FSX Sounds

[Busterbvi 3]

Calling all FSX sound experts. Probably a daft question but I will ask anyway. Is it possible to get rid of the terrible sound engine in FSX and replace it with the FS9 sound engine. I have had enough of the wishy washy sounds that FSX generates.  Most Devs provide good sound packs with their models and if you go into the sound folder and play the WAV files most of them are pretty much spot on, the problem is FSX destroys them, I have experimented with on board sound, various sound cards and now my sound is HD from the GPU through HDMI to a Yamaha receiver feeding a top end Energy 5.1 surround system, all this finery and aircraft still sound rubbish in FSX !!  I hate that stupid sound cone idea !

 

A good random example of this is the A2A Spitfire, the WAV files are excellent but sound nothing like a Spitfire in tower view which I use a lot to do aerobatics over the field, it sounds more like a weed whacker in tower view as do most aircraft !

 

Any ideas on a fix for this or sound cfg tweaks would be most welcome.

 

Thanks.  Buster.

[Jim Young 2,356]

A lot of people do not like the sounds that come with products and many go about finding new and better sounds. Our AVSIM Library has many free sounds for various aircraft. There are some payware sounds too if you look around the Internet. There is no such thing as an FS9 sound engine and an FSX sound engine. All the sounds come from the respective aircraft sound file. ATC comes from another file and sometimes payware developers will throw sound into their airport scenery. If you do not like the sounds you need to start searching for better sounds. I'm not sure what you mean by the "stupid sound cone idea". It was just an idea that someone came up with and thought many would appreciate the sound cones. Developers cannot please everyone and, obviously, you especially! Your post is extremely negative and I think inciting and it leaves no room for solutions. You have covered every possible response. This is not the way AVSIM operates here.

[Busterbvi 3]

Hi Jim.  I think you misunderstand, I am not complaining about developers efforts on the sounds they supply, as I said in my OP, most of them are great, if I find any that are not I look around for better ones and I use the Avsim library, TSS and others when I want to replace sound files, not a problem.

 

My issue is how FSX handles the sound files, it is quite different from FS9 which, in my opinion was much better. I had a good email exchange Steve Inwood of MSS before he sadly passed, he produced some awesome sounds, he explained to me that there were limitations with the FSX sound engine as he put it, that were not there in FS9. Apparently FSX somehow distorts the sounds and you end up with that familiar wishy washy sound in play.

 

There must be some kind of in built sound editor for the cone system to work as you pan round the aircraft.

 

I would be interested to hear from others if there are any known tweaks to the FSX cfg sound section ? Are there any lines in the cfg that can be "commented" ( // ) out to stop the sound cone working so that the sound functions like FS9 ?  I do this with "camera views" in the FSX cfg and aircraft cfg files to eliminate views that I dont want. A great tip I asked for here on Avsim.

 

I am not comfortable messing around with cfg files unless I get a recomendation from someone who has tried and tested a tweak and found it works.

 

I trust this clarifies my point.

[vololiberista 205]

You have two choices only:-

 

1. Download sounds for the aircraft

2. Make your own for use with sound.cfg

 

For number 2 you will need  FS sound studio. It isn't easy even in FS9 even if you do have the patience!

[Busterbvi 3]

Since posting, I have been trawling through some old forums that I was lurking on looking for solutions. I seem to remember someone mentioning a "Waterloop" tweak in the FSX sound cfg, does this sound familiar to anyone ?

 

I cant find where I saw it, guess I should have printed it !

[Capt Speirs 52]

What the heck is going on here, doesn't anyone read English. he is not complaining about actual sound file quality, he's talking about the lousy way FSX handles them. I agree with the OP, FSX butchers engine sound replay. For those that don't know about FSX Sound Cones look here.

[Jim Young 2,356]

"Waterloop" tweak in the FSX sound cfg

I found some hits when I did a search for waterloop tweak fsx. I agree with vololiberista above. FS Sound Studio is the program you need to edit the sound.cfg - http://www.fssoundstudio.com/. I personally have no problems with the sounds in FSX. I get totally excited when listening to the sounds of the PMDG 777 and the PMDG 737. I really like the sound environments around airports. Orbx/FTX, for one, does a great job. Over the years I have purchased a lot of the payware sounds from TSS too.

