Find your footstep EQ
In shooters, footsteps get buried under explosions and gunfire. A few tweaks to your sound settings can pull them out. Try it here with headphones on.
1. Shape the sound
Start the battle, then move the sliders and listen for the footsteps sneaking around underneath. Or try a preset.
Explosions are loud. Start with your volume low.
2. Can you catch them?
A 30-second round. Tap the big button every time you hear footsteps. Try once with Flat, then again with your own settings, and compare.
Setting this up for real
- Most headsets come with an app that has an equaliser. Look for a setting called EQ, or sometimes "sound profile".
- A common starting point for hearing footsteps: turn the bass down a bit, and boost the upper mids, roughly 2 to 4 kHz.
- Don't overdo it. Big boosts make everything sound harsh and tiring. Small changes go a long way.
- Keep a separate "music" profile, since a footstep EQ makes music sound thin.
- Some games have their own audio options, such as night mode or dynamic range settings. These can help too.