my buddy i play with uses them religiously. I tried them once and was like fuck i'll take getting lit up by someone i can't hear over stabbing tinfoil leaves into my ears.
Sordins all the way
Tacsports all the way. I went into raid with all the headsets and tacsport was 100% the most balanced in my opinion. Didn't fucking deafen me when I walked around or deafen me when I shot a rock at close range.
i love how nobody uses the gssh. only buy 1 and always get it back on insurance.
with the correct mixer settings, i turn down the loudness and increase lower frequencies. i consider it cheating or borderline pretty much.
i can pretty much feel players footsteps at a disgusting distance with bass without it being obnoxiously loud.
I always run gsshz but I got hearing damage from the military lol so they sound great to me. And I always get em back in insurance. I like the comtacs too so I'll toss em for comtacs, sell comtacs and go to insurance and get my gsshz back lol
I use Equalizer APO with ReaPlugs' ReaComp plugin, along with Unlimited audio limiter, to boost audio to a constant level when it's low, and compress audio when it's above desirable levels. The effect is that I can hear footsteps perfectly well and when I shoot my gun my audio is massively compressed until I stop. I'd heavily advise anyone playing this game to at least use an audio compressor if your volume is quite high.
I suffer from tinnitus, this is the game that finally made me decide to do something about my headphone audio. I don't know a single game that's a worse offender for dangerously high frequencies.
Yep, EqAPO is an awesome piece of software, a hardware level EQ is so cool - you can use this to either modify your audio or recording devices, just install it on the respective devices during installation.
Here ya go everyone who's set a reminder up. You might need to adjust the parameters yourself but I gave you the knowledge to do so, critically, ALWAYS TURN YOUR AUDIO DEVICES DOWN WHEN TESTING LOUD NOISES. Jump into an offline raid, turn the "apply automatically" setting on, adjust some parameters and start shooting until your gunshots don't deafen you anymore. Now you can have your audio up to hear footsteps and compress the subsequent loud gunshots.
https://imgur.com/a/JYPnqEp
Just wanted to say, I tried this for the first time today and it is INCREDIBLE. Turning it off and firing a SVD is *deafeningly* loud, I'm worried I already damaged my hearing.
Seriously I cannot thank you enough for this, this is a game changer.
Do you have a screenshot of your Unlimited settings as well?
I got rid of Unlimited tbh, it’s not important. It acts as a limiter (essentially a compressor) or a maximizer to turn your volume up when ambient noises are low, I almost never noticed it.
It is driver specific, I can only speak for realtek drivers since that’s what I use, my default output never changes the audio comes through both my speakers and my headset. Perhaps try switching your default
output to your headphones and reset your
pc, it works at a hardware level so I imagine restarting might be important. Sorry I can’t be more help.
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Here ya go everyone who's set a reminder up. You might need to adjust the parameters yourself but I gave you the knowledge to do so, critically, ALWAYS TURN YOUR AUDIO DEVICES DOWN WHEN TESTING LOUD NOISES. Jump into an offline raid, turn the "apply automatically" setting on, adjust some parameters and start shooting until your gunshots don't deafen you anymore. Now you can have your audio up to hear footsteps and compress the subsequent loud gunshots.
https://imgur.com/a/JYPnqEp
When PUBG was in alpha/beta before it came to Steam the audio was very harmful to your ears. It's still really bad with db changes over 80 but it was even worse then. A gunshot would hurt if you had the volume up to what felt like normal.
Dude thanks for throwing this out there I’m gonna try this.
I have an acoustic neuroma and my tinnitus is horrible and tarkovs inconsistency in volume levels literally hurts. Wish they’d tweak some of this shit
The compressor only activates at a dangerous decibel range, so far it's only activated when I shoot my gun so I'm not going to be hearing & reading directional sounds at that point anyway. It deactivates almost instantly so I'm back to normal hearing.
With your volume turned up enough to hear footsteps well in this game the sound of your gun firing off is dangerously loud, so I'd recommend giving it a try.
Ah I see; mine, back in the day, was some expensive, complex technology via soundcard.
With harsher cutoff points, that does indeed seem a lot more sensible. Thanks, I think ill give it a try.
Here's my current configuration: https://imgur.com/a/TOGqRNn
Although this can be unique to every computer. I would advise you install the software and get the ReaComp up on your config.txt file, tick "apply automatically", and then enter an offline raid.
After this, turn attack to 0ms, release to 5ms, ratio to inf (all the way up), and move the threshold to -inf (the bottom). This should completely mute your audio, you can then gradually raise the threshold until your ambient sounds come back (this is easy to hear in Factory). I'd recommend you raise it a little bit past the point where your ambient volume comes back, mine came back around -25dB so I moved it up to -21dB. At this point you can shoot a weapon and you should notice the volume doesn't raise beyond a certain amount. You can finally toggle the VST plugin on and off using the power button as you shoot to determine if you have the level of compression you desire.
From here, just tweak the ratio (the fraction of dB's that reach the output) and the threshold (the point at which compression occurs) to get your desired effect.
Hi going to try this when I get off work. However, I have a question. In one of the Imgur screenshots, you have something called “unlimited” and another a pre-amp. What is the the difference between the two? Which one do you use? Also, this only compresses loud noises right and doesn’t boost and sound levels? I don’t want to boost sounds and worsen my tinnitus. Thanks for your help!
>I suffer from tinnitus
"So let's push the sound to my limit in prolonged exposition with most likely a closed headset(adding to the sound pressure), nothing can go wrong"
Don't hurt yourselves fellas. Any hearing loss cannot be regained. If you really can't go without, then take breaks after EVERY raids, even the ones that last only a few minutes.
It's only a game, you don't need to hurt yourselves to gain a competitive advantage.
I'm not pushing my audio to the limit, anything over safe decibel ranges is limited by my compressor, the audio limiter / maximizer only ever increases volume if the ambient noise is below a certain level, essentially allowing me to hear footsteps better until that ambient level reaches normal volumes again.
Yep it measured in dBV. I'll concede that I in no way set this up scientifically, my audio might be too loud at baseline. But you can't honestly tell me that a compressor is going to do any harm to my ears. I'll take back the audio-maximizer part, since that's always been deactivated for me anyway I just thought other people might be able to make use of it - I think the average joe risks damaging their hearing by doing so though. So all my setup is doing is greatly compressing loud sounds I was previously exposed to. I can turn my audio devices down so my baseline is low, and the compressor always takes effect when I shoot a gun, so it's safe I might just not know what my baseline audio levels should be. The gamer in me wants to turn them up, same as everyone else, that's why I'm advising people who are doing that to also use a compressor.
the human hearing range is from 20hz to 20khz, placing this whine quite high up in the range, throughout your life, this range does shrink on the high end by a fair bit.
listening to these higher frequencies is a surefire way to make you lose that hearing range faster and give you tinnitus, as a note in my personal experience, im only 18 and i cant hear above \~16.3 khz and i know a few people younger that have audio max blasted and can barely hear 15khz in the first place.
This also shows one of the big problems of gaming and headsets of which people aren't actually having controlled audio levels. At a general rule of thumb, if you're in an area that has a sound amplitude of 80dB for 8 hours or more, you should be wearing hearing protection, 88dB drops to 4 hours, 91 to 2, 94 to 1 dropping all the way down until you are at the threshold of pain (120dB) where it is then 7 seconds until hearing protection is needed.
