How normalize sound

fernaretro

I do not know if someone has raised it, but there is any chance of normalizing the sound in all the games so that they are heard at the same volume level?

I say it because it is very frequent that I stop with games with a very noisy sound and others that are barely heard, forcing me to be continually calibrating the sound in each of them independently.

Thanks.

dankcushions

@fernaretro please fill out https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/3/read-this-first and give specific examples of the games with different sounds.

fernaretro

@dankcushions
I think with the data that I have provided should be enough to guide myself in this matter, but it does not cost me any job of providing additional information if necessary.

Device: Raspberry Pi 3 B +
Retropie: v4.7.2 (official installation)
Emulators: lr-mame-2003, lr-mame-2010

As for citing examples it would be difficult because they all have different sound volumes.

dankcushions

@fernaretro said in How normalize sound:

As for citing examples it would be difficult because they all have different sound volumes.

a specific game (and the emulator used) that is too low and a specific game (and the emulator used) that is too high would be a good start.

in my experience the volumes are mostly consistent, with a few known outliers with specific fixes.

there is no built in way to normalize volumes across the entire system but if you give us information we can tell us if your experience is normal or not.

jamrom2

@fernaretro you can only do this by using an external set of speakers with a volume knob. Every emulator in RetroPie is separate from each other in configs and settings.

All of the Libretro based emulators have an option in the audio menu to adjust sound, but again, this also depends on the game room itself as well. You can have two games in the same emulator have two levels of sound. So now your just chasing your tail.

barbudreadmon

@fernaretro said in How normalize sound:

Emulators: lr-mame-2003, lr-mame-2010

You are using MAME, MAME is about reproducing original hardware the more accurately possible, meaning if sound volume was at 0 the first time an arcade cabinet was booted, they'll probably do the same, and arcade cabinets had different default sound volume, some were loud, some weren't.

Maybe MAME2003-Plus does something about that since it's more freeminded, otherwise you can use FBNeo which will be more user-friendly about that.

sirhenrythe5th

@barbudreadmon said in How normalize sound:

Maybe MAME2003-Plus does something about that since it's more freeminded, otherwise you can use FBNeo which will be more user-friendly about that.

AdvanceMame has an option to auto-level the audio which works pretty well.
As far as a Pi3B+ is used this could be a possible option, i dont use AdvanceMame on my current Pi4 anymore.

barbudreadmon

@sirhenrythe5th said in How normalize sound:

AdvanceMame has an option to auto-level the audio which works pretty well.

Makes sense, afaik that's a hard fork too, like MAME2003-Plus.

fernaretro

@barbudreadmon
Thanks for the info.