Awesome game with FX acoustics that deliver the effect of distance really nicely. I want to work on some ambient pieces with various elements positioned far in the distance in a believable way. I know they made actual field recordings of weapons at various distances for the game, is there anyway to get something near that effect in a VST.

I have most of the popular reverb VST's, but distance in them normally means a large space (cathedral settings etc) more than realistic outdoor distance which needs specific reflections and muffling. I'm not finding presets or anything oriented around this effect. Are there any VST's designed to do this type of outdoor distance work?

Go to 4.30 onwards to hear some good examples of FX in the distance and then closer.

 

"distance" is more or less a lowpassfilter and a delay - relative to other sound sources. so to model the nature is really easy here and there is no need to record things outside.

 

Its sounds so simple then why isnt there any software to do it accurately! I did try that initially, it sounded like two effects being combined, its how games used to do it and its ok but doesn't sound 'real'.

I want the realism. There is a complex reverberation effect off landscape that isn't the same as a traditional delay. Hense the field recordings i suspect.

These guys are heavyweight sound designers, if it was easy they would have solved it in the box and moved on.

I'm now thinking maybe someone has made convolution recordings for this purpose?

 

Last edited: Feb 13, 2026

In mixing i cut lows and high, then compress -10db gain reduction with fast attack and fast release, add some saturation and use preday on reverb, no decay

In mixing... so try and let me know if it works

 

You´ve said it, if you look up any behind the scenes like Lotr or Matrix, guys are capturing sounds from old war tunnels, underground chambers/water tanks/reservoirs, layering it with bunch of stuff and sometimes processing everything together layered thru the H9000/3000 HW etc.., doing large chunks of samples and later on finding the theme and working the same process from the different angles until they have a pallet of sounds.

https://pixeldrain.com/u/pwPFtnzq
throwing coins around the cheap mic

 

Last edited: Feb 13, 2026

Air by Sound Particles --> https://soundparticles.com/products/air
Boom Outdoor Impulse Responses --> www.plgns.com/boom-library-boom-outdoor-impulse-responses?utm_source=chatgpt.com

 

https://www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=610388

 

You might find these useful:
https://www.plugin-alliance.com/products/bx_aura
https://www.plugin-alliance.com/products/splat

 

i made a "distance" filter VST a decade ago but it is not something you would use everyday.

it is a butterworth lowpass, its output is mixed against the input, and if you plan to modulate it, you would add a doppler effect, which means you want to upsample the delay buffer by 4.

of course the amplitude decreasing and the frequency filtering must somehow relate to each other.

and perfect? hard to master, because wind, humidity and even temperature change the effect in nature more than you would think.

the main application of a "distance filter" is computer games or 3D audio experiments, where it is usually done by having the DSP right on the game app. just as the head tracking/direction filter in your video is, too, and probably even the reverb. that is all processed live in the games since around 2005.

the combination of distance, direction and movement makes it a bit more real. anf dont get fooled, you will not get a record to sound like the audio in the game, because a music record will lack the images, which massively support what you hear.

modelling such a scene is not much different from modelling a room reverb, except that it adds modulation possibility for the phantom source position and the listener position.

technically, a simple model offers individual IRs or FIRs for every reflection (gun -> mountain -> listener) and for every direction.

they key idea is polar coordinates.



just as with X/Y, angle and distance can also describe every position in space. one frequency filter for the circle and one for the distance, and you are there.

the direction filter (binaural filter) needs to be stereo (one input, two outputs.)

in case there are reflections, each reflection has to pass its own set of filters.

not neccessarily field recordings, but surely deconvolution.

 

Last edited: Feb 13, 2026

(this is going to be my proper account here, the other was a throwaway made over xmas)

Cheers for the detailed reply! I understand the spatial mechanics to a degree (i work in games with game engines) and ill try and consider a bit of it, I was really hoping someone had refined this into a VST so i wouldn't have to get too technical with this

I will be using a wide stereo soundstage for the tracks that can accommodate a bit of interesting positioning, but its about the emotional illusion not a real space.