 

I think the biggest problem I have with your OP is your statement to get rid of the "terrible FSX sound engine" and replace it with the FS9 sound engine. There is no sound engine that I know of and Microsoft did not change the sounds of default aircraft. I'm sitting here and going like, huh? The sound in FSX is terrible and the sound in FS9 is great? There are a lot of members who love to spend their time bashing FSX because of one reason or another, mostly they cannot get it to work properly or as fast as FS9 and they don't want to upgrade their computer just for FSX. Maybe if you had just left out FS9 as your example and just left it as FSX has a terrible sound engine and does anyone have any suggestions to improve it would have been better or more appropriate. Just my thoughts. I'm sure there are several members here who will totally agree with you and I hope they can help you.

 

Best regards,

[Busterbvi 3]

Thanks for that Capt Speirs.  My posts were misunderstood or simply not read properly !  Thanks for the link to the FSX sound cone info, great stuff, I knew I was right !

 

I am hoping someone somewhere has figured out a way to tweak this to stop FSX from ruining the great sounds that Devs work so hard to produce accurately.

 

I wonder what would happen if I deleted the FSX sound cfg and replaced it with the FS9 one ? It cant be that simple !? ...... can it ?

[Busterbvi 3]

Thanks for the comeback Jim. I have no desire to change any of the aircraft sound files so I will look into fssoundstudio to see if thats what I need to change the FSX sound cfg.

 

I have invested a lot of time and money in my FS PC to get FSX huming along nicely, thanks to a lot of knowledgeable and helpful people on here and elswhere I have got it running smoothly, stutter and blurry free. My final challenge is the awfull way FSX handles aircraft sounds. I too get exited when I listen to the sound of a RR Merlin in spot view only to cringe when you switch to other views where the sound is ruined.

 

I was born and raised with the RAF and my Father flew all the V force aircraft through his career. The sound of a Vulcan at full chat on take of with its famous howl used to give me goosebumps ! When Steve Inwood was working on his Iris Vulcan sound set for FSX I was Beta testing for him as I spent a lot of time around Vulcans as a lad. With all his excellent audio mixing skills he could not re produce the howl in FSX as you could only hear it in real life if you were in front of the aircraft as the howl was caused by the airflow resonating in the intakes. The FSX sound engine as he used to call it would not allow him to re produce it realisticaly. I guess he used the term "engine" to describe the sound cone system. This is a good example to get my point accross and hence my comparison to FS9. In FS9 you could hear the howl,very loud and lovely, in FSX you cant. There is no cone system or sound editor in FS9 so you get the raw sound in replay that is identical to the sounds you hear if you play a FS9 WAV file. I agree with Capt Speirs that FSX butchers aircraft sounds. In my opinion, quality sounds were sacrifced in FSX to provide a novelty sound cone feature that changes the sound as you pan around the aircraft. More realistic ? ... maybe but that raw ground shaking jet growl with the crackle on re heat is simply not there in FSX. Graphics wise FSX is superior, audio wise FS9 is much better .... in my humble opinion.

 

I am not FSX bashing, it is my sim of choice but I am trying to perfect it to how I want it.

FSX was an unfinished product and never will be, not by Microsoft anyway. I am sure there is some very talented member/s out there that has solved this problem and I hope he / they find this thread.

[Capt Speirs 52]

Thanks for that Capt Speirs.  My posts were misunderstood or simply not read properly !  Thanks for the link to the FSX sound cone info, great stuff, I knew I was right !

 

I am hoping someone somewhere has figured out a way to tweak this to stop FSX from ruining the great sounds that Devs work so hard to produce accurately.

 

I wonder what would happen if I deleted the FSX sound cfg and replaced it with the FS9 one ? It cant be that simple !?

 

Back up and go for it, good luck. 

[vololiberista 205]

I am hoping someone somewhere has figured out a way to tweak this to stop FSX from ruining the great sounds that Devs work so hard to produce accurately.

 

 

Invariably even in FS9 one has to doctor the original sound considerably in order for it to sound right within the sim. Simply taking a sound recording and replaying as is within the sim rarely works as most times the sound heard in the sim is not the same. An example: I have a very nice sound from inside of a RR Conway at full throttle during a take-off run. But did it sound the same when replayed in the sim? Not at all! So now after extensive modification when played outside the sim it bears no comparison but within the sim it's perfect!

