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Request for the sound in future...

Johnny WalkerJohnny Walker
edited March 2007 in Sam & Max
I realise there's only two episodes unreleased, but could someone make a note somewhere of the sound issues. I'm not talking about quality, I'm talking about levels: The default levels of EFFECTS, MUSIC and VOICE make the game impossible to understand. In every episode I've had to turn down the MUSIC, and sometimes the EFFECTS, a notch or two every episode, in order to hear the VOICE clearly.

Episode 3 has been the worst, on top of the problem I've mentioned above, there were specific moments that were very bad:

- Ted E. Bear's mumbling is completely inaudible.

- When you win at the unarmed bandit, the door closing stomps right over the mafia guy's line, making part of it unintelligible.

- The three heads on the casino wall that sing that hilarious song, are turned WAY too low. I'm surprised that something that must have taken so much time and effort was barely audible. Thankfully we get to hear it in full during the end credits, but why make it so low in the game itself?

- During the car chase, Max's megaphone was turned up way too high... I know it's supposed to be "loud", but there's ways of making it sound loud, without making it LOUD. Compared to Sam's voice, the difference was massive, and annoying.

Otherwise, wonderful work once again! I'd have to say that Episode 3 has been my favourite so far! Brilliant stuff!

Looking forward to Episode 4!

Comments

  • JakeJake Telltale Alumni
    edited February 2007
    Those volume adjust sliders are there for a reason! It sounds different for everyone. That said, the sound guys play through the final build of the game once from start to finish and assess where the sliders should default to, and that's what we ship with. They're not totally arbitrary or something!
  • ShaggEShaggE
    edited February 2007
    I always use the default sound settings, your sound crew has a good ear for volume levels.
  • lerenwelerenwe
    edited February 2007
    I've been terrified when I used Max's megaphone for the first time in this episodes!

    You know, I was playing with my headphones, and I've clicked on the megaphone icon, and then... Oh my god... It's terrible! I can't speak about that because it's too terrible! I've thought that blood ran my ears!
  • JakeJake Telltale Alumni
    edited February 2007
    The megaphone in episode 3 was slightly insane. That was a bug! In the rest it's usually pretty good though?
  • MelMel
    edited February 2007
    This is kind of a spoiler for Ep. 4
    Episode 4 has a bug too. :D:D




    "Is this thing on?"
  • pixelat3dpixelat3d
    edited February 2007
    I always turn down the music volume a little bit to hear the speech better, not a big deal. Can we get a 'speed' option built into the telltale tool like from old sierra games? I want to whizz Sam and Max around the screen = )
  • Johnny WalkerJohnny Walker
    edited February 2007
    Jake wrote: »
    Those volume adjust sliders are there for a reason! It sounds different for everyone.

    It's weird then, that TVs, cinemas and DVDs don't come with the same "slider" options. :p
    That said, the sound guys play through the final build of the game once from start to finish and assess where the sliders should default to, and that's what we ship with. They're not totally arbitrary or something!

    I appreciate that. I'm just pointing out an existing problem. (I gave very specific examples, all of which are 100% repeatable and prevent the user from experiencing the sound as it was recorded in Episode 3.) As for the other games, you're right, it's clearly not a massive problem, but it is a little annoying and it would be cool if it could be a given a little extra attention for Episodes 5 and 6.
    I always turn down the music volume a little bit to hear the speech better, not a big deal.

    Glad I'm not the only one! :)
  • ErwinErwin
    edited February 2007
    lerenwe wrote: »
    I've been terrified when I used Max's megaphone for the first time in this episodes!

    You know, I was playing with my headphones, and I've clicked on the megaphone icon, and then... Oh my god... It's terrible! I can't speak about that because it's too terrible! I've thought that blood ran my ears!

    My brother is looking funny at me, because he wonders why I just laughed out loud. :D

    --Erwin
  • JakeJake Telltale Alumni
    edited February 2007
    Johnny Walker wrote: »
    It's weird then, that TVs, cinemas and DVDs don't come with the same "slider" options. :p

    They're also not intended to be interactive and dynamically mixing themselves at all times. ... :p
  • Johnny WalkerJohnny Walker
    edited February 2007
    Jake wrote: »
    They're also not intended to be interactive and dynamically mixing themselves at all times. ... :p

    That doesn't seem to hold up to much scrutiny, unless you're saying that the user is supposed to adjust the sliders periodically through the game as the scene changes? :D
  • LuigiHannLuigiHann
    edited February 2007
    Johnny Walker wrote: »
    - When you win at the unarmed bandit, the door closing stomps right over the mafia guy's line, making part of it unintelligible.

