The Wwise Project Adventure

From high atop the mountain, the threshold engages the HDR system as the first magic blast resonates across the battlefield. The volume of the magic blast has been authored as the loudest sound in the project, which swiftly engages the window top and removes footstep sounds from the mix. Regardless of your position during battle, the jolt of the blast signifies danger and all the sounds - nature, footsteps, and fallen soldiers - are removed from your purview while you focus on the magnitude of sound.

As the window top follows the magic blasts envelope, the cold sound of steel-on-steel begins to cascade across the ravaged field of warriors. Authored below the relative volume of a magic blast, each impact rings out with a sharp attack that continues peaking the window top. The ratio property directly relates to the attenuation of sounds below threshold. This leaves ambiance out of the mix as the battle cries rise up towards another assault.

Untracked waveform envelope shifting the HDR window top

When Envelope tracking is enabled, an offline analysis of the waveform automatically calculated by Wwise is used to adjust the window top in relation to the waveform's envelope. This can be very useful for loud sounds that drive the window top over the Volume Threshold. Because the process of tracking the waveform envelope has a small memory cost compared to the default envelope behavior, it is recommended for use with loud sounds or sounds with a long envelope that changes in volume.

Envelope Tracking properties for Sensitivity and Active Range.

Tracked waveform envelope shifting the HDR window top.

The active range defines the area of a voice from its peak (in decibels) in which the HDR dynamics are active. This region of interest is based on its analyzed envelope: it is "active" as long as the current envelope level is above "peak level" minus "active level". When it is not active, the HDR dynamics ignore the content of the sound and the release time set in the HDR bus is applied.

A chart describing the relationship between the Active Range and HDR Release Time in relation to the envelope of a sound.