Poor sound quality in Switch games?

Chacranajxy · Oct 31, 2018

So, I randomly decided to start a new playthrough of Shantae and the Pirate's Curse, since it's been a few years since I've played the game. It's still great! But I'm playing it on the Switch this time, and one thing I noticed within a few minutes is that the music sounded kinda distorted, and was almost fatiguing to listen to after a little while. I didn't remember that being the case before. I loaded up the game on the PS4 and PC to see if maybe it's just me, and surprisingly, the music sounded a lot cleaner.

Went back to the Switch, and realized what the problem was: the Switch version was waaaaaay louder. The audio in that game is brickwalling like crazy. I remembered thinking the sound was kind of crap in some other games I'd played on the Switch, like Axiom Verge, and sure enough, that game was loud as hell, too. So... is anyone encountering this issue with other games? Not sure if devs are boosting the shit out of audio levels in the Switch versions of their games (maybe to accommodate for the Switch speakers or crappy headphones people are using in portable mode), or if there's a bad codec to blame, but it's not exactly ideal. I'm curious if poor sound quality is a broader problem than just Dark Souls and LA Noire.

SinCityAssassin · Oct 31, 2018

I haven't noticed at all really. Then again my body is breaking down at an alarming rate and entropy will seize my soul one day.

Het_Nkik · Oct 31, 2018

I think when music is compressed it gets louder (on top of being poorer quality). I just know a lot of Switch games are WAY TOO LOUD. Like Bomberman.

ALSO, I remember Metroid Prime Trilogy had uncompressed music compared to the original two games and the sound was way too quiet.

Somebody who knows more about this should chime in.

leng jai · Oct 31, 2018

Sound quality on modern handhelds has always been poor. Vita and 3DS games were plagued with terrible compression and extremely low volume.

AusGeno · Oct 31, 2018

It all comes down to the game, it ranges from shockingly bad (Dark Souls) to amazingly good (Xenoblade Chronicles 2 and Octopath Traveller) just depends on how much space the Devs devote to storing the audio.

Waffle · Oct 31, 2018

I don't notice these things much, but I remember that L.A. Noire didn't sound particularly great and it didn't even have surround sound.

AfropunkNyc · Oct 31, 2018

leng jai said:
Sound quality on modern handhelds has always been poor. Vita and 3DS games were plagued with terrible compression and extremely low volume.

Never felt like the switch suffered from low volume like the other guys. Every time i play the switch i always find myself having to low the volume down because sometimes games sound too loud.

Chacranajxy · Oct 31, 2018

AusGeno said:
It all comes down to the game, it ranges from shockingly bad (Dark Souls) to amazingly good (Xenoblade Chronicles 2 and Octopath Traveller) just depends on how much space the Devs devote to storing the audio.

In the case of smaller games like Shantae, though, space saving doesn't really factor in. These are games that weigh in at < 500mb.

MrConbon210 · Oct 31, 2018

SinCItyAssassin said:
I haven't noticed at all really. Then again my body is breaking down at an alarming rate and entropy will seize my soul one day.

Are you me?

Braaier · Oct 31, 2018

I haven't noticed

Deleted member 3017 · Oct 31, 2018

Yeah, it's definitely an issue with some games. And honestly, who the hell knows why. It's super frustrating, as the Switch is certainly capable of outputting great audio.

TitanicFall · Oct 31, 2018

Extra compression maybe to keep game sizes small?

Waffle · Oct 31, 2018

The worst thing about Switch audio is that it only supports LPCM 5.1 for surround. Allow Dolby or DTS please Nintendo.

Wiped · Oct 31, 2018

Switch has lousy audio. Dunno what the sound card is in it but it's not high end. And the small cartridges doubtless lead to a lot of compression too, versus the punchy uncompressed audio of Bluray.

Decent speakers though in portable mode. Louder than any portable I've had before.

super moustique · Oct 31, 2018

I'm playing Super Mario Odyssey (my first switch game :D ) and I don't feel there's any sound problem with that one !

DeuceGamer · Oct 31, 2018

Think it's hit or miss. Seems like some games are great while others aren't?

AllenShrz · Oct 31, 2018

Yes, yes, is terrible and it shouldn't be this way.