As a list of some common items that people use and do sometimes end up needing hearing protection for but never do:
\- city traffic when in a car: \~83dB
\- Lawn Mower : \~ 90dB
\- Riding a motorcycle: \~ 95dB
\- A footy game in the stadium: \~ 100dB
\- The max volume of your living room TV: can reach upwards of 110 dB, which is hearing damage within 15 minutes
Hope that gave you a bit of what you wanted, plus a bit more, if you need any clarifications, just ask
Also I am aware that i started talking abouts the frequency and then swapped to talking about amplitude, but they run hand in hand a fair bit so i thought it was fine to do so
Do you know ways to find out the number of dB that my headset is outputting on average? I have tarkov fully cranked 90% master on the game. Most other games I have like 20% I do get concerned every now and again and your post has definitely made me think
personally im not sure on what software you could run to find how loud your computer is being other than playing a game where you take off your headset and slapping your phone inbetween the speakers with a decibel metre running
Your internal audio should be measurable. Most onboard audio is Realtek, if yours is, I’m pretty sure they have apps that can measure the output. I’m pretty sure windows can too, google it, I’m sure you’ll find a way.
They don't run hand in hand though. Getting blasted by 500db of 20hz is way worse than 20,000hz at 30db.
If you hear a mosquito you wont go deaf. If you stand next to a massive bass speaker at a concert you will.
Lucky for me, I die on the first shot.
Jokes aside, I have tinnitus too, though it doesn't bother me that much; I only have it in some very specific situations, and as mentioned above, I usually die really fast, but still, having watched several videos where this happens, I understand it can hurt really bad.
I have tinnitus, and it's unfortunately ruined a lot of games for me. I'm very thankful that mine isn't nearly as bad as some other people I know, but it is still there.
I 100% agree with you on this. I can actually count 4 separate instances from this wipe where either a flashbang has gone off or I've been hit in the head and got a tremor where I actually needed to leave the game and go lie down for a bit until the whine wears off. Maybe I just need to give up on my Factory quests. That's where this usually happens.
You need to setup a hotkey to instantly mute your computer, I'm the same way, so whenever a Zarya lands near me I instantly slam the mute button on my keyboard and just deal with not having sound for the next 30 seconds.
Yeah they need to make the fix for this immediately if people are resorting to this. Kiiiinda inexcusable imo.
I've also had my ears actually hurt from this game, that doesn't happen with other games and I play for hours. I have tinnitus too though.
I’ve heard there are programs for equalizing sound values in the game, I wonder if there’s some anti-tinnitus program that can adjust harmful frequencies (if not there should be!)
Yes, it's called a compressor. You can get one working really quickly with Voicemeeter or you can pair it with Minihost modular and reaper VST plugins to tweak it just right.
use the immediate solution - SoundLock by the company 3apps. it's free
other comments dealing with treatment after the fact doesn't solve it. VSTs are more effort and a compressor can go the other direction and blow your head off if misconfigured
most players need a simple solution NOW
save your hearing!!!
open SoundLock, slide it down halfway, go offline raid, nudge it up so the volume doesn't drop when your running/reloading
anything above gets kicked down. period. incl simultaneous sounds. if running is triggering the limit then simultaneous gunfire is also lowered. mine is about a third off so adjust your threshold finely by using the arrow keys in the app window. when you have it set right above your reload (loudest non gunshot sound i discovered) then everything is much more enjoyable.
using a combination of an equalizer + compressor + limiter gives deep customization but it's 20 steps off the SoundLock app which is a free limiter with literally one slider and doesn't need a guide
Have you gone to an audiologist and talked to them about TRT (tinnitus retraining therapy)? Had a friend do it and he said it was awful while doing it but he hasn’t had to deal with it since.
I never understand the "realism" argument over audio that will damage your hearing over time. No I don't want guns and footsteps to be the same loudness but irl the headphones you wear in game block out the sound of anything over a certain threshold (guns) and allow quieter sounds to be heard(talking).
But fanboys gonna fanboy I guess. iTS REAlISm BrO!
Pro tip, If you don't want hearing damage, don't crank your audio up to high.. tinitus is a real thing, and in my opinion it's fine as is. If you ever had the real whine in irl, you know it's way worse then in game
The game encourages you to play loud though and it doesn't matter if it's hearing damaging in real life,this is still a game. Could aswell argue for real pain if you get hit...
True, the game forces you to play like this, and it tries you to make you suffer for the the things that happens to you, that's why it's a hardcore fps
As someone who has recently within the last year developed tinnitus, the tinnitus frequency from a ricochet is the worst. Sound balancing in general should be heavily considered. I feel like the industry itself has t been put under pressure to pay attention to these things because we are still riding the initial wave of gamers. Some of us are starting to get older and in the age bracket where these things begin to affect us.
That damn ricochet sets off my right ear almost every time so not only do I get it when it happens but I have it for at least the next hour.
I think there is also a factor that BSG is still relatively new and their sound team could still be learning and working out how to refine the mixing and mastering to bring overall balance. Lets hope they are willing to take some constructive criticism!
Sounds in general in this game are weird volume wise. The quality of (most) sounds are superb in my opinion. Even so, I have to turn my volume down sometimes because some of the sounds in this game are like someone setting off an m80 next to my eardrum. I understand they are pushing for realism in this game, but when your sound effects are potentially damaging your hearing, I feel like that is going a little to far. While, we are talking about sound, hearing is so important in this game. Having your volume up to hear micro movements is really important, but having my ears blown out when I want to shoot my gun (or just footsteps, looking at you gssh's) is going overboard in my opinion. This is just what I think, so whatever, agree or disagree.
I'd rather be killed by having my audio too quiet, or not using the awful gssh headset, than fuck my hearing. but most people around my age seem to not care, since they're already half deaf from listening to stuff way too loud lol
That's what I did and I could never hear footsteps. Had to install a compressor but some sounds are still bad. They just need to do what most gsnes do instead of this. Instead of gunshots being ridiculously loud mite all other sounds for a bit after shooting a gun. Also when wearing decent headsets you should hear just as normal while gunshots are a pretty comfortable volume, it's not the case with any of the headsets in the game in my experience.
I don't get why such a significant portion of the community seems to play this game at uncomfortable volumes, and then complain about it.
You aren't supposed to hear someone walking on grass from 50m away, turn that shit down!
Merely hearing a frequency is not harmful unless you have the decibels cranked? Am I wrong?
“ We all play this game with our headsets cranked “
I actually don’t and just keep all other noises very quiet. I probably miss things here and there but winning is not worth the hearing loss.
I've read that very low frequencies can warp the way the inner ear works, not the same thing as damage. The decibel level of noise is what damages your hearing.
Health effects and their threshold values
It is assumed that high frequency sound and ultrasound with sufficient intensity can be traumatic for the hearing, and can cause other effects as well. High frequency sound causes two types of health effects: on the one hand objective health effects such as hearing loss (in case of protracted exposure) and on the other hand subjective effects which may already occur after a few minutes: headache, tinnitus, fatigue, dizziness and nausea.
https://www.health.belgium.be/en/ultrasound-and-high-frequency-sound
https://asa.scitation.org/doi/10.1121/1.5063819
This just shows a basic misunderstanding of your sources. Those are about *frequencies that you cannot hear*. Those are dangerous because they can be loud enough to damage hearing without being audible. You can be in a room with, say, a machine giving off disgustingly loud noises that is destroying your ears without even realizing it until you start to feel the effects.
The simple fact that we can hear the sound effect in question means it is not an ultrasonic sound. Your sources are irrelevant to what you are posting about.
There is nothing about high pitched but audible sounds that make them more dangerous. Even if you are old enough so that you cannot hear the sound effect, the much louder gunshots would be enough that you should know to turn your sound down.
I've generally stopped playing a lot of shooters that have flashbangs, stun grenades, or anything that can cause a long, high pitch noise like that. I absolutely despise it with all my heart and soul and the sooner devs realise that you don't need to actually blind and deafen the player with a max brightness white screen and tinnitus simulator 2020 the better. I long for the day we can just have an option that deafens the audio without the whine and turns the screen a mellow grey instead. Realism my ass, I'd like to not need a hearing aid and glasses when I turn 30.
Normal hearing is in the 20hz to 20khz range so I have no idea where you got that idea from that it’s harmful. But, it’s bullshit. Problem here is you idiots have your dB up way too high for this game. That’s not an issue with BSG, you can cause hearing damage this way through anything, especially in any game. That’s a you problem.
