Looping Car Horns?

[Razhumikhin]

I'm working on a game (using FMOD) and one of the requests is to indefinitely loop car horns for the unpredictable duration of a button press. Sounds easy, right? Shockingly, it is not.

Anyone have any advice beyond the obvious "find a point where the waveform lines up?" because that ain't working. It's an incredible challenge and a surprise to me that this is giving me such difficulty.

So far, copying the file to another track and automating volume is working better than x-fading, but there's still the inevitability of the loop point returning the sound back towards a point that's not the precise start. That's where it all janks up with different hiccups: the loop point.

I can't implement the horns in their state like this; it's just not acceptable. Will heap bounties of praise upon anyone with the solution.

Thank you!

[BertKoor]

copying the file to another track and automating volume is working better than x-fading

menu File - Save as! Or export... You have made a version that probably now can be cross-faded, or perhaps even can be looped at a zero crossing. Progress!

there's still the inevitability of the loop point returning the sound back towards a point that's not the precise start. That's where it all janks up with different hiccups: the loop point.

The start of a loop does not have to be at 0.000 secs, especially with sounds that have an obvious start that sounds different. If your sound engine can only handle loops with start point at zero point zero, then you have to split it up into the first transient (horn is just fired and stabilising) and the loopable remainder.

[9b0]

Or just synthesize a longer sound based on a reference that can be easier to loop seamlessly using x-fades.

[Razhumikhin]

Or just synthesize a longer sound based on a reference that can be easier to loop seamlessly using x-fades.

A great idea, but for this game it won't work as we're using many many different real world horns that will all need to be looped

[Razhumikhin]

copying the file to another track and automating volume is working better than x-fading

menu File - Save as! Or export... You have made a version that probably now can be cross-faded, or perhaps even can be looped at a zero crossing. Progress!

If only! I mean this with all the gratitude due to someone helping me, because it's incredibly kind of everyone to lend their knowledge, but have you ever tried looping a car horn? Or even cutting it & x-fading it together again. There's something very odd about the flexible diaphragm that shapes the sound of it that makes any cuts to the audio hiccup. I wished SO hard that your suggestion would work, too!

there's still the inevitability of the loop point returning the sound back towards a point that's not the precise start. That's where it all janks up with different hiccups: the loop point.

The start of a loop does not have to be at 0.000 secs, especially with sounds that have an obvious start that sounds different. If your sound engine can only handle loops with start point at zero point zero, then you have to split it up into the first transient (horn is just fired and stabilising) and the loopable remainder.

Absolutely correct and already taken into account. As you correctly figured out, I've got my FMOD destination marker (or loop return point, if you're not familiar with FMOD) set for after the horn fires and is stabilized. It's a real head-scratcher, that's for sure.

[arkmabat]

Or just synthesize a longer sound based on a reference that can be easier to loop seamlessly using x-fades.

A great idea, but for this game it won't work as we're using many many different real world horns that will all need to be looped

Could you add a reversed copy to extend it or stretch it granularly? This is not my area of expertise... just thinking out loud.

[Razhumikhin]

Thank you all for all of your help and suggestions! I ended up having to use FMOD's Transition Markers to insert a copy of the horn sound in between the Transition Marker and a Destination Marker earlier in the audio. I then manually adjusted fade ins and fade outs to get as smooth a transition into and out of each copy of the horn audio. Fairly convoluted but decently smooth. It ain't perfect but it'll work well enough.