Piano volume (or: Am I really the only one with this problem?)

[polonius]

Okay, I've been looking around for a fix to this and can't seem to find one, so either I'm not looking hard enough or nobody else has had this issue.  Maybe the gods of PC games just hate me or something, but I canNOT hear the piano in my game!  When Sims are Performing... something I can hear them okay if I turn the volume up a bit, but when they Practice I can't hear them at all unless I turn my speakers all the way up.  And then if someone wanders by and cheers or if the phone rings, I jump three feet in the air and spill my soda all over my lap.  As a classical musician, I really want to listen to my Sims practice piano, though I'd like to find a less messy way to do it lol  .  Adjusting the 'music volume' in the game has no effect.  I may be non-awesome, but I at least thought to play with all my sound settings.
Does anyone know of a way to fix this (the piano, not my non-awesomeness )?

[KatEnigma]

Gee, and I generally have the opposite problem. LOL

Music doesn't control the piano volume, though. For some reason, it's under Sound Effects.

[croiduire]

I have a related problem...many of my "perform" together sound effects don't work at all, and the volume of all instruments, whether in practice or perform mode, are far softer than the other sound effects. Even while unable to hear the instruments, which I thoroughly enjoy, I disabled autonomous computer games because not only were the innately annoying effects insanely loud, I'd wind up with phantom game sounds running. It drove me nuts!

The error log shows page after page of sound error messages, but I can't figure out what they mean or how to fix them.

[ZiggyDoodle]

A silly question, perhaps, but are you near the piano when they are practicing?

I did have one instance where one of my kids was furiously attacking the keyboard with nary a sound, but that resolved itself.  Perhaps  because I delete the groups.cache file every so often.

[ElviraGoth]

Sometimes I can't hear the piano, either, but usually it's so soft (even zoomed right in on it) that I can hardly hear it.  If I turn the volume up, then another sim will invariably grab the guitar to practice and - BAM! - instant headache while they shred those strings.

Why don't guitars break?  They're more likely to break a string than a piano will go out of tune!

This had bugged me, too, since day one playing this game.  Just recently I was thinking that the other instruments were louder because they have amps, and drums are loud anyway, but the piano doesn't have any amplification.  However, pianos are comparitively louder vs. the other instruments in real life than they are in the game.

I love to listen to then practice, too.  Just a few days ago, I was really listening to one girl child play and was trying to remember the name of the tune she was playing when she gained a skill point and switched to another song!

[miros]

The error log shows page after page of sound error messages, but I can't figure out what they mean or how to fix them.

I have those too!  Anyone got a dummies guide to sound error messages?

[jrd]

Ignore them. EAMaxis apparently forgot to hide them.

[polonius]

Sometimes I can't hear the piano, either, but usually it's so soft (even zoomed right in on it) that I can hardly hear it.  If I turn the volume up, then another sim will invariably grab the guitar to practice and - BAM! - instant headache while they shred those strings.

Exactly what happens to me!  It's so irritating... I'll even take several minutes to make sure the camera is centered in the room the piano is in and focused on the piano and zoomed in so close I can't even see the Sim playing it any more!  Please tell me there's a way for some awesome one to hack this.

[wes_h]

... the piano doesn't have any amplification.  However, pianos are comparitively louder vs. the other instruments in real life than they are in the game.

Well, a piano has more than one string for each note, a larger sounding board and when you press a key, it bangs the appropriate strings with a wooden hammer. Bang a guitar with a hammer and it will be loud, too... but it won't make a second note (go directly to jail for smashing a perfectly good guitar).

[J. M. Pescado]

Okay, I've been looking around for a fix to this and can't seem to find one, so either I'm not looking hard enough or nobody else has had this issue.  Maybe the gods of PC games just hate me or something, but I canNOT hear the piano in my game!  When Sims are Performing... something I can hear them okay if I turn the volume up a bit, but when they Practice I can't hear them at all unless I turn my speakers all the way up.  And then if someone wanders by and cheers or if the phone rings, I jump three feet in the air and spill my soda all over my lap.  As a classical musician, I really want to listen to my Sims practice piano, though I'd like to find a less messy way to do it lol  .  Adjusting the 'music volume' in the game has no effect.  I may be non-awesome, but I at least thought to play with all my sound settings.
Does anyone know of a way to fix this (the piano, not my non-awesomeness )?

