Hearing like Shroud

[koji]

Hi, I was wondering if my audio set-up is already decent or if I need a major upgrade to hear game sounds like shroud.

 

I got an Audio Technica ATH-AD700X Open Back Headphones connected to Behringer U-Phoria UM2 USB Audio Interface.

I think I'm getting a good audio location but watching streamers play makes me wonder how they seem like having a spider sense with audio. Maybe my set-up is good enough but my ears are just bad, I just need a confirmation if that's the case.

 

Also I've watched from one of Linus' videos that it's mostly software driven to improve audio location. I tried Overwatch with 3 settings. First just using the default (stereo), second using Windows Sonic, third using Dolby that comes within the Overwatch Audio settings. I found out that for my ears I think just the default (stereo) seems better. But when I try to research everyone says Dolby should be better. Maybe stereo is good with horizontal sound tracking while the other Spatial Sound software like Sonic & Dolby is better with more directional sounds including vertical? Or maybe again, I really just have a bad pair of ears. Hehe. I dont know for sure, I hope someone can enlighten me.

[Volbet]

I don't know what kinds of streamers you're talking about, but a lot of the more serious/competative players pretty much EQ out every sound that isn't essentialy for in-game awareness. And they, of course, boost the frequencies that helps with raising their awareness. 

[an actual squirrel]

1 hour ago, koji said:

Also I've watched from one of Linus' videos that it's mostly software driven to improve audio location. I tried Overwatch with 3 settings. First just using the default (stereo), second using Windows Sonic, third using Dolby that comes within the Overwatch Audio settings. I found out that for my ears I think just the default (stereo) seems better. But when I try to research everyone says Dolby should be better. Maybe stereo is good with horizontal sound tracking while the other Spatial Sound software like Sonic & Dolby is better with more directional sounds including vertical? Or maybe again, I really just have a bad pair of ears. Hehe. I dont know for sure, I hope someone can enlighten me.

Virtual surround sound is digital processing, whether it is software or hardware (running on cpu or specialized audio processor) isn't that interesting. When you use regular stereo, the problem is that since it only has 2 channels, left and right, that doesn't do a great job with other directions, like front and back, and up and down. When you use virtual surround sound, you are using different HRTF for different directions, giving you a way to directly perceive those dimensions on headphones.

 

I'll give you a demonstration to show what I mean. In the following videos with stereo audio, one was made facing the training bots and then rotating 360 degrees. The other was made starting with training bots directly behind, and rotating in the opposite direction. Can you tell which is which?

 

 

[koji]

12 hours ago, an actual squirrel said:

Virtual surround sound is digital processing, whether it is software or hardware (running on cpu or specialized audio processor) isn't that interesting. When you use regular stereo, the problem is that since it only has 2 channels, left and right, that doesn't do a great job with other directions, like front and back, and up and down. When you use virtual surround sound, you are using different HRTF for different directions, giving you a way to directly perceive those dimensions on headphones.

  

I'll give you a demonstration to show what I mean. In the following videos with stereo audio, one was made facing the training bots and then rotating 360 degrees. The other was made starting with training bots directly behind, and rotating in the opposite direction. Can you tell which is which?

  

 

Video 1 of 2 seems like most of the sound are coming from behind

 

Video 2 of 2 seems like most of the sound are coming in front, though some sound seems to be behind due to the passing bullets going behind.

 

Am I right? Btw, thank you for confirming that surround audio reveals more directions, that is my question by asking stuff about vertical and horizontal.

 

It's like using surround software makes my audio shitty but at the same time improves audiolocation, which if playing games is advantageous. Still, I feel like I'm better at audiolocating with Stereo but maybe I just got used to it, I'll give Sonic or Atmos a chance and try them with some games.

[rice guru]

for streamers especially shroud while they benefit from sound. they all play the same games for hours on end so their game sense and ability to lacate things based off sound is aso off the charts basically because of pure skill and experience. basically what im saying is your abilty to hear won't neccesarily be a downfall but rather than experience.  for example I've played hundreds of hours of r6 s and have killed people through walls based of sound alone. but I can't locate shit in apex.albiet apex's sound engine isn't as good as siege.

[an actual squirrel]

On 2/26/2019 at 11:46 PM, koji said:

Video 1 of 2 seems like most of the sound are coming from behind

 

Video 2 of 2 seems like most of the sound are coming in front, though some sound seems to be behind due to the passing bullets going behind.

 

Am I right? Btw, thank you for confirming that surround audio reveals more directions, that is my question by asking stuff about vertical and horizontal.

 

It's like using surround software makes my audio shitty but at the same time improves audiolocation, which if playing games is advantageous. Still, I feel like I'm better at audiolocating with Stereo but maybe I just got used to it, I'll give Sonic or Atmos a chance and try them with some games.

Here's the same experiment replicated with dolby headphone dh2, a virtual 7.1 surround sound. You can compare it to your experience with stereo.