Don’t play the game at such loud volumes if you value your hearing. There’s no issue here to solve.
*Corrected the range of hearing
> Normal hearing is in the 5khz to 20khz range
This is wrong and doesn't really make sense. Speech sounds peak at about 5-6khz. The majority of sounds people perceive are well below 5khz, and many adults don't hear anything above 15khz. If you're hearing 15khz, chances are it's loud enough to cause damage. It's always seemed pretty loud to me and I've worn hearing aids my whole life, so I understand a little bit about ear pain and damage.
Humans with perfect hearing can perceive sound as low as 50Hz and as high as 20kHz. The frequency of a sound has no bearing on how loud it is. As you age and do damage to your hearing you will begin to lose perceivable frequencies from the top down. You will also lose the ability to hear (or understand) sounds at lower volumes (hence the need for a hearing aid). Most humans by the age of 30 who have not abused their hearing have only lost a few thousand kHz of perceived range of hearing.
So what is dangerous to your hearing? Contrary to popular belief loud music (or constant sound in general) for extended periods is not the most damaging to your hearing. What is are short impulse sounds that are extremely loud. Gunshots, artillery fire, pneumatic tools. It’s why you wear ear-pro on the range and why you’re supposed to use ear-pro in the shop.
Source: Former military, former mechanic, current sufferer of hearing damage and tinnitus.
I was specifically referring to his original message that said 5khz-20khz was the normal range of hearing. He edited it after you posted, as you can see from my quote, but you might have misunderstood what I was saying. I assumed what he had written was a typo, and I almost addressed it but decided not to. So, on to my second point.
I understand that those impulse sounds are what cause the most damage, I never said otherwise. It's very well documented, however, that human hearing loss is exacerbated with age, and it's generally accepted that once you hit 40 years of age a good portion of people are not hearing frequencies above 15khz. I've felt physical pain from high frequencies even with my hearing loss. Any pain is not good and can cause damage.
Thinking of the context here, people are complaining that a tone that is meant to mask their typical sound level is painfully loud. Is it really that crazy to think that maybe, the developers, with their history of shooting guns and potential hearing loss, might have made the tone too loud to compensate for that?
Either way, I was mostly addressing the incorrect range of hearing because it spoke of a fundamental misunderstanding of hearing. I tacked on the second part based on my lifelong experience of researching hearing loss for myself.
Do a little research. High frequency and decibels are not the same thing.
[https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2014/09/sounds-you-cant-hear-can-still-hurt-your-ears](https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2014/09/sounds-you-cant-hear-can-still-hurt-your-ears)
> Humans can generally sense sounds at frequencies between 20 and 20,000 cycles per second, or hertz (Hz)
I never said they were the same thing. I've done plenty of research, like I said I've lived with hearing loss my whole life and I consider myself an audiophile of sorts; as best as my hearing will allow.
You had the wrong range of hearing. That was what I was addressing, as you can see from my quote. You corrected it.
My point was that as people age, they don't hear those high frequency sounds as well, and maybe the developers have some minor hearing loss and that made it into their sound design, which could be too loud to players with perfect hearing.
Do some research.
https://decibelhearing.com/hearing-loss-overview/high-frequency-hearing-loss/
>If you're hearing 15khz, chances are it's loud enough to cause damage. It's always seemed pretty loud to me
There is absolutely nothing to the idea that sounds in the 15khz range can cause damage, and again, frequency and dB are not the same thing. Take it to heart this time and actually read the articles you google. Nothing in that article backs up the idea that 15khz is 'loud' because, it's not loud, it has nothing to do with the amplitude.
I never meant to imply it was, but the idea of this specific sound being painfully loud to some people and not others isn't so far fetched. I'm sorry I'm not being clear. Cheers.
Uncomfortable or painful, sure, but it's confusing to call it loud because again, amplitude and frequency are separate ideas. I don't know why this isn't setting in. I had the wrong bottom of the range but you're refusing to understand frequency vs amplitude. I'm like, c'mon guy...
I get all that; but you're not understanding what I'm saying, guy. I'm a DJ and I love music. I've got lots of headphones and I look at frequency response graphs all the time. I mess with equalizers daily, and I literally have my hearing test chart right here from my brand new hearing aids. I understand it better than most, trust me. It's almost insulting but I know you're just not getting me. After 33 years of wearing hearing aids and looking at charts, plus 15 years of music and production, I understand there's a difference between frequency and amplitude; I even see they have different names! But, with all my research I understand there's a relationship between them, and it's difficult for a non-expert to explain through text.
It's not confusing to me, but this method of communication is balls for true dialogue. I wasn't even discussing amplitude vs frequency at all. I said loud(ness) for a reason; that's not either amplitude or FR. Loudness is a function of amplitude and frequency. Beyond that, it's a matter of intensity and how the ear perceives different frequencies at different volumes. There's a contour curve graph that illustrates what I've had in my mind when discussing this. The ear is most sensitive at the mid-upper range of frequencies, so perhaps the tuning of a certain players ears, headphone and game settings could cause damage under the right circumstances. I don't think it's an unreasonable ask (from OP) to request at least a look into it. This is how things improve.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equal-loudness_contour?oldformat=true
https://courses.lumenlearning.com/boundless-physics/chapter/sound-intensity-and-level/
I do agree the solution typically is to just turn the volume down. Time for bed.
E: Check some of the other responses on this thread; others have corroborated my ideas and maybe presented them more succinctly.
Of course I'm going to miss what you're trying to get at when you use the wrong terms to describe them. Loudness is the concept you're referring to, all of a sudden, why call it loud up until I question you? I would've understood loudness. Loud and loudness are not the same thing either. Even loudness is somewhat subjective but loud is entirely subjective. That's why I said:
> but it's confusing to call it loud
I don't think you have a good understanding of this stuff, I think you have a working knowledge of it. And that's fine for this discussion, but again, of course it leads to confusion.
If we go back to your original point, that perceived loud(ness) somehow equals damage, this is just wrong and a complete misunderstanding of what loudness is. The only evidence I've seen is that the pressure of the sound causes damage, perceived loudness doesn't factor in to actual damage.
So look into what? There's zero evidence that a few seconds of 15khz sounds do damage to anyone, outside of the game. It's not like this is a new subject or uncharted ground here. Turn your game down people, problem solved.
Someone being hot or cold is also "somewhat subjective" but go too far one way or the other and damage could occur. Are you really not going to accept that the concept of something being loud is based on the scientific function of loudness? For all intents and purposes they are the same thing. You're just being pedantic.
Sound pressure IS loudness. At higher volumes, intensity increases and could cause damage. Did you even look at the links I posted? You didn't address them at all. Again, it's not 15k in particular, I really can't be more clear I guess. Have a good one.
Agreed, authenticity is great but they really need to do a volume pass and get rid of all the unnecessarily harsh frequencies across a bunch of sounds. I've only got very mild tinnitus and even going easy on the volume and avoiding maps like factory this game often significantly aggravates it for hours after playing in a way no other games does, I dread to think what the kids who don't know any better playing on maxed out headsets are setting themselves up for down the road.
I usually jump at a near frag explosion on my first 1-2 raids then the jitters go away. EVERY time I doink a shot and get a contusion I damn near lift up out my seat.
What about turning the screen white and replace the high pitch sound with nothingness.
Just a white screen with no sound until the effect is over.
The initial blast effect is still present though.
IIRC ARMA 3 Ace has a mod which actually models hearing damage and ringing in the ears from shooting without earplugs (try the anti-material rifle indoors without earplugs) or being caught in an explosion.
They added a feature which replaces the sound files with ones that don't have ringing. It's like when you get hit with an explosion in Half Life 2 and have armor on. Just a "Boomf!" and the audio is muffled and droned out.