    I'd just like to point out... that one's on purpose. :p
  • Johnny WalkerJohnny Walker
    edited February 2007
    LuigiHann wrote: »
    I'd just like to point out... that one's on purpose. :p

    No it isn't. You're thinking of when you don't hear the password. I meant when the guy walks out after
    you've won the meatball sandwich
    . I should have made that clearer!
  • taumeltaumel
    edited February 2007
    So far the sound design in Sam&Max is good but beside of one song i miss songs which give me the creeps. Best to compare with what i mean might be songs from Grim Fandango like "Nuevo Marrow", "Lost Souls Alliance" or "Bone wagon". I miss the beautiful weirdness and melodies of such songs in Sam&Max. Have courage!
  • marsanmarsan
    edited February 2007
    Johnny Walker wrote: »
    It's weird then, that TVs, cinemas and DVDs don't come with the same "slider" options. :p

    oh, but they do. Don't you have a remote control for your TV to turn up the volume if the sound is hard to hear? I have some dvds that got really quiet sound, so I have to turn up the volume to a much higher volume than I would normally use for a normal TV show. Also, some TV channels here have a different volume than other channels, so I have to turn down the volume. TV commercials tends to be a higher volume than normal TV shows too... so I have to turn down the sound before I walk away from the TV.

    Cinemas don't got them because nobody who goes to a cinema is unaware that the sound is going to be high, so those who doesn't like it simply don't go there.

    Personally, I've had no problems with the sound at all. But I have my soundcard hooked up to my amplifier, so I can turn up and down the volume by the turn of an external dial.
  • WickywooWickywoo
    edited March 2007
    My problem ,if anything is that movie theaters have turned their sound down far too much. Well below reference in fact because of a bunch of whiners

    When I go to see star wars, I expect that opening note to make my ears bleed ;)
  • Johnny WalkerJohnny Walker
    edited March 2007
    marsan wrote: »
    oh, but they do. Don't you have a remote control for your TV to turn up the volume if the sound is hard to hear?

    Marsan, does your TV have slider options to allow you to turn Bruce Willis's voice higher than the background music? Does it allow you to turn the gunshots and explosions down? Does it let you turn the incidental music off? If it does, you've got yourself a pretty fantastic TV!

    Sad to say, that despite the utter brilliance of Episode 4 (and it was so good it quite frankly made the whole season worthwhile), the same issues came up again.

    Episode 4 Sound Problems:

    - The conversation between Sam & Max when they first
    chase after Abe Lincoln
    is nearly drowned out by the engine noise.

    - The worst offender of all was the absolutely brilliant
    musical number
    which for some reason required me to crank up my volume to fully appreciate, and then turn it back down again so not to get deafened when the characters started talking.

    It seems the
    musical numbers (including episode 3)
    are placed in... "sound effects"? Is that right?

    Basically, subtitles that are "on" by default and "sliders" for Voice, Music and SFX are signs of laziness or cheapness. I'm sorry, but in this day and age, they are. (In precisely the same way that, in other PC games, being allowed to tweak every single graphical option is a sign that the developers haven't bothered to do enough work on testing a system's capabilities. Thankfully most modern games are better at this now, but there's still plenty of developers that, like Microsoft, think that giving the user all the options in the world is the best thing for the user - of course, it's cost effective, too! Of course, if it's done right, the user shouldn't want to change anything. How many people complain about not being able to alter the look of OSX, for example? - I digress.)

    I know that TellTale is a small outfit, so they can't spend the time necessary to completely polish a game so it's 100%, tweaking sound mixes ad infinitum, but the mixing is something that's not great at the moment, and it would be super if it could be addressed, maybe even for Season 2, if it's too late for Episodes 5 and 6 of Season 1.

    Thanks, TellTale! I think with Episode 4 you actually surpassed my memories of Sam & Max: Hit the Road... No mean feat!!
  • TelltaleToolTelltaleTool
    edited March 2007
    Johnny Walker wrote: »
    Marsan, does your TV have slider options to allow you to turn Bruce Willis's voice higher than the background music?

    Actually, that's pretty much what the center channel in a surround mix is for :)
  • Johnny WalkerJohnny Walker
    edited March 2007
    tabacco wrote: »
    Actually, that's pretty much what the center channel in a surround mix is for :)

    Actually, dialogue is output mostly from the center speaker because that's the one closest to the screen. In a theater, for example, the center channel is usually placed BEHIND the screen.

    It wouldn't make sense to have dialogue primarily coming from any of the other speakers, now would it? :)

    Dialogue coming from the center channel is NOT there specifically so the theater owner/home theater enthusiast can increase the clarity of dialogue... ! (It's only ever used for the that purpose when there's a poor sound mix (or poor speaker placement in the case of a HTE).)
  • ThomasMinkThomasMink
    edited March 2007
    I too, find myself turning the music volume down because it drowns out the effects and speech. I love sound effects, but sometimes they drown out the speech too, so I turn them down as well.. tho not as far.

    I accept the sliders for what they are, and I have to do similar in just about every game I play with such sliders (which is more than you might think, and I'm glad when games put them there.. it's like an equalizer on a stereo, I can adjust them to find a sound that's perfect [for me]). It's enjoyable until the musical numbers kick in.. I assume one of the sliders I turn down is the cause. Because of that, I didn't get to really enjoy the one in ep4.. or the singing bear heads in ep3.

    But.. this is all minor to me.
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