Footstep audio really needs fixing
Footsteps have been almost impossible to hear lately — not just for me, but for my whole squad. Enemies are super quiet while allies are way too loud. The friends I play with all have the same issue...
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Audio imo is actually one of the best so far in Apex yet on grand scheme of things it still is bad, dread to see e-district back in rotation (map where you can only guess which level of many enemies are).
Footsteps of teammates for sure has become louder this season, I don't know why, but I get constantly spooked by someone at least a few times per gaming session - spooked because of the combination where you don't hear enemies + louder than expected teammate footsteps.
Otherwise thing that helped me a lot and I am sure every pro player is using = audio equalizers.
This season I combined better EQ settings and new in-ear headphones (vs old over the head closed back ones) and one day some random told that I am hacking as I am calling out sounds like 100+m (in game) further than he can tell, I literary guided him through the map and he was amazed + complimented my IGL skills as well. I did not expect difference to be that big yet I have been playing on some or another EQ since season 12 or so = I literary forgot how bad Apex is without EQ :)
p.s. also I have seen plenty of people who complain about sound while they have legend voice lines on in game (I have those off since my first hour in Apex) and equipped heirloom (which most make additional noise clutter + screen clutter). So if you want easy solution - turn those both off at first :)
Thats very interesting about the in ear headphones and eq. Can you tell me the brand and specifics of headphones you use?
Heres a very old thread, 3yo, about improving footsteps, with a lot of detail and eq settings.
Afaik my son is still using the same Sonar eq settings.
I cant use heaphones and play on xbox with sounds through the tv. Not great for enemy footsteps at all.
Well if you play on speakers...sorry you will be in a huge disadvantage and that has been true since 2000s and first shooter games. You need Stereo headphones to really pick up directional sound. E.g. in Quake you basically could mimic wallhack - sound was just THAT good that you could pre-aim person through wall and land a shot at peak.
I went from "standard / cheap" Sony headphones (that did the job but I realized at the end were too base heavy) to Sennheizer Hd429s (sound much more crisp, thought it can't get any better) to Simgot EM6L (I saw that most pro players these days use in-ear headphones, also those in general tend to be less base heavy, plus big motivation was heat in summer - I was just sweating too much due to headphones and given you can't really wash Hd429s they became "nasty").
As for EQ as I got to know each headphone has their own "sound profile" so basically you need to adjust EQ per game, per your preference and per headphone model. There is youtube channel GadgetryTech, dude there does for me good enough job to provide EQ presets for most popular combination of games and headphones. Given Simgot EM6Ls are quite popular choice these days I was good to go with his EQ settings. Used modified version for my previous Sennheizers from his site as well.
If you don't have your headphones listed on his EQ template list you can use basically any available EQ software. Record your game without EQ set -> playback on a player which has EQ graph available -> see which frequences dominate -> set EQ to lower those and increase footsteps (mid range frequencies I guess around 200-2000 hz ones?) accordingly. Basically tune to your preference, nothing hard especially if you have a friend who is willing to jump into firing range with you, enable friendly fire and just run around you in circles :)Basically two main issues with Apex sound is:
a) it is too base heavy
b) there are many sounds / sound effects that are too loud e.g. 30-30 especially with skullpiercer is so **bleep** loud when shooting that I kid you not I sometimes opted out of it because on my sound settings it just feels unpleasant to play with it
Both these muffle footsteps a lot. First can be dealt with via EQ, second unfortunately is not and you can just adjust volume and choose to hear footsteps but also suffer when e.g. 30-30 is on hand or lower volume, get comfortable sound, but miss out on top potential regarding footsteps in game. At least that is my experience.I have tuned to mid-range = my game is quite loud, at times maybe unhealthy loud, at the same time I can play 5+h comfortably and never feel any disadvantage audio vise (except cases where Apex just f#$@ you up via no footstep audio of enemies :D).
Thank you thats all good info. Ill add some of that to my big thread.
Yea I know speakers are useless, but i have severe tinnitus that gets exacerbated when i use headphones, so thats a nono for me.
My son uses arctis nova 4 headphones made by steel series and dosnt use the sonar software anymore. These are so good that in a youtube video of a player complaining about poor footsteps audio, he could hear the the enemy direction on his headphones .
That's what's odd because I have an equalizer since the release of the game .. Could you share me your settings?
GadgetryTech check out this dude on youtube
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