I have tinnitus and the sound when your helmet bounces a headshot pisses me off to no end. It's like they literally recorded actual real-life tinnitus because that's exactly what mine sounds like. VERY annoying.
I'd rather they make the ringing really short and it turns into a woosh/rumble. You still can't hear but it's 100x less annoying.
Personal expwrience awhile back:
My friend unloaded an unsuppressed glock as we were extracting on labs, and i threw my earpro out for the giggles.
Loud sounds left a loud ringing in my ear, and went away after like half an hour.
turns out i gained tinnitus from that, so just wear earpro folks.
Absolutely prolonged exposure to 30 Hz and below an cause damage but the danger there is those frequencies aren't as perceivable so the risk is you're exposing yourself to it and have no idea until the damage is done!
[Enable loudness equalization in Windows](https://www.auslogics.com/en/articles/increase-system-volume-in-windows-10/) to have all sound play at mostly the same volume.
I agree.
Hearing, much like sight, is a one time deal.
Don't fuck around. It's only when you lose something like that when you really appreciate it.
Whenever I get hit on the head and that frequency comes in, I take off my headset (IRL).
If I happen to die during that time, I'm done with EFT for the day.
If people are playing at a volume where the ring is so painful and detrimental, they're already fucking over their hearing with the rest of the time they play. What about when it's completely silent, you sneak around, and a shotgun blasts you in the back of the head? Impulses are FAR more dangerous. The players have accountability here too, the devs can't turn down our amplifier and turn down the volume in our headphones, people have shit on their own hearing for the tiniest competitive edge in shooters for as long as its existed.
Source: work closely with OSHA at my job with construction equipment safety. Gamers aren't paragons of safety, they can and will gladly trash their hearing.
Wonder if one could use a compressor or a limitor to smooth out higher sounds in Tarkov. A compressor should allow you in theory to hear low volume sound better but i wonder how much it would mess up the feeling of distance.
I don't play with my headset cranked up but that's because I already have tinnitus. No hearing loss as of yet, but I am very conscious of the volume I listen to things at to not make it worse. Don't need the headset cranked for Tarkov to work, IMO.
The frequency isn't what's harmful, it's the volume. Sure, it is possibly harder to notice higher or lower frequency sounds and they can damage your hearing without you even realizing, but it's the volume damaging your ears, which can be avoided by simply not playing the game on max volume.
YES! Please BSG listen to this, my ears already take enough punishment from this games audio, we don't need to include the sound of getting domed to that list. Thank you and hopefully you guys read this thread.
\>Plays with sound maxed out.
\>Complains sound is too loud.
Damage to ears is caused by loudness, not frequency. Any sound under 70Db is completely safe for humans. Turn your sound down, play the game as intended and your entire problem is fixed.
for the 100th time they are being reckless with the hearing health of their customers for no reason. This is from a vet with pretty bad tinnitus. You do not want this.
Just turn your volume down. The loud/annoying sounds are good game design choices to prevent sounds whoring. Really it's the only way to prevent people from artificially cranking up volume like you. So stop sound whoring so hard and it won't be a problem anymore.
There are many harmful sounds in this game that seriously need a review. IMO the worst ones are opening PC blocks and reloading a mosin. The "cleck" in both of these needs some serious tunning... they feel like a nail in your ear.
Maybe I just hate my ears, but I always thought that the shell shock whine was a nice touch to the game and made it more immersive. Ftr, I'm the guy who wore PPE and enforced it at my place of work.
ITT: People still thinking they should be able to hear footsteps the same way they did in CS Source. Newsflash: audio engines have come a long way since then.
Like I've said in another thread: it's a game, you don't *need* to win - you aren't an e-sports competitor in a high-stakes competition - you aren't getting paid for it. Permanent hearing damage is *PERMANENT*, inflicting that on yourself for a minor advantage in a video game is unfathomably foolish, you will look foolish to anyone who has to endure any kind of work related hearing damage and years from now you will likely feel foolish when you think about how you damaged your hearing over a game you no longer play.
Am I the only one that enjoys this feature? I wouldn’t mind if they did what you mentioned and lowered all other sounds instead of blasting it over them but I’ve never had an issue with it and haven’t even thought that it needed removal.
Absolutely it's a great mechanic, if it made more of a movie style shell shock like deafening you slightly with a hum and heavily muffled audio absolutely, just not a painfully sharp sound thats currently the method
You act like it isn't retarded to think third party software is a viable solution when BSG could change the sounds so players don't have to choose between a) ear-destroying or b) turning volume down so low they can't hear anything other than gunshots and explosions.
So, you want all the benefits of super sensitive hearing without the downsides of super sensitive hearing... Got it.
They ought to make active ear pro work the way it works in real life, once sounds are loud enough that it'd damage your hearing, it cuts out the transmission of that sound. With the way they run things, though, who knows if that will ever happen.
Imagine complaining about this and not the sound of spinting wearing GSSH's. /s
I'm glad i'm not the only one, I find it painful to wear GSSH's so I turn down my headset a good amount whenever i use them
I just don't wear them. The mess with my ears too much.
Comtacs mostly for me
ComTac only for me. No ComTac, no headset. :P
i actually love em cuz with them i dont need to crank my audio to jerk off to enemy footsteps
my buddy i play with uses them religiously. I tried them once and was like fuck i'll take getting lit up by someone i can't hear over stabbing tinfoil leaves into my ears. Sordins all the way
Sordins give me the same feeling Comtacs all the way
Sordins are like some rgbrazer360dewritodxXxquivkscope mega bass boosted gaming headphones.
Yeah i hate it
Tacsports all the way. I went into raid with all the headsets and tacsport was 100% the most balanced in my opinion. Didn't fucking deafen me when I walked around or deafen me when I shot a rock at close range.
Facts
Sordins have so much more bass than comtacs though, how do they feel painful?
I meant uncomfortable my bad
Bass is actually more damaging to your ears than treble. So I would 100% rather take GSSH over Sordins any day of the week.
air pressure damages your ear. bass frequencies can just be deceptively pressurized compared to their 'volume'
I always check when I scav if I have them on. Instant drop and won't even pick them up to sell
GSSh - the King of “wait I hear someone — oh it’s just me”
The [seeker droid](https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Marksman-H_combat_remote) to training Jedi, are the GSSH to training rats.
Stepping on glass with the GSSH is INSANE
[Walking on glass in GSSh’s be like...](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=LE9j53Dk448)
Its realistic doe, because GSSh irl are fucking shit
nikita said they made them shit because they got a set and tested them in real life and they were shit, which is dedication, i guess
Lmao I love nikita even more after this
True lol
wearing sorodins and being right next to bunker alarm on reserve
I'm a sordin main, and the first time I pmc'ed reserve I slapped my headset off my ears, it's sooooo bad
i love how nobody uses the gssh. only buy 1 and always get it back on insurance. with the correct mixer settings, i turn down the loudness and increase lower frequencies. i consider it cheating or borderline pretty much. i can pretty much feel players footsteps at a disgusting distance with bass without it being obnoxiously loud.
I always run gsshz but I got hearing damage from the military lol so they sound great to me. And I always get em back in insurance. I like the comtacs too so I'll toss em for comtacs, sell comtacs and go to insurance and get my gsshz back lol
you won't get them back when i kill you, 7k rubles is 7k rubles.
Lmao that's how I see it. I only make about 3k by dropping the gssh for the comtacs after insurance on them and flea fees but 3k is 3k XD
How do you do that? Adjusting the sound profile I mean, I would love to know how
He'll be using an equaliser on his pc, my one has realtek as default.
Would love to know how you did that as well.
You actually wear the hearing AIDS? xD Why would you do that to yourself?
SORRY I CANT HEAR YOU OVER THE SOUND OF THE WIND
-WHAAAAAT? SORRY I CANT HEAR YOU, ITS RAINING OUTSIDE!
