Thanks to Jolly Roger Two for your observation on engine volume. I've uploaded a new engine sound (enrafexl.wav) which hopefully is a bit better for open canopy takeoff although it's not yet how I would like it ideally (still learning!), especially at higher speeds. I've also updated my gun sound and added a quieter wind howl sound.

BoB2 RAF Sound Mod

Installation notes are included in the zip file.

Folks,

Boreas:

Thanks old man. Duly downloaded; soon to be installed.

What programs do you use in your work? I have Cakewalk Pro, Sound Forge and Reaper.

I use Pazera Free Audio Extractor to extract sounds from video and Wavesaur to trim and loop. I still also use Audio Cleaning Lab 2004 which has many good mastering tools but more often now I rely on Cakewalk's Sonar Home Studio 7 (I had version 3 previously) for both mixing and mastering (Para-Q and Boost11 are often useful). Just recently I've eked out a bit more volume by putting identical sounds fractionally out of sync to gain a sort of constructive phase effect.

Hope all or some of the sounds will be of use.

Folks,

Boreas:

I do not have Pazera; I use Format Factory for converting and the other programs I mentioned. My version of Cakewalk Pro is a bit long in the tooth now but I'm finding that Reaper has a load of features and accepts most filters.

I downloaded the latest version of Jonesoft Generic Mod Enabler and installed the sound files.

I flew a quick dogfight mission over Biggin. The sounds I heard are great. Would you have an enhanced version of enrafinl.wav? The one I have is a good mod that improved over the default in cockpit engine sound so it may be yours.

Hi Jolly Rodger Two

It’s likely just that the sound engine is fussy about engine sounds and only works with wave files saved at 22050 Hz ideally in stereo for in-cockpit sounds and mono for external sounds. Hope this helps. I’ll have another think if not. I haven’t been able to get close to improving on the stock enrafinl. I’ve lacked a good enough source sound and probably the necessary skill so I've looked at other areas. Sorry for being a bit dense initially!

Folks,

Boreas:

Thanks. I was thinking 44100Hz so you have helped a lot there.

I realize that your mod engine sounds are for exterior views. What I want to do now is modify the inside engine sounds. I believe they are enrafinh.wav and enrafinl.wav both located in the sampleHi folder.

My files are someone else's mods and not the default. The slow or cruise engine sounds are great. However I want the full throttle sound to be a faster rev. To me when I push the throttle all the way through the emergency tape the engine still sounds as if it is in cruise.

I have tried increasing tempo or modifying pitch in each of these files separately but no joy. Any suggestions?

Unfortunately I've not done any testing to get an idea what might be going on but the sound engine seems to like some sounds better than others and to do a bit more than adjust the volumes of the two sounds depending on rpm. If pitch or volume alone aren't the answer then in the absence of any coders notes maybe test sounds based on the stock sound and maybe with real time changes in pitch and EQ at various frequencies might smoke out what the sound engine doesn’t (or maybe does) like. In high speed dives even the stock enrafinl seems to get overcooked and fade out although it’s not very noticeable (maybe the code increases enrafinh from a minimum volume limit to compensate or maybe things just get quieter). I’ll probably have a further dabble at some stage now I’ve thought about it a bit more. More high rev growl would be nice though so best of luck.

Folks,

Boreas:

I'll keep plugging away at it doing some tweaking of those 2 files. So far any changes I've made to either file that sounded OK in the audio program sounded terrible in the game. I cannot quite get my head around what the game sound engine is doing with the files. It seems to be taking the two files and somehow blending them as you increase or decrease the throttle. Yet neither top end nor bottom end in the game sounds exactly like the files in question sound played by themselves in an audio program.

Fortunately I can live with the in cockpit sounds as they are and enjoy the game plenty. I could even go back to the default sounds and do that too. I just enjoy fiddling with this stuff. What you have done with all the other sounds is so good it limits the scope of any changes I might be able to make beyond the interior sounds.

I wish the coders had not seen fit to use any sounds for both the Luftwaffe and the RAF. That makes it a bit tricky for those who, like me, wish to mod the RAF sounds and then fly for both sides.

Jolly Roger Two

My collection of sounds was fairly easy to put together. Finding the sounds and modding them is interesting especially as the sound quality available is increasing. I haven’t been very scientific about the engine sounds though. Maybe the ideal approach is to assume that basically the sound engine is just mixing and altering the volume and pitch of enrafinl and enrafinh depending on rpm and with no involvement in how the two sounds are synchronised (that would seem processor intensive) based on an assumed initial rpm for each unprocessed sample. Unexpectedly poor results could be due to destructive phasing problems between the two sounds that might be solved with phasing tools in DAWs or just slightly altering where one of the sound clips starts. My guess is that for enrafinl the sound engine assumes the sample is recorded at 3000rpm (max level flight) and for enrafinh about 1800 rpm or half way between idle (about 1000rpm) and cruise (about 2600rpm). But the ear is the best gauge and might prove that wrong.

Folks,

Boreas:

This reminds me of cutting a long wire antenna for radio work. I agree with you there may be some harmonic distortion or canceling or something like that going on. Starting one sound later or earlier would indeed put them out of phase. I'm sure there is a VST or Reaper filter I can use for tweaking the phasing. And it may simply be a difference in personal preference or even a difference in sound systems. No one else is complaining about the in cockpit engine sounds so it may just be me. I use headphones almost exclusively now. I had a problem with my sub-woofer for a bit and my phones are connected to the computer through that. It gives me more bass that way.

I had a bad pot on the sub-woofer so I decided to get another from Radio Shack and replace it. When I broke open the box to replace the control everything was jammed in there so tight I decided not to try. I remembered an old trick for resurrecting scratchy, worn pots. You place a tiny drop of light oil (WD40, or Miracle Mystery Oil) into the case with a toothpick or in my case a precision needle applicator. Work the pot from one stop to the other several times and wait an hour or so. It worked for me like a charm and now that volume control is working perfectly again.

