Mix Effects
Categories:
Base — ships in GS_Audio.
Mix effects are the DSP processing layer of the free tier. You build a chain of effects on a component, give it a name, and point sources at that name.
Twenty-two effects are available. They are the same processors Audio Pro exposes as graph nodes — one processor, two authoring surfaces. Choosing the free tier does not reduce what you can do to a signal; it changes how you author it.
For usage guides and setup examples, see The Basics: GS_Audio.
Contents
MixEffectComponent
Drop it on an entity and it holds an ordered chain of effects — a polymorphic list where each entry’s concrete type is chosen from a dropdown.
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| TypeId | {9F2A6C13-4D85-4E70-B1C6-3A8E5D7F2049} |
| Authored field | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Name | The routing name registered for the head of the chain. Sources and other chains target this. |
| Effects | The ordered chain. Index 0 receives the input; each effect feeds the next. |
| Output Target | Where the tail of the chain feeds — another chain’s Name, or a volume channel. |
The chain runs top to bottom. Index 0 is what gets registered under Name; the last entry feeds Output Target.
Setup is idempotent, and teardown unwires and destroys the nodes while keeping the authored list — so the component re-activates cleanly.
How Chains Route
Sources route in by name. An audio event’s Mixing Channel field can name either a volume channel or a mix effect chain. They share one namespace, so a source does not need to know which kind of thing it is pointing at.
Any number of chains can live on one entity, each with its own Name. Point one chain’s Output Target at another chain’s Name to compose them.
Wiring is order-independent. If a chain’s target does not exist yet, the connection is deferred and resolves when the target registers. You do not have to think about component activation order, and a missing target is not an error — it is a connection waiting to be made.
Routing catches up with sounds that already exist. When a chain registers after events have preloaded, already-pooled voices are re-pointed at the new target. Adding a MixEffectComponent at runtime works, and the sounds that were already playing through that channel follow it.
Local and global routing
Both patterns are supported and they coexist:
- Global named channels — everything funnels through shared, named mix targets. Best for project-wide treatments.
- Local chains on the emitting entity — the component lives on the emitter, scoping its effects to that one emission. Best for per-character or per-object colour.
The 22 Effects
Biquad filters
| Effect | Description |
|---|---|
| Low Pass | Attenuates frequencies above the cutoff. Muffling, distance, underwater. |
| High Pass | Attenuates frequencies below the cutoff. Thinning, radio and telephone effects. |
| Band Pass | Passes only a band, attenuating everything outside it. |
| Notch | Attenuates a narrow band while passing everything else. The inverse of band pass. |
| Peaking EQ | Boosts or cuts around a centre frequency with configurable bandwidth. |
| Low Shelf | Boosts or cuts everything below a threshold by a fixed amount. Bass adjustment. |
| High Shelf | Boosts or cuts everything above a threshold by a fixed amount. Treble adjustment. |
Time and space
| Effect | Description |
|---|---|
| Echo | Feedback delay — repeats that decay over time. |
| Reverb | Simulated room ambience. |
| Binaural | Fixed-direction HRTF placement. See the caution below. |
Character and modulation
| Effect | Description |
|---|---|
| Wave Shaper | Non-linear distortion and saturation. |
| Lofi | Bit depth and sample rate reduction. |
| Robotize | Vocoder-style robotic character. |
| Flanger | Sweeping comb filtering from a modulated short delay. |
| Chorus | Thickening from multiple detuned delayed copies. |
| Ring Mod | Ring modulation — metallic, inharmonic tones. |
| Tremolo | Rhythmic amplitude modulation. |
| Pitch | Pitch shifting that preserves tempo. |
Utility
| Effect | Description |
|---|---|
| Panner | Stereo placement. |
| Compressor | Dynamic range compression. |
| DC Removal | Removes DC offset from a signal. |
| Amplify | Straight gain. |
Runtime Control
Chains are drivable at runtime through AudioManagerRequestBus, so ScriptCanvas can change a treatment while it is playing.
| Method | Effect |
|---|---|
RerouteMixEffect | Re-point a chain’s tail at a new output target. |
SetMixEffectParam | Set a parameter on the chain head. |
SetMixEffectParamOn | Set a parameter on a named effect inside the chain. |
ResolveMixTarget | Resolve a name to its node. |
RegisterMixEffect / UnregisterMixEffect | Manual node registration. Advanced. |
WireMixSource / UnwireMixSource | Manual wiring. Advanced. |
RegisterMixEffectControl / UnregisterMixEffectControl | Control-surface registry. |
Environmental treatment is per-emission and rapidly modifiable by design. A character moving through a space changes its effects continuously, and that change isolates to the environmental portion of the signal regardless of which volume channel the sound belongs to.
Two Cautions
Binaural is not how you spatialize a 3D sound
The Binaural mix effect applies a fixed direction. It is a niche tool for placing a 2D sound at a fixed point in the stereo field. Real spatialization is automatic and per-source — see Spatialization. Using this effect on a 3D sound produces something stuck in your head with no distance falloff.Reverb and geometric reflections are alternatives
The Reverb effect fakes a room. Audio Pro’s geometry-driven reflections derive a real one. They are the same layer of the signal chain, so using both stacks two rooms on one sound.See Also
For related systems:
- Mixing & Effects — volume channels and environmental influence
- Audio Events — how a source selects a chain
- Spatialization — the automatic per-source path
- Audio Signal Model — where processing sits in the chain
For conceptual overviews and usage guides:
Get GS_Audio
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