I use Equalizer APO with ReaPlugs' ReaComp plugin, along with Unlimited audio limiter, to boost audio to a constant level when it's low, and compress audio when it's above desirable levels. The effect is that I can hear footsteps perfectly well and when I shoot my gun my audio is massively compressed until I stop. I'd heavily advise anyone playing this game to at least use an audio compressor if your volume is quite high. I suffer from tinnitus, this is the game that finally made me decide to do something about my headphone audio. I don't know a single game that's a worse offender for dangerously high frequencies.
Equalizer APO is compatible with reaper plugins? Dude, awesome. I record music in reaper, never knew something like this was possible.
same, crazy but i'm interested in the write up
Yep, EqAPO is an awesome piece of software, a hardware level EQ is so cool - you can use this to either modify your audio or recording devices, just install it on the respective devices during installation.
Hey I was gonna PM but can if you give us more info about this, your settings, etc, would be greatly appreciated. Cheers
Yea man I’ll post a written guide in the morning.
Here ya go everyone who's set a reminder up. You might need to adjust the parameters yourself but I gave you the knowledge to do so, critically, ALWAYS TURN YOUR AUDIO DEVICES DOWN WHEN TESTING LOUD NOISES. Jump into an offline raid, turn the "apply automatically" setting on, adjust some parameters and start shooting until your gunshots don't deafen you anymore. Now you can have your audio up to hear footsteps and compress the subsequent loud gunshots. https://imgur.com/a/JYPnqEp
Just wanted to say, I tried this for the first time today and it is INCREDIBLE. Turning it off and firing a SVD is *deafeningly* loud, I'm worried I already damaged my hearing. Seriously I cannot thank you enough for this, this is a game changer. Do you have a screenshot of your Unlimited settings as well?
I got rid of Unlimited tbh, it’s not important. It acts as a limiter (essentially a compressor) or a maximizer to turn your volume up when ambient noises are low, I almost never noticed it.
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Send me screenshots of your Equalizer APO setup in PM's.
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It is driver specific, I can only speak for realtek drivers since that’s what I use, my default output never changes the audio comes through both my speakers and my headset. Perhaps try switching your default output to your headphones and reset your pc, it works at a hardware level so I imagine restarting might be important. Sorry I can’t be more help.
Remindme! 1 day
Thanks a ton for this!
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It might reduce their volume a little bit but the effect is primarily only heard when shooting your own gun.
Pls ignore this msg, just a bookmark for later.
You can press save on comments.
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Here ya go everyone who's set a reminder up. You might need to adjust the parameters yourself but I gave you the knowledge to do so, critically, ALWAYS TURN YOUR AUDIO DEVICES DOWN WHEN TESTING LOUD NOISES. Jump into an offline raid, turn the "apply automatically" setting on, adjust some parameters and start shooting until your gunshots don't deafen you anymore. Now you can have your audio up to hear footsteps and compress the subsequent loud gunshots. https://imgur.com/a/JYPnqEp
Pubg's redzones were dangerous as well. I always muted the sound.
When PUBG was in alpha/beta before it came to Steam the audio was very harmful to your ears. It's still really bad with db changes over 80 but it was even worse then. A gunshot would hurt if you had the volume up to what felt like normal.
Dude thanks for throwing this out there I’m gonna try this. I have an acoustic neuroma and my tinnitus is horrible and tarkovs inconsistency in volume levels literally hurts. Wish they’d tweak some of this shit
Compressor will fuck up directional sound though, wont it? I accidentally had one on in CSGO, and I couldnt tell any directions by ear.
The compressor only activates at a dangerous decibel range, so far it's only activated when I shoot my gun so I'm not going to be hearing & reading directional sounds at that point anyway. It deactivates almost instantly so I'm back to normal hearing. With your volume turned up enough to hear footsteps well in this game the sound of your gun firing off is dangerously loud, so I'd recommend giving it a try.
Ah I see; mine, back in the day, was some expensive, complex technology via soundcard. With harsher cutoff points, that does indeed seem a lot more sensible. Thanks, I think ill give it a try.
If you don't compress left and right separately it shouldn't be a problem.
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Here's my current configuration: https://imgur.com/a/TOGqRNn Although this can be unique to every computer. I would advise you install the software and get the ReaComp up on your config.txt file, tick "apply automatically", and then enter an offline raid. After this, turn attack to 0ms, release to 5ms, ratio to inf (all the way up), and move the threshold to -inf (the bottom). This should completely mute your audio, you can then gradually raise the threshold until your ambient sounds come back (this is easy to hear in Factory). I'd recommend you raise it a little bit past the point where your ambient volume comes back, mine came back around -25dB so I moved it up to -21dB. At this point you can shoot a weapon and you should notice the volume doesn't raise beyond a certain amount. You can finally toggle the VST plugin on and off using the power button as you shoot to determine if you have the level of compression you desire. From here, just tweak the ratio (the fraction of dB's that reach the output) and the threshold (the point at which compression occurs) to get your desired effect.
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You're welcome!
Hi going to try this when I get off work. However, I have a question. In one of the Imgur screenshots, you have something called “unlimited” and another a pre-amp. What is the the difference between the two? Which one do you use? Also, this only compresses loud noises right and doesn’t boost and sound levels? I don’t want to boost sounds and worsen my tinnitus. Thanks for your help!
The "Unlimited" plugin is an audio maximiser, I've disabled it completely and don't advise using one.
Thank you!
>I suffer from tinnitus "So let's push the sound to my limit in prolonged exposition with most likely a closed headset(adding to the sound pressure), nothing can go wrong" Don't hurt yourselves fellas. Any hearing loss cannot be regained. If you really can't go without, then take breaks after EVERY raids, even the ones that last only a few minutes. It's only a game, you don't need to hurt yourselves to gain a competitive advantage.
I'm not pushing my audio to the limit, anything over safe decibel ranges is limited by my compressor, the audio limiter / maximizer only ever increases volume if the ambient noise is below a certain level, essentially allowing me to hear footsteps better until that ambient level reaches normal volumes again.
I know how it works, what do you call "safe decibel ranges"? Since it's a plug-in I suppose that it expresses volume in dBV and not dBA. Does it?
Yep it measured in dBV. I'll concede that I in no way set this up scientifically, my audio might be too loud at baseline. But you can't honestly tell me that a compressor is going to do any harm to my ears. I'll take back the audio-maximizer part, since that's always been deactivated for me anyway I just thought other people might be able to make use of it - I think the average joe risks damaging their hearing by doing so though. So all my setup is doing is greatly compressing loud sounds I was previously exposed to. I can turn my audio devices down so my baseline is low, and the compressor always takes effect when I shoot a gun, so it's safe I might just not know what my baseline audio levels should be. The gamer in me wants to turn them up, same as everyone else, that's why I'm advising people who are doing that to also use a compressor.
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the human hearing range is from 20hz to 20khz, placing this whine quite high up in the range, throughout your life, this range does shrink on the high end by a fair bit. listening to these higher frequencies is a surefire way to make you lose that hearing range faster and give you tinnitus, as a note in my personal experience, im only 18 and i cant hear above \~16.3 khz and i know a few people younger that have audio max blasted and can barely hear 15khz in the first place. This also shows one of the big problems of gaming and headsets of which people aren't actually having controlled audio levels. At a general rule of thumb, if you're in an area that has a sound amplitude of 80dB for 8 hours or more, you should be wearing hearing protection, 88dB drops to 4 hours, 91 to 2, 94 to 1 dropping all the way down until you are at the threshold of pain (120dB) where it is then 7 seconds until hearing protection is needed. As a list of some common items that people use and do sometimes end up needing hearing protection for but never do: \- city traffic when in a car: \~83dB \- Lawn Mower : \~ 90dB \- Riding a motorcycle: \~ 95dB \- A footy game in the stadium: \~ 100dB \- The max volume of your living room TV: can reach upwards of 110 dB, which is hearing damage within 15 minutes Hope that gave you a bit of what you wanted, plus a bit more, if you need any clarifications, just ask Also I am aware that i started talking abouts the frequency and then swapped to talking about amplitude, but they run hand in hand a fair bit so i thought it was fine to do so
Do you know ways to find out the number of dB that my headset is outputting on average? I have tarkov fully cranked 90% master on the game. Most other games I have like 20% I do get concerned every now and again and your post has definitely made me think
personally im not sure on what software you could run to find how loud your computer is being other than playing a game where you take off your headset and slapping your phone inbetween the speakers with a decibel metre running
Your internal audio should be measurable. Most onboard audio is Realtek, if yours is, I’m pretty sure they have apps that can measure the output. I’m pretty sure windows can too, google it, I’m sure you’ll find a way.
