, and while I find some annoying, I would agree that this is an improvement.
My point is this, though – I think there is a long list of problems which plague the game today, and neither sounds nor the previous physics were anywhere near to the top of this list. In fact, personally I wouldn’t have put either on this list at all. Because of this I hope Wargaming understands that I find it somewhat difficult to share their enthusiasm.
To llustrate the point: Only yesterday I had a couple of matches that went roughly like this – my team had two heavies against 6 in the enemy team – one of which a VK 45.02B, three of which a clan platoon – and all of this in a city map (Kharkov). The predictable result: 15:2 for the enemy team. I don’t know if Wargaming realize how bitter such ‘experiences’ make you feel about their product, but I can honestly say that the new sounds did not really help to sweeten the experience for me.
I still hope this company will get its priorities right eventually.
The sound that stuck in my mind the most was some of the ricochets sound like a kid banging on a cast iron pot. That said, I’ve never been near a tank getting shot at, so I’m just trusting that that’s the sound it actually makes.
In my opinion ricochet sounds are awful, it’s like ‘beeeng’, but it should be much deeper, something like ‘booong’. Sound pitch is related to the wavelength, and wavelength related to geometrical size (and shape). Bigger tank -> longer wavelength -> deeper sound. Currently i have the feeling i’m playing with small toy tanks…
They want the “boom” back? What the duck? The new sounds have a million times more boom than than the old potato “poofs”.
that cos they added it cos people wanted it
Are WG so stubborn that they cant realize if there is discontent and so widespread that Chief feels a need to respond,that there might be merit to it?Instead blaming peoples perception or hardware is just the line they adopt for everything up to the point when they come to the realization that they were wrong.And using realism as a defense when you have invisible tanks is laffable.They keep forgetting one thing and thats making people happy.Doing that will fix things on both sides..
Most people complaining don’t have a sound card and are listening on earbuds. I have a creative sound blaster card and Audio Technica M70x studio monitor headphones and a headphone amp/DAC, the game sounds great. If you turn up the sound to high it is exceptionally immersive, from the larger soundstage, to the squeaks of the tracks and the crack of an apcr round breaking the sound barrier it sounds awesome. But if you don’t have the equipment or the ears to perceive the nuances I can understand why you want your over exaggerated sound back.
totally agree. its a lot better than before and even better than sound mods
So we finally get sounds to replace the 90’s pew pew tank sounds we had before, and people are bitching about them?
Just goes to show, you can’t please everyone…
Also, don’t complain if you’re playing with Fisher-Price headphones or laptop speakers. I’m sure about 50% of the complaints are from people who have crap sound hardware.
Nice that you share that post here.
BUT: Wasn’t it you (Rita), who told everyone here that the new sound are not correct and you would know how a tank sounds, because you were around tanks very much lately?
accusing someone and not even trying to supply evidence is a weird practise, especially when (ty jesus for inventing the interwebs!11one) you could have found out youself what she has been saying about the new sounds:
http://ritastatusreport.live/2016/03/12/new-physics-sound-effects-by-spacegk/
(“I actually like very much the newER physics and sounds, in particular the sounds! I’ve been around real tanks long enough to know how they are suppose to sound like (except for the firing which I still listen to while browsing around on youtube) and feel like this was a great addition to the game.”)
“I actually like very much the newER physics and sounds, in particular the sounds! I’ve been around real tanks long enough to know how they are suppose to sound like (except for the firing which I still listen to while browsing around on youtube) and feel like this was a great addition to the game.”
…you could have found out by youself
http://ritastatusreport.live/2016/03/12/new-physics-sound-effects-by-spacegk/
Yeah these sounds suck. And No, it’s not due to my high quality audio equipment. Most of the sounds are just downright worse.
why do you have high fidelity audio if you cant hear worth a damn, the new sounds are better in every way.
There are a lot of people who didn’t ask for worse sounds like this. They should have just included the worse sounds as an option, not a requirement.
Don’t listen to him, he just showed a few comments up that he’s just resisting change.
Bro, I hate to break it to you, but that high quality audio equipment is completely lost on you.
sounds are a billion time better than before.. i like that metallic objects hitting metallic object sound metallic
i actually lvoe the new engine sounds since i know a petrol or a diesel engines sounds liike since i live near the Cairns Tank Museum.
@ Rita hows the FV304 restore project going and i know it fun, enjoying helping out the Museum.people plus hearing Churchill 3 engines go hehe
I’m not that much of a internet reader to be honest but your blogs really nice, keep it up!
I’ll go ahead and bookmark your website to come back down the
road. Many thanks
As someone with a decent pair of headphones, a decent desktop that’s not potato class, my initial reaction to the sound were exactly as what everyone is ‘whining’ about,” why does my tank sound like a Lawnmower/Truck ?!”
And I believe I can speak for a majority of players who have never heard/seen a real tank in action apart from movies/documentaries. Therefore our ‘representation’ of tank sounds mostly came from WoT. And for huge beasts of a machine we expected ‘Hollywood’ class sounds for such a beast.
As someone previously mentioned, its more of a shock ?
As for the ambient sounds, I really appreciate the attention to detail, the little squeaks of the tracks, the crushing of gravel under the tracks etc. But again, I was overwhelmed, while it does add a sense of immersion, the information provided by the sounds were overwhelming initially. Its like giving a new WoT player a highly modded clients with all information on screen hitlogs, tanks info, tank damage indicators etc, he will be swamped with ‘Useless’ information that makes no sense to him.
TL:DR new sounds are more of a reality check to most players and initially provide too much information for the average player to take in at once, eventually I believe people will get used to deciphering the info. Cause a ‘smack’ sound on your tank meant you got hit, but now, that sound improved could have 5 variance could mean 5 different things.
Sounds are ‘terrible’. How? So much.
I dont like how new sounds down his level after getting a hit or when commanders talk. But the rest its fine, after a couple of days im fine with the new sounds
This is what happens when you have bunch of five year old Liberal SJW’s playing the game, they feel oppressed by the new sounds and think every tank should sound like their Prius so they can feel good about themselves for being environmental friendly.
the new sounds are just fantastic, amazing attention to detail WG. Cant stop playing V engine tanks now to hear the start up. How am i supoposed to play this game now after i hear that big Meteor engine start. Goose bumps! Notice that the crusader splutters a bit to start just like Bovingtons. and the liberty sounds just great. My game play is suffering cos i just want to hear those V12’s roar! KFZKFZ
personally i do like the new sounds i only have two complaints 1 Why does the engine wind down when going up hills? shouldn’t it be working harder than ever? 2 Why cant we rev the engine during the starting countdown once it roars to life? I know that they are just nit picks but i hope they fix/add those features later. Also great article!
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