Some games have no issues but the ones to do, stand out too much.

DS suffers a lot from this it breaks partially the immersion.

Derrick01 · Oct 31, 2018

Xenoblade 2 comes to mind where during cutscenes the stupid music is like 5x louder than any voices.

Nuclear Muffin · Nov 1, 2018

Het_Nkik said:
I think when music is compressed it gets louder (on top of being poorer quality). I just know a lot of Switch games are WAY TOO LOUD. Like Bomberman.

ALSO, I remember Metroid Prime Trilogy had uncompressed music compared to the original two games and the sound was way too quiet.

Somebody who knows more about this should chime in.

That's not true at all, the MP games have always had very quiet audio. Also volume has nothing to do with compression.

I think that there's some truth to the idea that some developers are pumping up the volume in their games in order for their games to be louder in handheld mode, it would make sense.

There's nothing wrong with the Switch's inherent audio quality, it's effectively the same as on Wii U. However, some developers are applying poor compression algorithms on their audio to save on file size (and then there are some who are just incompetant, like Virtuous, pumping out horrible sound conversions like with Dark Souls Remastered and LA Noire, where it sounds so much worse on Switch, even when the file size is the same as on last gen platforms)

Waffle said:
The worst thing about Switch audio is that it only supports LPCM 5.1 for surround. Allow Dolby or DTS please Nintendo.

Without an optical out, there's no point in supporting them. LPCM is the best quality audio you can get anyway.

Simba1 · Nov 1, 2018

Didnt notice at all outside of Dark Souls.

Watershed · Nov 1, 2018

It's game by game basis. BOTW and Mario Odyssey are both fantastic and have won industry awards for sound design. Xenoblade Chronicles 2 has really good, bright sound but also some very poorly mixed audio during cutscenes. Some games have poor compression to reduce file size.

Rikimaru · Nov 1, 2018

Nuclear Muffin said:
There's nothing wrong with the Switch's inherent audio quality, it's effectively the same as on Wii U. However, some developers are applying poor compression algorithms on their audio to save on file size (and then there are some who are just incompetant, like Virtuous, pumping out horrible sound conversions like with Dark Souls Remastered and LA Noire, where it sounds so much worse on Switch, even when the file size is the same as on last gen platforms)

It could be an API problem.
I would not be surprised that Nintendo is still using their old low compression ratio ADPCM compression since GC era as only easy way for devs. GC, Wii, DS, 3DS, Wii U - all of them used it.

Nuclear Muffin · Nov 1, 2018

Rikimaru said:
It could be an API problem.
I would not be surprised that Nintendo is still using their old low compression ratio ADPCM compression since GC era as only easy way for devs. GC, Wii, DS, 3DS, Wii U - all of them used it.

If you look in the copyright list for certain games (accessible via the main Switch Menu), you'll notice that quite a few games use OggVorbis, so ADPCM is not the only tool available.

Nintendo probably still use it themselves though, they like to build on their older tech, rather than switch to something else. 3DS and Wii U's video codecs were all based on the Mobiclip tech from the DS (which Nintendo bought when they aqquired the team and made them into NERD). Mind you though, it's probably a bit of a theseus' ship at this point.

wbloop · Nov 1, 2018

Fortnite also has shit audio with crackling and rather muffled sound effects compared to the PS4 version. BOTW, on the other hand, has some of the best surround sound I ever heard in a video game.

Rikimaru · Nov 1, 2018

Nuclear Muffin said:
If you look in the copyright list for certain games (accessible via the main Switch Menu), you'll notice that quite a few games use OggVorbis, so ADPCM is not the only tool available.

Nintendo probably still use it themselves though, they like to build on their older tech, rather than switch to something else. 3DS and Wii U's video codecs were all based on the Mobiclip tech from the DS (which Nintendo bought when they aqquired the team and made them into NERD).

I've found out that Switch supports Opus in hardware.

Deleted member 33597 · Nov 1, 2018

Waffle said:
The worst thing about Switch audio is that it only supports LPCM 5.1 for surround. Allow Dolby or DTS please Nintendo.

Both would require paying for an extra license and additional encoding hardware in addition to neither providing anything over LPCM anyway, given there's no optical output. The lossless versions of both are of course identical to LPCM and thus require HDMI anyway.