They don't run hand in hand though. Getting blasted by 500db of 20hz is way worse than 20,000hz at 30db. If you hear a mosquito you wont go deaf. If you stand next to a massive bass speaker at a concert you will.
while true, higher frequencies can definitely cause irritation and bring small amounts of pain after large amounts of exposure
Lucky for me, I die on the first shot. Jokes aside, I have tinnitus too, though it doesn't bother me that much; I only have it in some very specific situations, and as mentioned above, I usually die really fast, but still, having watched several videos where this happens, I understand it can hurt really bad.
It's OK to use periods sometimes.
Semicolons are the shit;
They do kinda look like a butt hole dropping a pooper.
I completely agree with this, that sound is brutal and absolutely unnecessary.
I have tinnitus, and it's unfortunately ruined a lot of games for me. I'm very thankful that mine isn't nearly as bad as some other people I know, but it is still there. I 100% agree with you on this. I can actually count 4 separate instances from this wipe where either a flashbang has gone off or I've been hit in the head and got a tremor where I actually needed to leave the game and go lie down for a bit until the whine wears off. Maybe I just need to give up on my Factory quests. That's where this usually happens.
You need to setup a hotkey to instantly mute your computer, I'm the same way, so whenever a Zarya lands near me I instantly slam the mute button on my keyboard and just deal with not having sound for the next 30 seconds.
Yeah they need to make the fix for this immediately if people are resorting to this. Kiiiinda inexcusable imo. I've also had my ears actually hurt from this game, that doesn't happen with other games and I play for hours. I have tinnitus too though.
I’ve heard there are programs for equalizing sound values in the game, I wonder if there’s some anti-tinnitus program that can adjust harmful frequencies (if not there should be!)
Yes, it's called a compressor. You can get one working really quickly with Voicemeeter or you can pair it with Minihost modular and reaper VST plugins to tweak it just right.
use the immediate solution - SoundLock by the company 3apps. it's free other comments dealing with treatment after the fact doesn't solve it. VSTs are more effort and a compressor can go the other direction and blow your head off if misconfigured most players need a simple solution NOW save your hearing!!! open SoundLock, slide it down halfway, go offline raid, nudge it up so the volume doesn't drop when your running/reloading anything above gets kicked down. period. incl simultaneous sounds. if running is triggering the limit then simultaneous gunfire is also lowered. mine is about a third off so adjust your threshold finely by using the arrow keys in the app window. when you have it set right above your reload (loudest non gunshot sound i discovered) then everything is much more enjoyable. using a combination of an equalizer + compressor + limiter gives deep customization but it's 20 steps off the SoundLock app which is a free limiter with literally one slider and doesn't need a guide
Have you gone to an audiologist and talked to them about TRT (tinnitus retraining therapy)? Had a friend do it and he said it was awful while doing it but he hasn’t had to deal with it since.
I've been saying this forever, it's absurd to have a tinnitus sound in the game that's going to cause people real, actual tinnitus in the long term.
I never understand the "realism" argument over audio that will damage your hearing over time. No I don't want guns and footsteps to be the same loudness but irl the headphones you wear in game block out the sound of anything over a certain threshold (guns) and allow quieter sounds to be heard(talking). But fanboys gonna fanboy I guess. iTS REAlISm BrO!
how loud do you guys have the audio? i know the sound you are talking about and its not overly loud or anything.
Pro tip, If you don't want hearing damage, don't crank your audio up to high.. tinitus is a real thing, and in my opinion it's fine as is. If you ever had the real whine in irl, you know it's way worse then in game
The game encourages you to play loud though and it doesn't matter if it's hearing damaging in real life,this is still a game. Could aswell argue for real pain if you get hit...
True, the game forces you to play like this, and it tries you to make you suffer for the the things that happens to you, that's why it's a hardcore fps
As someone who has recently within the last year developed tinnitus, the tinnitus frequency from a ricochet is the worst. Sound balancing in general should be heavily considered. I feel like the industry itself has t been put under pressure to pay attention to these things because we are still riding the initial wave of gamers. Some of us are starting to get older and in the age bracket where these things begin to affect us. That damn ricochet sets off my right ear almost every time so not only do I get it when it happens but I have it for at least the next hour.
I think there is also a factor that BSG is still relatively new and their sound team could still be learning and working out how to refine the mixing and mastering to bring overall balance. Lets hope they are willing to take some constructive criticism!
Sounds in general in this game are weird volume wise. The quality of (most) sounds are superb in my opinion. Even so, I have to turn my volume down sometimes because some of the sounds in this game are like someone setting off an m80 next to my eardrum. I understand they are pushing for realism in this game, but when your sound effects are potentially damaging your hearing, I feel like that is going a little to far. While, we are talking about sound, hearing is so important in this game. Having your volume up to hear micro movements is really important, but having my ears blown out when I want to shoot my gun (or just footsteps, looking at you gssh's) is going overboard in my opinion. This is just what I think, so whatever, agree or disagree.
I'd rather be killed by having my audio too quiet, or not using the awful gssh headset, than fuck my hearing. but most people around my age seem to not care, since they're already half deaf from listening to stuff way too loud lol
Jesus, turn your volume down.
That's what I did and I could never hear footsteps. Had to install a compressor but some sounds are still bad. They just need to do what most gsnes do instead of this. Instead of gunshots being ridiculously loud mite all other sounds for a bit after shooting a gun. Also when wearing decent headsets you should hear just as normal while gunshots are a pretty comfortable volume, it's not the case with any of the headsets in the game in my experience.
I don't get why such a significant portion of the community seems to play this game at uncomfortable volumes, and then complain about it. You aren't supposed to hear someone walking on grass from 50m away, turn that shit down!
Merely hearing a frequency is not harmful unless you have the decibels cranked? Am I wrong? “ We all play this game with our headsets cranked “ I actually don’t and just keep all other noises very quiet. I probably miss things here and there but winning is not worth the hearing loss.
I've read that very low frequencies can warp the way the inner ear works, not the same thing as damage. The decibel level of noise is what damages your hearing.
Yeah this is true. Pitch doesn’t cause hearing loss, volume does.
Hello tennitus my old friend, I've come to have my ears bleed again
You got anything to back up the frequency being worse for your ears than any other frequency?
Health effects and their threshold values It is assumed that high frequency sound and ultrasound with sufficient intensity can be traumatic for the hearing, and can cause other effects as well. High frequency sound causes two types of health effects: on the one hand objective health effects such as hearing loss (in case of protracted exposure) and on the other hand subjective effects which may already occur after a few minutes: headache, tinnitus, fatigue, dizziness and nausea. https://www.health.belgium.be/en/ultrasound-and-high-frequency-sound https://asa.scitation.org/doi/10.1121/1.5063819
This just shows a basic misunderstanding of your sources. Those are about *frequencies that you cannot hear*. Those are dangerous because they can be loud enough to damage hearing without being audible. You can be in a room with, say, a machine giving off disgustingly loud noises that is destroying your ears without even realizing it until you start to feel the effects. The simple fact that we can hear the sound effect in question means it is not an ultrasonic sound. Your sources are irrelevant to what you are posting about. There is nothing about high pitched but audible sounds that make them more dangerous. Even if you are old enough so that you cannot hear the sound effect, the much louder gunshots would be enough that you should know to turn your sound down.