I'm having more luck with some of the IR's kindly suggested, they are starting to evoking great distance with the type of echo that sounds like mountains. Its also clear the type of sound makes a huge difference, sharp cracking sounds and morphing bass notes work way better in such a space.

 

(mods is there a reason im getting an error message when i try to edit the above message?)


..edit is working fine

 

Last edited by a moderator: Feb 13, 2026

the main issue with the existing distance filters is that they offer meters where you would need miles for your application.

and one cant just copy and paste FIR filters for "carpet" "wood" and "concrete" from another persons reverb algo when your wall has the refelction properties of a"mountain with trees".

limiting yourself to 60 degrees for music seems appropiate, but one could still use position filters from some HRTF plug-in for positioning and moving instead of a regular panner.

 

This dude shared an amazing insight on what could possibly be what you're looking for, clearly a future thing, but closer by the day.

Now, to the realistic answer. i'd strongly recommend you using "8D" tools, such as Sennheiser's (discontinued) AMBEO Orbit, DearVR's MICRO (or their plugins in general, i think they're freeware now) or Wave Art's Panorama 7. You can also use tools like Exoverb to create "3d" ambiances that you can use to simulate (not to replicate) the way audio works in a videogame.

Audio engines work way differently than a normal DAW, even if you're mixing with Atmos or relatives. One strong contender is Battlefield's audio system, who does very complex real time calculations to achieve that distance and depth, using a combination of adaptive compression, 360 degree audio positioning and filtering.

 

that is how it is done since quite some years. unreal engine among others offer parts of it. it is quite some work to do it for every wall though.

 

Proximity type of plugin the like of DearVR could help. But it is more than just a plugin i would say when you want to mix certain element "into situation". The main factor is the amb you use that playing the biggest role to giving the believable space, or rather say "as how viewer preceived". If you got the right amb and its tone you can easily put in or blend an element as how you want just merely with an EQ. is this a moving subject? or just a static placement? Usually for outdoor situation, rarely need reverb (if we going realistic or being too literal with the design) but to use for creativity is nothing wrong, you can try experiment.

But always remember you already have visual to help with the distant perspective, and also when come to mix it, what does this element have to against with? is there BGM? orther spot sounds? Wooshes? Drone? the more further back the subject the more subtle it will be and if there is too many elements at role per scene, "realistic" it will too subtle and hard to hear but lets not be too literal with our design. Go crazy and be creative. The key that playing the biggest role is the space you create, AMB and Room Tone. And the other only need to live in it.

 

I forgot this freeware from KVR challenge :
https://www.kvraudio.com/product/proximity-by-vladg-sound

 

Last edited: Feb 17, 2026

You do a slight roll off on high and low frequencies, but don't make the filters too steep.
You want to go for a sound that has the most power in f-areas where we humans are most sensible, basically mids, think the area 1khz. But as I said nothing fancy on the filtering, nature does not do 24db/octave or more.
Now the most important part is: how loud. And you can only transmit loudness to the user in comparison to something else. So a veeeery distant cannon shot at night needs some crickets and then the shot is not much louder than the ambience. And for the cherry on top we need the reverb. Here pre delay is your friend. Because the sound source is so far away, it's sound has to travel far to find something to be reflected on.
Reverb tail depends. A forest would have a longer tail a city environment would be shorter, more like a delay.
//Edit// I'm not a huge fan of those plugin-solutions where people code a plugin like proximity instead of teaching people how it is done.
When someone gets the principle he can do it in any daw with the stock plugins and he can tweak it to his needs.

 

Last edited: Feb 22, 2026

exactly. and also the frequency filtering and the amplitude decrease must have the right relation to each other.

well, the OP asked for plug-ins, which i also could not answer since such thing does not exist.
the idea to use something complex which can do it out of the box is not unreasoned, though. for example implementing the direction filters would require some 6 to 24 parallel channels per signal (times 2 for each ear), and while you would need to have that only once in your DAW for the sum of all directive sources, it would still be a mess to set up.

 

Audio Ease - Speakerphone - real speakers in their natural environment