 

Also with the same engines there are different sounds for the LP and HP compressors which have to be matched by pitch to produce the distinctive sound of the RR Conway.

 

 

There are many other constraints within FS9 and FSX. For example engine sounds loop after just 3 seconds so to get a sound to appear smooth is actually quite difficult. sounds heard from inside the cockpit too have to be balanced.

 

Then you have to add wind noise and that too has to be precise so that the correct volume is heard at certain airspeeds.

 

The problem isn't the FSX sound engine at all! To produce good quality and convincing sounds takes a lot of work and constant testing and most devs don't want to or can't devote the enormous amount of time needed to get perfection.

 

The sound.cfg file in both FS9 and FSX was set up mostly to benefit propellers and pistons. It does not for example have the ability to reduce engine sound at high altitude which in real life is caused by high mach number and thin atmosphere. So one has to mimic that in other ways that also sound convincing on the ground.

 

Anything put into the sound.cfg is therefore a compromise. Yes, there are some low quallity sound sets out there (mostly because of reasons stated earlier) but there are also some good ones where the dev has tried their best to recreate the original sounds.

 

So the only way to 'tweak' FSX as you say is in fact to make your own sound set if you are disatisfied with the one you already have.

 

Unfortunately as avsim doesn't now allow one to post small images directly I'm unable to illustrate some of the complex sound envelopes I've created for the VC10.

 

An almost impossible task without fsss.

[Busterbvi 3]

Thanks vololiberista for your input, interesting & gives me a better understanding.  I have some free time next week so I am going to load up an old retired gaming PC with FS9 and FSX and do some experimenting, I intend to simply delete the FSX sound cfg file and replace it with the FS9 cfg file and see what happens, if it all goes horribly wrong, it doesnt matter but my curiosity will be satisfied !

 

Funny you should mention the VC10, I have just been playing around with my DM model in FSX. I replaced the sound files with the excellent sounds by Benoit Plamondon, very realistic.  I would love to see what you did to your 10, can I PM you with my Email address ?

 

I have yet to to take the leap into the world of P3D, how are the sounds in that ?

[vololiberista 205]

Thanks vololiberista for your input, interesting & gives me a better understanding.  I have some free time next week so I am going to load up an old retired gaming PC with FS9 and FSX and do some experimenting, I intend to simply delete the FSX sound cfg file and replace it with the FS9 cfg file and see what happens, if it all goes horribly wrong, it doesnt matter but my curiosity will be satisfied !

 

Funny you should mention the VC10, I have just been playing around with my DM model in FSX. I replaced the sound files with the excellent sounds by Benoit Plamondon, very realistic.  I would love to see what you did to your 10, can I PM you with my Email address ?

 

I have yet to to take the leap into the world of P3D, how are the sounds in that ?

 

 

In the not too distant future (i have to write up the manuel) I'm going to release a full update to DM's Super VC10. This update contains the differences in performance between the Standard and the Super.

Also I have completely re-hashed the sound file internally. Each engine has 9 sounds for the HP compressor and 5 for the LP compressor. Benoit Plamondon's are good but a little weak. But, I have incorporated his gear sounds as well. In the next few days I'll do a video demo of the new sounds.

 

Go here to see the previous updates. You need to accumulate each one

http://library.avsim.net/search.php?SearchTerm=vc10+update&CatID=root&Go=Search

[Busterbvi 3]

Excellent, can you post a link here or PM me when the vid is ready ?  I suspect I will be your first customer !

 

Can I invite input from other members to let me know their opinion on P3D aircraft sounds.  Does it have the same sound cone as FSX ?

[fs4fun 366]

Does FSX use DirectSound? I wonder if this post here might be relevant:

http://www.cbfsim.co.uk/cbfs_bb/viewtopic.php?p=235926#p235926

 

I've seen quite a few discussions about how Win Vista/7 rewrote the audio stack, causing DirectSound games to run in an emulation layer where the audio is resampled and mixed in software. That might explain the difference in quality between playing the WAV file directly (which might go directly to the native Win7 audio stack) versus in-game.

 

The solutions seem to be to try 3D Soundback for Realtek audio or get a Creative sound card and use Alchemy.

 

I'm not in any way an audio expert but at least it sounds plausible to me.