I've grumbled about this and attempted to pursue various solutions, but there seems to be no way to crank the volume up on th piano specifically. It appears the source WAVs are simply recorded too quietly and there is no way to modify these effectively.

[jsalemi]

That's too bad. I sometimes like to send sims with high creativity to play the piano while I'm busy doing stuff with other sims in the household just because I like many of the songs they've chosen and how they're played.  I can usually hear them, but I do sometimes have the problem where it's too low or silent.  The only thing I can think of that improved it a bit for me was when I replaced the internal sound system with a soundblaster board that I got on sale for around $50. Moving the sound processing away from the CPU made it better in most cases, and also cut down on some lags I was experiencing.

[polonius]

I've grumbled about this and attempted to pursue various solutions, but there seems to be no way to crank the volume up on th piano specifically. It appears the source WAVs are simply recorded too quietly and there is no way to modify these effectively.

Damn! Part of me was afraid the problem was the recorded tracks they used.  Well, I thought I'd ask... seemed like if anyone knew how to do it, it would be the crew here.

It's strange how not everyone has the problem, and not all the time. 

[J. M. Pescado]

Everyone has the problem to some degree, but the quietness of the piano is something that people won't notice outright if they've got the camera really close to the piano, or don't pay much attention to it. Maxis apparently took "piano" a little too literally.

[seelindarun]

Well, no.  I have never experienced this problem.
I have other problems like not being able to woohoo in cars on comm lots since pets, stuck babies when changing diapers, but I have no trouble hearing the piano.    I also like listening to the sprog improve their playing, which is probably a contributing factor in why my sim kids don't max their skills before teenage-hood. 

Anyway, I have radio music turned way down compared to sound effects, and ambient noise about the same as the sound effects.  For me, the piano is about as loud as the falling-in-love cascade.  It does make a difference whether the camera is in the same room as the child playing, and whether I have the child selected.

The piano is also one of the louder instruments when my sims are performing.  It's much louder than the bass, and somewhat louder than the lead guitar, providing about as much oomph as the drums.  It's so loud that if a townie gets on it, I have to shoo them away.

[KatEnigma]

I've never had the problem, as stated, and usually think the piano is too damn loud.  But maybe it does have something to do with having a stand-alone sound card.

Or maybe I just never noticed because I'm usually listening to my own music when I play (the reason I think it's too loud) and have the game muted a lot and would be grateful for it being too soft, when it wasn't muted. 

[J. M. Pescado]

The piano is also one of the louder instruments when my sims are performing.  It's much louder than the bass, and somewhat louder than the lead guitar, providing about as much oomph as the drums.  It's so loud that if a townie gets on it, I have to shoo them away.

The Piano is MUCH louder when being performed on than when being practiced.

[kewian]

I usually can here the piano no problem but every once in awhile the sounds cut off completely and they eventually return but what the hell is up with that. YOu see the radio playing little music notes coming out..no sound. cant hear the background noises either.

[J. M. Pescado]

That's normal, if you do things like pause the game in midsoundtrack, the track will be cut off. There will then be silence until another track plays, either because the first track ended, or something caused a track switch, like gaining a point.

[Katze]

I play with my sound turned down way low because if they have the tv the stereo and there instruments going it just drives me crazy.

[ElviraGoth]

The piano is also one of the louder instruments when my sims are performing.  It's much louder than the bass, and somewhat louder than the lead guitar, providing about as much oomph as the drums.  It's so loud that if a townie gets on it, I have to shoo them away.

The Piano is MUCH louder when being performed on than when being practiced.

Exactly.  I have no trouble hearing it when they're performing, which is only at Uni because I use the nobuskers hack, but when they're practicing the piano volume can vary from lot to lot.

And it doesn't matter if there's anything else producing sounds at the same time, like sims talking.  I guess it's something we should complain to Maxis EA about... like they'll do anything to change it. 

[OpiumGirl]

Arghhh,
I have a similar problem with the bass...I can hear every other instrument while performing except for the bass. It ALWAYS cuts out after the first couple of bars without fail.  I thought it might have been the Atavera custom instrument "perform" hack, but after removing it, I still had the same issues.  Also, my instruments are constantly getting stuck and people go up and tip empty instruments and the options I have when I press on any of the instruments are "practice" and "join"..
I think they've gone a little FUBAR!

[miros]

Opium Girl, there's something fundamentally creepy about your new avatar...

[OpiumGirl]

LOL!!!
Please, elaborate! I'd like to hear why!
I always enjoy freaking people out a bit.