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Sonoran Radio: Voice Effect Customization

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Available Voice Effects

Sonoran Radio lets you create custom voice effect profiles for transmissions. These effects can be independently assigned to specific radio channels and emergency calls. Or, users can also customize their own voice effect preferences! By clicking the headphone icon and using the signal strength sliders, you can hear how the effect will sound when users are talking.

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Vocoder

The vocoder effect remains consistent and does not fluctuate based on in-game signal strength
The Vocoder voice effect encodes and decodes audio before broadcast to create a digital radio sound. In Customization > Voice Customization, expand Vocoder, enable the effect, and choose a Mode:
  • Server AMBE — Pro only: Server-sided AMBE vocoding for community voice effects. Requires a Sonoran Radio Pro subscription. Server-sided processing adds a small network delay. This mode is not available for local listener effects.
  • Codec2 — All plans: Client-side vocoding with bitrates of 3200, 2400, 1600, 1400, 1300, 1200, 700 and 450 bit/s. The suggested bitrate is 2400; higher bitrates produce less effect, while lower bitrates produce more effect. Codec2 is also available for local listener effects.
It is recommended to use the clipping voice effect in addition to the vocoder to have in-game signal strength impact the transmission quality.

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Clipping

The clipping voice effect mutes or “clips” audio intermittently based on in-game signal strength. As the signal weakens, more audio is cut, making transmissions increasingly difficult to understand.

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Digital

The digital voice effect applies bitrate compression to the audio, causing it to sound increasingly robotic and harder to understand as signal quality decreases.

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Analog

The analog voice effect adds static and scratchiness to the audio, making it sound progressively fuzzier and less clear as signal quality deteriorates.

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Equalizer (Pre & Post-Effects)

This EQ effect remains consistent and does not fluctuate based on in-game signal strength
The equalizer effect allows you to boost or reduce frequencies throughout the audio range.
&#xNAN;Tip: For a “tin can” effect, increase the mid frequencies while reducing the low and high ranges.Pre-Effect EQThe pre-effect EQ is a profile applied directly to the mic input before any effects (vocoder, digital, analogue, etc.) are applied. This can help improve clarity with the vocoder, grant a tin-can style effect, and more.Post-Effect EQThe post-effect EQ is a profile applied to the audio after all effects have been processed. This can help improve clarity and improve the finalized effects.

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Applying the Voice Effect

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On the User-Side

Voice effects can be customized by the individual listener, based on their preferences. Users can open their Settings menu and select the Voice FX tab to customize. Toggle Community FX to Local FX mode to bypass the community set channel effects.
Enabling the Codec2 vocoder locally forces your client to encode and decode all incoming transmissions, which can impact performance at higher user counts. Server AMBE is available only for community voice effects with Pro.For better performance, enable the vocoder at the channel level so users pre-process transmissions on their end.When a channel has vocoder FX enabled, it cannot be bypassed client-side—all transmissions are already vocoded before playback.

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To Radio Channels

In the channel editor, you can select the desired voice effect. This voice effect will apply to anyone talking in that channel. User-side voice FX can bypass channel effects, but enabling Vocoder FX forces all transmissions through the vocoder, ensuring it still applies to all custom FX. Sonoran Radio: Channel Voice Effect

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To Emergency Calls

To apply a custom voice effect for emergency phone calls, toggle the phone icon in the voice effect tab. Note: If no custom voice effect is selected for emergency calls, a default “tin can” EQ effect will be applied. Sonoran Radio: Emergency Call Voice Effect Selection

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Import and Export Effects

You can import and export voice effect profiles to share with other communities. See some of our public effect examples to import. To Export:
  • Click the Import/Export Button.
  • Click Download to save the current voice effect to a JSON file.
To Import:
  • Click the Import/Export Button.
  • Click the file icon to import a JSON file directly.
  • Or, paste the JSON contents into the Import box and press Import.

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Voice Profile Examples

We’ve pre-configured voice effects for popular use. Copy the JSON code below to import into your voice effects panel.

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Vocoder Example

These voice effects combines the vocoder with pre and post-effect EQ customizations for the best possible clarity.

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#1 Vocoder

Click to listen to this example.

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#2 - Vocoder with Additional Bass

Click to listen to this example.

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Emergency Call Example

This voice effect utilizes EQ customizations for the best possible phone call effect. Click to listen to this example.