Improve in game sounds - how to

Hi all,

First post here but i somehow felt i have to contribute in some ways.

Let me summarize my setup and all the tests i made so far :

• Platform : PS5 (actually, i play the PS4 version of the game so i can use the dualshock with back paddles)
• Headset : Arctis 7P (not the plus)

At the beginning of my Apex career (coming from CoD) i was connecting the wirless dongle of the headset directly on the PS5 and the sound was great right out of the box, compared to my teammates i was able to hear steps way further than them.

Since the other members of the team are on PC i dediced to change my setup in ordert to talk through Discord and then all the sound "issues" came out :

I'm processing the audio from PS5 with a Laptop in this way (the only one i found so far)

PS5 -> USB-C external sound interface* -> Headset out -> MIC in on the Laptop -> Audio loop in order to hear the MIC

* The card is simply providing the headphone out and the Mic In ports to the PS5. I'm not using the HDMI audio splitter since the 3D audio from PS5 is not provided over HDMI but only over USB.

This setup allowed me to try different eq settings and i made tons of tests. First of all, i found sonar very inconsistent, sometimes during the game i hear changes in the eq with no reasons and i have to close/open again sonar to restart it. I always preferred to use the eq provided by default by Steelseries GG (Engine) even if for the 7P it has few frequencies options.

The difference between the 7P connected directly to the PS5 and the current setup is embarassing. I tried to work also with sound compression on Windows for both the MIC input and the headset output to be sure i was not missing sound quality during the transfer but everything have always been to the max quality.

My next step is to do a frequency spectrum analysis from a live game and a recorded game as well to find the closest frequencies for footsteps and other game sounds.

The last thing to say here is that to do an appropriate eq setting, you always have to consider the frequency response of your headset, sometimes they are already amplyfing some frequencies and you risk to made them sound worse with any EQ setting. For example, the 7P have a lower response for frequencies between 300Hz and 1500Hz so you *potentially* have to increase those for hearing footsteps.

Apologies for eternity long post ☹️