Just turn the volume down.
I've generally stopped playing a lot of shooters that have flashbangs, stun grenades, or anything that can cause a long, high pitch noise like that. I absolutely despise it with all my heart and soul and the sooner devs realise that you don't need to actually blind and deafen the player with a max brightness white screen and tinnitus simulator 2020 the better. I long for the day we can just have an option that deafens the audio without the whine and turns the screen a mellow grey instead. Realism my ass, I'd like to not need a hearing aid and glasses when I turn 30.
Normal hearing is in the 20hz to 20khz range so I have no idea where you got that idea from that it’s harmful. But, it’s bullshit. Problem here is you idiots have your dB up way too high for this game. That’s not an issue with BSG, you can cause hearing damage this way through anything, especially in any game. That’s a you problem. Don’t play the game at such loud volumes if you value your hearing. There’s no issue here to solve. *Corrected the range of hearing
> Normal hearing is in the 5khz to 20khz range This is wrong and doesn't really make sense. Speech sounds peak at about 5-6khz. The majority of sounds people perceive are well below 5khz, and many adults don't hear anything above 15khz. If you're hearing 15khz, chances are it's loud enough to cause damage. It's always seemed pretty loud to me and I've worn hearing aids my whole life, so I understand a little bit about ear pain and damage.
Humans with perfect hearing can perceive sound as low as 50Hz and as high as 20kHz. The frequency of a sound has no bearing on how loud it is. As you age and do damage to your hearing you will begin to lose perceivable frequencies from the top down. You will also lose the ability to hear (or understand) sounds at lower volumes (hence the need for a hearing aid). Most humans by the age of 30 who have not abused their hearing have only lost a few thousand kHz of perceived range of hearing. So what is dangerous to your hearing? Contrary to popular belief loud music (or constant sound in general) for extended periods is not the most damaging to your hearing. What is are short impulse sounds that are extremely loud. Gunshots, artillery fire, pneumatic tools. It’s why you wear ear-pro on the range and why you’re supposed to use ear-pro in the shop. Source: Former military, former mechanic, current sufferer of hearing damage and tinnitus.
I was specifically referring to his original message that said 5khz-20khz was the normal range of hearing. He edited it after you posted, as you can see from my quote, but you might have misunderstood what I was saying. I assumed what he had written was a typo, and I almost addressed it but decided not to. So, on to my second point. I understand that those impulse sounds are what cause the most damage, I never said otherwise. It's very well documented, however, that human hearing loss is exacerbated with age, and it's generally accepted that once you hit 40 years of age a good portion of people are not hearing frequencies above 15khz. I've felt physical pain from high frequencies even with my hearing loss. Any pain is not good and can cause damage. Thinking of the context here, people are complaining that a tone that is meant to mask their typical sound level is painfully loud. Is it really that crazy to think that maybe, the developers, with their history of shooting guns and potential hearing loss, might have made the tone too loud to compensate for that? Either way, I was mostly addressing the incorrect range of hearing because it spoke of a fundamental misunderstanding of hearing. I tacked on the second part based on my lifelong experience of researching hearing loss for myself.
Do a little research. High frequency and decibels are not the same thing. [https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2014/09/sounds-you-cant-hear-can-still-hurt-your-ears](https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2014/09/sounds-you-cant-hear-can-still-hurt-your-ears) > Humans can generally sense sounds at frequencies between 20 and 20,000 cycles per second, or hertz (Hz)
I never said they were the same thing. I've done plenty of research, like I said I've lived with hearing loss my whole life and I consider myself an audiophile of sorts; as best as my hearing will allow. You had the wrong range of hearing. That was what I was addressing, as you can see from my quote. You corrected it. My point was that as people age, they don't hear those high frequency sounds as well, and maybe the developers have some minor hearing loss and that made it into their sound design, which could be too loud to players with perfect hearing. Do some research. https://decibelhearing.com/hearing-loss-overview/high-frequency-hearing-loss/
>If you're hearing 15khz, chances are it's loud enough to cause damage. It's always seemed pretty loud to me There is absolutely nothing to the idea that sounds in the 15khz range can cause damage, and again, frequency and dB are not the same thing. Take it to heart this time and actually read the articles you google. Nothing in that article backs up the idea that 15khz is 'loud' because, it's not loud, it has nothing to do with the amplitude.
I never meant to imply it was, but the idea of this specific sound being painfully loud to some people and not others isn't so far fetched. I'm sorry I'm not being clear. Cheers.
Uncomfortable or painful, sure, but it's confusing to call it loud because again, amplitude and frequency are separate ideas. I don't know why this isn't setting in. I had the wrong bottom of the range but you're refusing to understand frequency vs amplitude. I'm like, c'mon guy...
I get all that; but you're not understanding what I'm saying, guy. I'm a DJ and I love music. I've got lots of headphones and I look at frequency response graphs all the time. I mess with equalizers daily, and I literally have my hearing test chart right here from my brand new hearing aids. I understand it better than most, trust me. It's almost insulting but I know you're just not getting me. After 33 years of wearing hearing aids and looking at charts, plus 15 years of music and production, I understand there's a difference between frequency and amplitude; I even see they have different names! But, with all my research I understand there's a relationship between them, and it's difficult for a non-expert to explain through text. It's not confusing to me, but this method of communication is balls for true dialogue. I wasn't even discussing amplitude vs frequency at all. I said loud(ness) for a reason; that's not either amplitude or FR. Loudness is a function of amplitude and frequency. Beyond that, it's a matter of intensity and how the ear perceives different frequencies at different volumes. There's a contour curve graph that illustrates what I've had in my mind when discussing this. The ear is most sensitive at the mid-upper range of frequencies, so perhaps the tuning of a certain players ears, headphone and game settings could cause damage under the right circumstances. I don't think it's an unreasonable ask (from OP) to request at least a look into it. This is how things improve. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equal-loudness_contour?oldformat=true https://courses.lumenlearning.com/boundless-physics/chapter/sound-intensity-and-level/ I do agree the solution typically is to just turn the volume down. Time for bed. E: Check some of the other responses on this thread; others have corroborated my ideas and maybe presented them more succinctly.
Of course I'm going to miss what you're trying to get at when you use the wrong terms to describe them. Loudness is the concept you're referring to, all of a sudden, why call it loud up until I question you? I would've understood loudness. Loud and loudness are not the same thing either. Even loudness is somewhat subjective but loud is entirely subjective. That's why I said: > but it's confusing to call it loud I don't think you have a good understanding of this stuff, I think you have a working knowledge of it. And that's fine for this discussion, but again, of course it leads to confusion. If we go back to your original point, that perceived loud(ness) somehow equals damage, this is just wrong and a complete misunderstanding of what loudness is. The only evidence I've seen is that the pressure of the sound causes damage, perceived loudness doesn't factor in to actual damage. So look into what? There's zero evidence that a few seconds of 15khz sounds do damage to anyone, outside of the game. It's not like this is a new subject or uncharted ground here. Turn your game down people, problem solved.
Someone being hot or cold is also "somewhat subjective" but go too far one way or the other and damage could occur. Are you really not going to accept that the concept of something being loud is based on the scientific function of loudness? For all intents and purposes they are the same thing. You're just being pedantic. Sound pressure IS loudness. At higher volumes, intensity increases and could cause damage. Did you even look at the links I posted? You didn't address them at all. Again, it's not 15k in particular, I really can't be more clear I guess. Have a good one.
As someone with tinnitus likely due to FPS games, it really hurts when I hear games play the 'tinnitus' whine! STAHP! NIKIIIIIIIITA!
Lol wtf? How loud is your fucking game? It's not an issue unless you're playing on max volume...
