How to increase engine sound? - Or reduce ambient sounds?

[netusaku]

Hi guys,
I'm shifting gears manually but I can barely hear the engine, which makes it hard to shift well. I mostly just hear the wheels screeching and various ambient sounds. (Great mods BTW. Manual transmission by ikt and realistic driving by Killatomate)

Any ideas? I tried removing audio files but then the game wouldn't start.

By the way, "Muted Speech and Pain" by R3QQ is a neat mod. I find the pedestrian voices kind of annoying and this removes most of them. I mean in real life driving at high speed you wouldn't hear people outside the car talking.

Thanks!

[a63nt-5m1th]

@netusaku
Totally agree, the soundscape on vanilla GTAV is absolute

This is all from memory more or less so I hope I remember the finer points Let's see?

The basic process for editing sounds is to use OpenIV to export the '.awc' sound files to '.oac' & '.wav' files by right-clicking a '.awc' (in OpenIV) & selecting:

'Export to openformats (.oac)'

Select a location & a '.oac' file & a folder of the same name containing '.wav' files of the sounds will be created there.

Example:

You then open the '.wav' files with something like Audacity (free software) & increase or decrease the volume depending on what you want.

In Audacity > 'Effect' Tab > 'Amplify' will allow you to do both (increase or decrease amplification/volume dB level).

You then export the edited audio using:

'File' Tab > 'Export Audio...' (or 'Export Multiple...' if exporting multiple)

Note: The files need to be exported as 'WAV (Microsoft) signed 16-bit PCM' in the 'Export Audio' window's 'save as type' dropdown box (see pic below).

It will also be mono files you are dealing with. Leave them as mono. No converting to stereo or anything

After you have replaced the vanilla '.wav's in the folder with the new edited ones all that is left to do is drag & drop the '.oac' file (the one next to the folder) back into OpenIV to the original location. A small openformats box will flash up as OpenIV converts the '.oac' into a '.awc' & replaces the original.
You then load the game & check the changes you have made.

Extra:
You'll have a hard time raising the volume of the vehicles much without clipping. I'd say ~ a ~5>10% increase in volume is about the max you are going to get before you start loosing audio fidelity.
If you don't mind loosing a bit of quality you can make them as loud as you want but I've found that raising the volume of the engine sounds slightly & then lowering the other (annoying) sounds that get in the way to be a better solution with no loss of engine sound quality. Downside being it is more work.
You are also going to go mad from hearing random sounds for hours as you listen through all the .awc files trying to find the one/s you want. Some are named clearly, most are not.

Engine sounds of the car you are driving are here:

...\mods\x64\audio\sfx\STREAMED_VEHICLES_GRANULAR.rpf

Engine sounds of NPC cars (what you hear as they drive past you etc) are here (just for info. I doubt you need to edit these):

...\mods\x64\audio\sfx\STREAMED_VEHICLES_GRANULAR_NPC.rpf

Most of the sounds you are going to want to reduce the volume of will be stored somewhere inside here:

...\mods\x64\audio\sfx\RESIDENT.rpf

Vehicle related stuff in 'vehicles.awc', explosion sounds in 'explosions.awc' etc Isn't too difficult to figure out but sooner or later you will have to dive into one of those '.awc' files searching by ear for a certain sound & the madness will begin as you start to hear them in your sleep. Best of luck. Let me know how you get on/any questions etc

[netusaku]

@a63nt-5m1th Absolutely fantastic information. Thank you for taking the time!

[oggpeg]

If OP or someone else decides to go through this hell, please do release the files too.