Disclaimer: I do not recommend that those who do not know their way around inside electrical appliances try this at home. A tiny drop is all you need and there might be a shock or fire hazard so take great care.

Folks,

Boreas:

Well I tried again to get a bit more pep out of the high rev engine sound but I was only marginally successful.

I loaded both high and low sound files into separate tracks in Reaper. Running them together I get more or less the sound I hear in WoV. The low end sound clip is longer than the high end and I noticed some clipping.

I muted the low end track and changed the pitch of the high end file and when I ran them together they sounded pretty good. I made no changes in the low end file. I discarded the default low end file and saved the new high end engine sound in the format you suggested eventually swapping that for the file in the sampleHi game folder.

I loaded WoV and played a single mission. Immediately I could tell the sound of the engine had changed. It was higher pitched. Pushing the throttle forward through the tape to wide open the rev of the engine responded. It was better but not what I had heard when I made it. I didn't like it.

At highest revolutions the low end sound was still there kinda sputtering and ticking over in the background and the louder high end sound was too thin and high pitched. There was not the higher pitched blending of the two by the sound engine I had expected. Even when I reduced the throttle to 0 the sound was now too high pitched. Back to the draw.... I mean back to the sound board. Maybe if I tried reinstalling just the high end default file? Or maybe I'll just raise the volume of the mod high end file? or maybe..... This is tedious but somehow also fun.

Folks,

The Stones singing "I can't git no Sat-is-fact-shun" can finally stop playing in my head. Exchanging the modded high rev file for the WoV default file I'd archived and leaving the modded low res sound file as it was seems satisfactory to me. Who knew it would be that easy? Somehow reinstalling the original file added a little fattness and speed to the high rev engine sound of the Spitfire that I wasn't hearing with the high rev mod.

There is no known connection beyond a pleasant roar to my engine, however I had one of the best single missions ever. It was a head-on attack on bombers over Southampton docks. The Hurricanes took on the bombers and our squadron bit right into the 109s. It became a twisting fur ball that spread out into the Channel where my trusty wingman Old Dux and I were maliciously set upon (to their ultimate displeasure) by 3 angry 109s. We'll call them Larry, Curly and Moe. I got 2 and Dux 1. I also got extra holes in my starboard wing. We then caught up with the surviving bombers that were heading homeward.

Approaching the French coast they were apparently alone so we had them all to ourselves until the bullets and fuel ran out. Ours that is. They still seemed to have plenty. One more Udet Buoy was filled to capacity me thinks. If they were lucky.

Jolly Roger Two

Your sub-woofer story reminds me of when I was in a band and one of us was given a heavy duty looking but pretty much unusable old valve amp for free. I think just by repeatedly working the volume knob back and forth, which seemed to gradually scrape away the accumulated dust inside, we had the amp working reliably in only an hour or so. Must have been a good quality pot. That was about our best achievement though.

Great to hear you got some good engine sound results. Actually I couldn't help having another go myself. I found a realy good P51 sound that should have required minimal work. I made some improvements though just to make sure and anyway it sounded awful in the game same as usual.

I like how the sound engine seems so particular though and usually only hints at really being able to get motoring if offered just the right sounds. All part of the fun .

Folks,

Boreas:

It seems, as you have indicated, that I need a much better understanding of just how that persnickety sound engine does its magic before attempting to mod these complex engine sounds. I agree that quality sound samples are easier to find today. However in this case it seems that rather than 'garbage in, garbage out' it is a case of 'quality in, garbage out' in my case at least.

I tried a high pass filter and I tried individually altering the file's pitch ,speed and tempo with poor to poorer to poorest results. What sounded good outside the game sounded like something you should flush when played inside it. Not until I replaced the mod hi rev engine sound with the default hi rev engine sound did I get what I wanted. Yet using both the default files does not satisfy me. To me the default RAF engine sounds like a Brigs & Straton lawn mower engine. This is subjective to be sure. Again, it may simply be my old ear or my elderly XP system.

I see that McGonigle saw what I typed on the HWH thread and he is also getting your sound files. I recommend them to everyone. Keep up the good work.

I recall long ago that there was talk at ShockWave that the sound engine was being re-done for BoB, was there any progress on that?

Folks,

Pickled:

That could be. If so it must be after the BDG 2.09 patch which is the last one I have installed. No doubt they revamped the sound engine when they initially moved from BoB to BoB2 WoV.

I am satisfied with Boreas' exterior sounds and the in cockpit Spit engine sound as I have it set up now. There is a deeper, fatter growl to the high rev engine sound by using the modded low rev sound and the default high rev sound. To my ear it is better perhaps it would not sound better to all.

If I could change anything now I would not use the same sound file for any two aircraft. In some cases changing a RAF sound also changes a corresponding Luftwaffe sound and that can be unsatisfactory for those who like to fly for both sides.

All

I had some success with the tricky in-cockpit Merlin engine sound. I've included this and some additional sounds in a sound pack for use with JSGME to replce my RAF sounds download. Take care not to delete the stock sounds if installing manually.

BoB2 sound mods pack for JSGME

Folks,

Boreas:

All your work has been good and it increases the immersion factor for me. I'm downloading the new files now. Thanks

Thanks for mod, but I get an intermittent static sound along with the merlin sounds.

Enjoy the Browning sounds, much better than the stock Uzi's.

Sorry about your problem with the engine sound Bandy. If you notice any pattern to it or conditions that are only present when the static sound occurs then maybe I can figure out what is going on.

If anyone else experiences this I'd also be interested to hear in case it’s to do with my hardware setup.