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An advantage of creating specific Audio Busses for different types of sounds, is that you can create dynamic relationships between those busses. One of the most common examples of this is called Ducking. Ducking is a way to make the volume of one audio signal path change depending on the volume of another audio signal path. A classic example of this is with radio DJs. When they talk into their microphone, the presence of signal on the microphone is used to automatically turn down the music so the DJ’s voice can more easily be heard. When the DJ stops talking, the music is automatically turned back up.
In this case, you’ll duck the volume of music when there’s action in the game and you want to make sure the player hears the sounds you’ve worked so hard to integrate. However, there are going to be times when the player just wants to hide out in a corner, standing still so there aren’t any environmental sounds to be heard. In that case, you’ll make the music come up in volume just a bit.
You start by choosing the bus whose audio volume you want to use to control another bus.
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From the menu bar, click Layouts > Designer (F5).
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In the Master-Mixer Hierarchy, select the Environmental Bus.
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In the primary editor, select the Auto-Ducking tab, and then click the Add Bus to Ducking List button.
The Project Explorer - Browser window opens.
Now you need to indicate which bus you want to control with the Environmental Bus.
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Expand the Master Audio Bus, select Music, and click OK.
You now need to indicate how the volume of the Music bus will be affected when there's an audio signal on the Environmental bus. The default Volume change is -6 dB, which is where volume changes just begin to become noticeable. You’ll exaggerate the volume change just a bit more.
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Set the Volume property to -9.
There are other properties such as Fade In and Fade Out that determine how much time passes between the moment a signal is detected on the bus, and the act of modifying the target bus occurs. The Target column currently indicates that the volume change is applied to the Voice Volume, which means volume is subtracted from the Voice Volume property of each of the objects that contribute to the Music bus. However, the Target can be changed to Bus Volume, in which case the volume change would affect the bus's overall level.