Problems with the quantisation values of transition regions

Hi there,

I’m pretty new to FMOD so hopefully this is just me being a little inexperienced!

I’m designing a music system that would theoretically work for Mario Kart for part of a university assignment. I have 3 different music sections for the 3 different laps, each of which go up in BPM, as well as corresponding sections for when the player enters the water.

Each section is set to loop with a loop region and includes some variations etc, and these all work fine. There is then transition regions on these sections so that I can swap from lap 1 to lap to, as well as separate transition regions so I can switch into the water sections in each lap and back again to the ‘normal’ lap theme.

The quantisation for all of these transition regions is set to a 1/4 note, and the majority of them work correctly. However, some of the transition regions are not switching at the quantisation value I have set, and instead switch at the value of 1 full bar - I think it is 1 full bar, but whatever it is it is much longer than just the 1/4 note I have set -.

The lap sections will transition into each other perfectly, however whenever I try to go to a ‘water section’ a full bar is played before the transition region sound, which would obviously not work in the context of the game.

It is with adding that the tempo markers for each section are set correctly, and I really can’t see any reason why this should not be switching on the value I have set, especially when all the other transition regions are set to the same and they work perfectly!

If anyone is able to help me it would be very very much appreciated, as I have to get this handed in for Saturday!

Screenshot 1 - a working transition region from lap 1 to lap 2 with a quantisation value of a 1/4 note.
Screenshot 2 - a ‘broken’ transition region from lap 1 to the lap 1 water section with a quantisation value of 1/4 note
Screenshot 3 - an overview of the entire project, just incase it’s of any help!



Many thanks,

Zac

—EDIT–

Using FMOD Studio version 1.08.01 as this is the version installed on my university computers and therefore I must create the project with the version (it’s in the brief).

Hello Zac,

From the screenshots it doesn’t look like there’s anything amiss, but it’s difficult to debug from just screenshots alone. If I’m understanding the issue you’re saying:

Lap 1 > Lap 2 - Works fine
Lap 1 > Water Lap 1 - Not fine

The testing I have done with a similar setup you have in your screenshots doesn’t seem to have the same issues.

Would you be able to package up this event and send it to support@fmod.com for us to investigate further? Make a note about this Q&A and we’ll attach it to a support case.

Thanks,
Richard

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Hi Richard,

Many thanks for getting back to me!

So, it turned out that a seeking value that my tutor had turned on when demonstrating how to automate a high pass filter onto the water sections via the master was causing my transition regions to wait for that value before allowing the transition sounds to be played. This is why it was only affecting the water sounds!

Any suggestions as to how I might work around this and have smooth transition from the non high passed filtered lap sections, into the water sections but without affecting the timing on my transitions?

Thanks again,

Zac

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Hi Zac,

There are two options that I can think of for your set up.

First would be to create a snapshot, scope in the group bus for your music, and scope in a high pass filter on this bus. Place an AHDSR modulator onto the snapshot’s Intensity, so it has some fade in and fade out. You can then place this snapshot onto your music event only at the water loops. This way when the parameter (remove the seek speed) reaches the transitions condition value, it will also trigger the snapshot instrument which will fade in the high pass filter’s effect.

For more info on snapshots, check out the docs:
https://www.fmod.com/resources/documentation-studio?page=mixing.html#snapshots-and-the-tracks-view

The second option would be to have a another parameter with seek speed that controls the high pass filter. You can then pass the same lap/water value to this parameter in your game code.

I hope this has helped.

Thanks,
Richard

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