They both have lots of happy reviewers, any thoughts on which one I should go with? All things being equal, Master Audio is currently priced 50% lower. If they are roughly equivalent in functionality and quality, then I’ll save money. But I want to be sure I’m getting the most useful and best quality tool and am willing to pay the higher price if needed.
Hey loadexfa,
Master Audio and SMP are both good products. I think you can accomplish what you want with both. Obviously, right now Master Audio is on a sale–but normally the price is about the same. In the end, it really comes down to the process of implementing your audio. It all depends on your preference. With SMP, there is a big focus on usability. It is made to make the process as easy as possible for the user. The design makes it easy to learn/use and you hardly have to spend any time setting up. And even though it is easy, that doesn’t mean it sacrifices functionality. It still gives you that flexibility to take the product further.
I’m always open to answer questions if you have any problems.
-ALB
I messed with both and though Master Audio is a very good product I just like SoundManager Pro way more. It’s so super-userfriendly and easy to set up. Plus you got NGUI and PlayMaker-Support out of the box. And the Author, AntiLunchBox, is not far away to answer all your questions.
Thanks for the responses!
Coincidentally my users will say exactly the same about Master Audio. Antilunchbox is good on a lot of the same points obviously 
A few things Master Audio has that are different than SoundManagerPro (and ALB can correct me if I’m wrong) are:
- Music Ducking - so music can get quieter during certain sound effects. Dead simple to set up.
- We actually have 31 Playmaker Custom Actions. You can fade buses (fx groups) over time, mute / solo buses and tons more. Not just a “PlaySound” action.
- Dynamic Sound Group Creator prefab - this allows you to create “mini-Master Audio’s” so that any number of temporary Sound Groups are created (and destroyed) for just the current scene.
- Very flexible event script to trigger sounds during collisions / triggers / disable etc. You can even add layer and tag filters for collision / trigger events to pinpoint things.
- Not sure about this one in ALB - Master Audio can automatically load and unload Resource files to save on memory usage.
I’m also going to claim the same thing ALB said about SMP. There is a huge focus on intuitiveness and streamlining the workflow in our product. To be clear, this was not always the case. A few months ago I greatly improved the UI and had to take down the other video and make a new one because a lot had changed.
I agree with another poster that I wouldn’t take price into consideration. Get whichever product sounds right for you in the long run and it’s worth your money. We are both top notch in the support department. We have both been known to implement feature requests in a matter of days.
Oh and of course you could try both since they both have free versions.
very nice thread
anyways as said there are free (little dated) versions of both
so its worthwhile downloading them and trying them out
also go to their website and read over their tutorials / documentation / api
watch all the videos
then you have better informed decision
good luck
Here and the corrections on the differences between Master Audio and SMP mentioned earlier:
Indeed SMP does not have Ducking included. Instead, SMP easily provides you the tools to add it.
SMP actually is fully integrated with PlayMaker actions, you can do everything with PlayMaker that you can do without it. In fact, SMP was the first audio plugin to fully integrate into PlayMaker. A user, Mayhem, asked for it and it was put in: PlayMaker thread link
SMP doesn’t necessarily have Groups created like this. Instead, SMP uses a feature called SFXGroups, which provide you with a couple group features (get a random clip from a group, cap clips in a group to a certain amount of simultaneous plays, etc). Plus, SFXGroups are expandable. Also, SFXGroups aren’t prefabs–they are created on the SoundManager just like everything else.
This feature is actually a work-in-progress for SMP. Currently you can simply do this with a one line function in code–but making a component to attach to gameobjects is a different issue we’re working on. We’re just taking the time to make it easy to use and intuitive.
Yup SMP has this, it even provides it’s own Load function. Which includes randomly loading from SFXGroups, mentioned earlier. There is also flexibility on how you want to load you audio files in case this method doesn’t suit your purpose. For whatever reason, I’ve had to load files in multiple different ways to increase a game’s performance–so SMP leaves that open to modify as well.
As for trying the free version, as ‘im’ said, SMP Free is outdated—but it still provides the main audio functionality in a game. It is missing some newer features and the UI is old, but it’s packed with a good deal of features for a free product. The reason it’s outdated is because people tend to hack dll’s–so instead of taking it down, it’s outdated.
-ALB
I also honestly haven’t looked at Master Audio beyond the first youtube video so I don’t know the other differences between the two. As a contract mobile developer, I’ve had to create games of many different genres (mmorpg, action, tower defense, puzzle, infinite runner, racing, casual, fighting, platformer, shooter, sports, music, and trivia games)—so I’ve just taken what I needed from audio while making games and put it in one plugin. That’s all I can say!
-ALB
Aaaaand the feature gap becomes less by the minute! Thank you for the clarifications ALB. We respect your work and idealogy here. I am wondering why you mention this specific part, but I’m sure there’s a reason. Could you elaborate?
“Also, SFXGroups aren’t prefabs–they are created on the SoundManager just like everything else.”
The reason we are using subprefabs is for additional (lots of) configuration options, such as the ability to add audio FX, instead of being crammed in a single Inspector.
Thanks everyone.
@im Yeah, I realize I could do more research but was hoping to get some personal thoughts before doing a deep dive like that.
It looks like either one is a solid choice, I’ll decide sometime in the next month.
I just realized that Master Audio is the only audio plugin for Unity that offers built-in support for the 6 Audio Filter components (reverb, chorus, echo, distortion, and low pass and high pass filters) for each clip. I’m pretty sure of this, but again please correct me if I’m wrong anyone. Of course these filters are only available if you have Unity Pro, but it’s still worth mentioning in case this is a deciding factor.
Don’t get me wrong. Master Audio is a great plugin. It is indeed! But I just stuck with SMP 
In fact, if someone can’t choose between SMP and Master Audio I would say: Flip a coin.
Great thread, and way to keep it civil, devs. Your decorum and good nature speaks volumes about the quality of each of your products.
Totally agree.
Thread civility level over 9000.
What about multiplayer features? douse either of this plugins support that?
Both are great products. I have them both and alternate between them for my projects.
That’s one problem that’s been plaguing me. The only audio plugin I know of that offers a positional layer for handling splitscreen multiplayer is the seemingly abandoned Wingrove Audio.
Yeah, I’ll agree with that. Unfortunately I have no idea how he coded his Wingrove Audio Listeners to actually do that. If I did, I would add it to the feature backlog. Sorry, no support for multiple listeners here. If you are talking about some other multiplayer feature, let me know what it is and we will look into it
He just moved audio sources around a single listener to simulate multiple listeners.