Waffle · Nov 1, 2018

Deference said:
Both would require paying for an extra license and additional encoding hardware in addition to neither providing anything over LPCM anyway, given there's no optical output. The lossless versions of both are of course identical to LPCM and thus require HDMI anyway.

I've been buying surround sound soundbars + rear speaker combos like Vizio and now I have the Samsung's Dolby Atmos sound bars. Those unfortunately don't support LPCM surround. The oldest Vizio surround system I owned did for whatever reason and was great for getting surround out of my PC as well, but their newer Vizio systems (not sure about the past 2 years), didn't have support for it. The Samsung HW-K950 I own also didn't support it and I believe the N950 doesn't either. I would really love to get surround out of my Switch and PC :(

Jonneh · Nov 1, 2018

Derrick01 said:
Xenoblade 2 comes to mind where during cutscenes the stupid music is like 5x louder than any voices.

That's just poor mixing, the quality of the music is brilliant

60fps · Jan 27, 2021

I was about to create a similar thread, so why not hijack this one.

I recently experienced the same issue with several games on Switch. Based on the demo versions, Monster Hunter Rise for example really lacks any punch that Monster Hunter World on Playstation brilliantly delivers, and the same goes for Hyrule Warriors Age of Calamity. These games, and many more, sound muffled, washed out, compressed, imprecise. I just got a new pair of speakers and headphones and this really stands out. Switch games in general lack PUNCH.

That's exactly my thought as well:

Wiped said:
Switch has lousy audio. Dunno what the sound card is in it but it's not high end. And the small cartridges doubtless lead to a lot of compression too, versus the punchy uncompressed audio of Bluray.

Yeah, the Switch not only lacks fidelity in the visual but also in the acoustic department.

laxu · Jan 27, 2021

Dark Souls is the most notorious example I know of and afaik never fixed despite there being no technical issue as hacked Switch could run original audio files without issues.

Metro Cow · Jan 27, 2021

The English voice lines in Sakuna Of Rice And Ruin seem pretty compressed and low quality on Switch. Dunno if this is the same on PS4 or not.

DSoup · Jan 27, 2021

I've not noticed poor sound quality in general, and I do play a lot with headphones, but some games really do heavily compress audio to keep install sizes down.

60fps · Jan 27, 2021

Metro Cow said:
The English voice lines in Sakuna Of Rice And Ruin seem pretty compressed and low quality on Switch. Dunno if this is the same on PS4 or not.

Hmm, would be interesting if someone could comment on the PS4 version.

Aether · Jan 27, 2021

60fps said:
I was about to create a similar thread, so why not hijack this one.

I recently experienced the same issue with several games on Switch. Based on the demo versions, Monster Hunter Rise for example really lacks any punch that Monster Hunter World on Playstation brilliantly delivers, and the same goes for Hyrule Warriors Age of Calamity. These games, and many more, sound muffled, washed out, compressed, imprecise. I just got a new pair of speakers and headphones and this really stands out. Switch games in general lack PUNCH.

That's exactly my thought as well:

Yeah, the Switch not only lacks fidelity in the visual but also in the acoustic department.

on the doc the audio is transmitted digitaly, so the sound of the switch should NOT influence the output of your sound system.
Headphones on the other hand...

if games sound bad while docked with HDMI, then its not the switch thats the problem, but the mixing/mastering in the game itself.

Links Awakening has glorious sound on my active monitors, and punchy to! BotW is good, smash had good sound.
The speakers on the switch are rather poor on the other hand, kinda tinny.

Poor sound quality in Switch games?

Chacranajxy

SinCityAssassin

Het_Nkik

One Winged Slayer

leng jai

AusGeno

Waffle

AfropunkNyc

Chacranajxy

MrConbon210

Braaier

Deleted member 3017

User requested account closure

TitanicFall

Waffle

Wiped

super moustique

DeuceGamer

AllenShrz

Derrick01

Nuclear Muffin

Simba1

Watershed

Rikimaru

Nuclear Muffin

wbloop

Rikimaru

Deleted member 33597

User requested account closure

Waffle

Jonneh

Good Vibes Gaming

60fps

laxu

Metro Cow

DSoup

60fps

Aether