The Sound of Path of Exile

sound_effects_volume2=false
nice music but i prefer more FPS for my potato

All the audio is seriously outstanding in this game. The Maven memory game sound has always stood out to me. I don't know how to explain but it's very impactful. Somehow sounds like some deep space technology and a child's toy at the same time, Kane absolutely nailed it!

That is actualy genius idea. Is it possible to concentrate on voice while playing?

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Grekey wrote:

Used to love the sounds of poe, but now all i keep on it's the allerts from the loot filter, noiw a day i like to lissen to some books while farming some maps and do not complitly waste those thousands of hours

That is actualy genius idea. Is it possible to concentrate on voice while playing?

love music in poe and so much hate sound effects so much, that i need to turn it off completely to actually play the game smoothly

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dacoshild wrote:

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Grekey wrote:

Used to love the sounds of poe, but now all i keep on it's the allerts from the loot filter, noiw a day i like to lissen to some books while farming some maps and do not complitly waste those thousands of hours

That is actualy genius idea. Is it possible to concentrate on voice while playing?

I can confirm that it works. Not so much when chatting with people in Discord, but that's not really related to PoE ;)
Actually the PoE Music and/or dialog doesn't even interfere too much. Some exceptions do exist though; looking at you, Envoy!

My only problem with the sounds is when a voiceline ends up in the wrong channel. The Silo Boss and I think Maven were a bit problematic there. I turned down dialog volume but they were still loud as hell.

Apart from that little hiccup; great work people! :)

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Another example of this is from the Maven fight in Echoes of the Atlas. These larger scale boss fights really need clear audio cues to signal certain things to the player, and to help provide context to different effects. The memory game effects here are a good example of this....

I have a suggestion about the Memory game.
Some people are really struggling to see the tiles activating (because of color blindness or because the character stands on the opposite side of arena or because of being busy focusing on avoiding the rotating beams ...)
Each of the 3 tiles could have a different sound associated to it so people could memorize sounds instead of visual if its better for them.
Of course they would need very different sounds like Bim Bam Boom and not Bim bIm biM (like different colors are easier to notice instead of green on green on green visuals in Catarina fight)

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Silenc42 wrote:

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dacoshild wrote:

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Grekey wrote:

Used to love the sounds of poe, but now all i keep on it's the allerts from the loot filter, noiw a day i like to lissen to some books while farming some maps and do not complitly waste those thousands of hours

That is actualy genius idea. Is it possible to concentrate on voice while playing?

I can confirm that it works. Not so much when chatting with people in Discord, but that's not really related to PoE ;)
Actually the PoE Music and/or dialog doesn't even interfere too much. Some exceptions do exist though; looking at you, Envoy!

My only problem with the sounds is when a voiceline ends up in the wrong channel. The Silo Boss and I think Maven were a bit problematic there. I turned down dialog volume but they were still loud as hell.

Apart from that little hiccup; great work people! :)

If you just click the envoy once he will stop with his story.

Cool! Finally some more in depth article on the sound. Thank you Kane, Dominic, Patricia, Javier and Michael!

Being sounddesigner at Streumon Studio, I really love to know how studios work on the sound. I don't know if it is something that would interest the community, but I would love to read something that goes a bit more in depth and details on your workflow... I would even say a bit more technical.

For instance, discussing the way you create a sound for the spells / skills is great. But using the skill in a early game / test context is not the same as if you'd use it in a endgame context.

How do you deal with sound priorities when the player reaches extremely populated maps in endgame, for the skills, for the voices, for the feedback ?

You have an emphasis on the feedback of the skills instead of the actual trigger of the skill (most of the time), what made you go that way creatively speaking ?

How do you work on the maps ? How do you collaborate with the level designers ?

How do you work on sections of the maps so that the random generation works without creating overlapping sound / clashing ambiances ?

I think I would have a ton more questions like this! I'm stunned of how much data you deal with. Kane was mentionning on twitter that he worked with over 3k dialog lines on Betrayal, and now 4k just for Ultimatum... this is insane.

Keep up the great work, you rock guys.

Exsanguinate sounds really disguisting, at thats amazing!
Really love the sound of steel skills hitting the flesh and you can hear the impales really impaling the enemy.
The blood sacrament sounds extremely juicy and meaty, incredible.

Heist dialogue is cool, I really feel like a part of something, however sometimes it can get pretty annoying. It's less about the story telling lines, as more about the gameplay ones. Well at least for big farming sessions, there is the option to mute them friends.

I must say I'm impressed by the work you guys put into it.
I should more often "Stay awhile and listen"