Information and awareness plays a crucial role in Counter-Strike, as the game requires players to react and adapt to various situations. Listening to audio cues such as footsteps and gunfire has become a vital factor into becoming a good Counter-Strike player, which is why sound is extremely important in how the game is played.
Due to its importance, players should at least take ten minutes of their time to adjust their sound settings, as it will go a long way throughout their Counter-Strike journey. In this article, we’ll make things simple and go over the best CS2 sound settings in the game.
How To Change Audio Settings In CS2
In general, players can change their CS2 sound settings immediately through the game client. Here is a step-by-step guide of how you can navigate to the audio settings section in Counter-Strike:
- Launch Counter-Strike 2.
- Next, go to your in-game settings menu by clicking on the gear icon on the top corner of your screen.
- In the list of categories, select “Audio” settings.
- Now, you should see a complete list of all audio settings you can adjust.
Most Important CS2 Sound Settings And What They Do
There are a handful of sound settings players can change through their settings menu. However, most of them are more towards devices and other obvious settings. In this section of the article, we’ll highlight the four most important audio settings you should know about in Counter-Strike.
Master Volume
The master volume is the setting that will control the overall sound levels when you are playing Counter-Strike. The master volume includes every aspect of audio and sound, including your game sounds, footsteps, gunshots, ambience, and even incoming voice chat comms.
This is very important as the master volume essentially controls how loud the entire game is. It is crucial to set your master volume at a decent volume so you can hear what is going on in the game. Remember that footsteps are vital to listen to, as they are a primary source of information.
Generally, we recommend setting your master volume to around 30% to 60%, which is normally the sweet spot. Anything below that will prevent you from hearing crucial information throughout rounds, and anything above that might be damaging to the ears. Yes, game sounds are important, but we don’t want you going deaf at 20 years old.
EQ Profile
The “EQ” in EQ profile stands for equalization. The EQ profile is used to adjust the balance between various frequencies of sound that are present in Counter-Strike.
Valve has allowed players to choose between three EQ presets, which include:
- Crisp
- Smooth
- Natural
Let’s briefly go over what each EQ profile provides:
- Crisp: This EQ profile is focused on higher frequencies, which is important for boosting the clarity and sharpness of sounds such as footsteps and gunfire. Since these two examples are vital in a game of Counter-Strike, using a crisp EQ profile is recommended for competitive players who want to listen to game sounds with precision, helping them identify the distance and direction of their opponents.
- Smooth: The smooth EQ profile is the opposite of crisp, as it softens the sounds by reducing the sharpness of it, which creates a more balanced listening experience. The intensity of high and low frequencies are reduced, giving players more relaxed sound and less focus on sharp noises such as gunfire. This preset is recommended for players wanting a more relaxing experience in Counter-Strike who would want more comfortable audio.
- Natural: The natural EQ profile is pretty much the middle of crisp and smooth, as this preset creates a well-rounded listening experience that is focused on imitating real-life sounds to make the game more realistic. You can expect a neutral audio experience, that neither boosts or softens the sharpness of sounds. Generally, this is the most preferred EQ profile for the majority of players, as it is a good middle-ground between the other two profiles. It is perfect for both casual and competitive players.
L/R Isolation
L/R isolation stands for left and right isolation. It affects how separated the game sounds are between your left and right ears.
Choosing a higher isolation will mean that sounds are leaning more towards the stereo side, while lower isolation creates a nice blend between the two listening channels.
L/R isolation is relatively important in Counter-Strike because of positional audio cues, such as footsteps and gunfire. Having proper settings for the L/R isolation is key to helping you identify which direction footsteps or gunshots are coming from, allowing you to react accordingly.
Generally, you want balanced settings for your L/R isolation so you can get your directions correct. Too much isolation might make the game sounds feel super unnatural between both ears, which will ruin your gaming experience unless your ears listen to differing volumes.
Perspective Correction
Next, we’ll talk about perspective correction. It is the setting that adjusts the sound based on your player character’s perspective, making the game feel realistic. This means the sounds you hear will adjust to where you are currently facing or moving towards using your character.
Overall, it is just a nice setting to have if you want to enjoy the realistic experience Counter-Strike aims to put on the table. Still, it is quite important as it helps you hear which direction certain sounds are coming from, though it is not as impactful as the L/R isolation setting discussed earlier.
Best CS2 Sound Settings To Use
Choosing the best CS2 sound and audio settings entirely comes down to your personal preference, and other factors such as hearing or device factors could affect how you would adjust your sound settings.
However, here are the recommended settings that the majority of players use in Counter-Strike:
- Master Volume: 40%
- EQ Profile: Natural
- L/R Isolation: 50%
- Perspective Correction: No
Overall, the master volume is also connected to your computer’s volume settings, so you should always think about how low or high your volume is. The rest are just recommended settings that professional players use, but it is always okay if you want to use other settings. Though audio is crucial in Counter-Strike, its settings aren’t as sensitive as crosshair, viewmodel, mouse, and other settings.