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 at 3:18 PM

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 at 3:46 PM

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 at 4:44 PM

(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?)

 

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.