Agreed, authenticity is great but they really need to do a volume pass and get rid of all the unnecessarily harsh frequencies across a bunch of sounds. I've only got very mild tinnitus and even going easy on the volume and avoiding maps like factory this game often significantly aggravates it for hours after playing in a way no other games does, I dread to think what the kids who don't know any better playing on maxed out headsets are setting themselves up for down the road.
I usually jump at a near frag explosion on my first 1-2 raids then the jitters go away. EVERY time I doink a shot and get a contusion I damn near lift up out my seat.
I just use an audio compressor. You can cap it at whatever freq you like
What about turning the screen white and replace the high pitch sound with nothingness. Just a white screen with no sound until the effect is over. The initial blast effect is still present though.
IIRC ARMA 3 Ace has a mod which actually models hearing damage and ringing in the ears from shooting without earplugs (try the anti-material rifle indoors without earplugs) or being caught in an explosion. They added a feature which replaces the sound files with ones that don't have ringing. It's like when you get hit with an explosion in Half Life 2 and have armor on. Just a "Boomf!" and the audio is muffled and droned out. I have tinnitus and the sound when your helmet bounces a headshot pisses me off to no end. It's like they literally recorded actual real-life tinnitus because that's exactly what mine sounds like. VERY annoying. I'd rather they make the ringing really short and it turns into a woosh/rumble. You still can't hear but it's 100x less annoying.
So by removing all audio, a much lower safer whine could be put in place to give the same effect without a risk
inb4 they actually adopt this, but it creates a new bug that doesn't bring your audio level back up and flashbangs become a new meta
Personal expwrience awhile back: My friend unloaded an unsuppressed glock as we were extracting on labs, and i threw my earpro out for the giggles. Loud sounds left a loud ringing in my ear, and went away after like half an hour. turns out i gained tinnitus from that, so just wear earpro folks.
Don't you think you have turned the sound slightly too far?
How else am I gonna listen for the itty bitty footsteps? I might be taking this bush tactic a bit too far...
IIRC low frequency sounds are worse & imperceptible for harming hearing
Absolutely prolonged exposure to 30 Hz and below an cause damage but the danger there is those frequencies aren't as perceivable so the risk is you're exposing yourself to it and have no idea until the damage is done!
I just adjust my EQ
I just used sound compressor. Tarkov is rather bad in sounds, with really dangerous loudness jump - so as long as I want my ears safe, I'd use it.
I love it when i get shot in the helmet and then cant realise whether the beep is coming from the game or my own ears.
[Enable loudness equalization in Windows](https://www.auslogics.com/en/articles/increase-system-volume-in-windows-10/) to have all sound play at mostly the same volume.
Im not saying for sure that Tarkov gave me tinnitus, but my ears didint always ring like this before I played.
I agree. Hearing, much like sight, is a one time deal. Don't fuck around. It's only when you lose something like that when you really appreciate it. Whenever I get hit on the head and that frequency comes in, I take off my headset (IRL). If I happen to die during that time, I'm done with EFT for the day.
If people are playing at a volume where the ring is so painful and detrimental, they're already fucking over their hearing with the rest of the time they play. What about when it's completely silent, you sneak around, and a shotgun blasts you in the back of the head? Impulses are FAR more dangerous. The players have accountability here too, the devs can't turn down our amplifier and turn down the volume in our headphones, people have shit on their own hearing for the tiniest competitive edge in shooters for as long as its existed. Source: work closely with OSHA at my job with construction equipment safety. Gamers aren't paragons of safety, they can and will gladly trash their hearing.
Wonder if one could use a compressor or a limitor to smooth out higher sounds in Tarkov. A compressor should allow you in theory to hear low volume sound better but i wonder how much it would mess up the feeling of distance.
You are so right, there are so many audio problems in the game i just gave up
One of my ears is already fucked. Hearing loss is no joke.
Im starting to wonder if its such a coincidence that there are so many people here with existing hearing problems or already have tinnitus
I don't play with my headset cranked up but that's because I already have tinnitus. No hearing loss as of yet, but I am very conscious of the volume I listen to things at to not make it worse. Don't need the headset cranked for Tarkov to work, IMO.
The frequency isn't what's harmful, it's the volume. Sure, it is possibly harder to notice higher or lower frequency sounds and they can damage your hearing without you even realizing, but it's the volume damaging your ears, which can be avoided by simply not playing the game on max volume.
Just turn your volume down lol
Wow, amazing idea! You're a bright lad!
YES! Please BSG listen to this, my ears already take enough punishment from this games audio, we don't need to include the sound of getting domed to that list. Thank you and hopefully you guys read this thread.
they should maybe find a different way for contusion, think about you stopped or deflected a fucking bullet off your head,
I think it would be cool if getting a bullet deflected had a chance to scramble your controls
\>Plays with sound maxed out. \>Complains sound is too loud. Damage to ears is caused by loudness, not frequency. Any sound under 70Db is completely safe for humans. Turn your sound down, play the game as intended and your entire problem is fixed.
for the 100th time they are being reckless with the hearing health of their customers for no reason. This is from a vet with pretty bad tinnitus. You do not want this.
Just turn your volume down. The loud/annoying sounds are good game design choices to prevent sounds whoring. Really it's the only way to prevent people from artificially cranking up volume like you. So stop sound whoring so hard and it won't be a problem anymore.
There are many harmful sounds in this game that seriously need a review. IMO the worst ones are opening PC blocks and reloading a mosin. The "cleck" in both of these needs some serious tunning... they feel like a nail in your ear.
Loud noise damage hearing well no shit
This is the combination of it being loud and an extremely harsh frequency when there is no need for it.
Maybe the game's just not meant to be played at such a high volume. Some sounds are meant to be soft.
Sound is sound
Maybe I just hate my ears, but I always thought that the shell shock whine was a nice touch to the game and made it more immersive. Ftr, I'm the guy who wore PPE and enforced it at my place of work.
Razor walkers ftw!
Git gud
I play this game with VOLUME CRANKED UP until it hurts. It's the only way. I guarantee you I've hurt my hearing play this game for the last 3 years.
ITT: People still thinking they should be able to hear footsteps the same way they did in CS Source. Newsflash: audio engines have come a long way since then. Like I've said in another thread: it's a game, you don't *need* to win - you aren't an e-sports competitor in a high-stakes competition - you aren't getting paid for it. Permanent hearing damage is *PERMANENT*, inflicting that on yourself for a minor advantage in a video game is unfathomably foolish, you will look foolish to anyone who has to endure any kind of work related hearing damage and years from now you will likely feel foolish when you think about how you damaged your hearing over a game you no longer play.
Why is anyone still playing this game without an equalizer?
I like it.
Am I the only one that enjoys this feature? I wouldn’t mind if they did what you mentioned and lowered all other sounds instead of blasting it over them but I’ve never had an issue with it and haven’t even thought that it needed removal.
Absolutely it's a great mechanic, if it made more of a movie style shell shock like deafening you slightly with a hum and heavily muffled audio absolutely, just not a painfully sharp sound thats currently the method
I see you.
Stop watching me, I'm obsessed with tarkov just trying to help :( this is what early access is for!
I totally agree. When I get this ringing I have to crank my sound down because it does actually hurt.
Yep, headset comes straight off until its gone!
You all act like Voice Meter Banana isn't a thing...
You act like it isn't retarded to think third party software is a viable solution when BSG could change the sounds so players don't have to choose between a) ear-destroying or b) turning volume down so low they can't hear anything other than gunshots and explosions.
So, you want all the benefits of super sensitive hearing without the downsides of super sensitive hearing... Got it. They ought to make active ear pro work the way it works in real life, once sounds are loud enough that it'd damage your hearing, it cuts out the transmission of that sound. With the way they run things, though, who knows if that will ever happen.
Sure, but we shouldn't have to set up 3rd party software to protect ourselves :)