MetaSounds is a powerful platform for sound, synthesis, and procedural audio and music. And the price is right (free). But in the past, it had some gaps in out-of-the-box functionality. Epic has quietly released TechAudioTools Content, a bunch of free editor tools and widgets that anyone interested in Unreal or MetaSounds should go grab right this second. It’s always the little things.
Epic has had a lot to talk about as Unreal Engine gets more and more expansive in capabilities. Like, you’re at CES, what should you highlight? Digital twins for big industry? More content for Fortnite? Sure!
It’s no surprise, then, that new stuff in MetaSounds might get lost. But this is significant, because it was never MetaSounds’ depth that was in question — more that the day-to-day chore of using it for actual production tools felt incomplete. And I think that’s fair, whether judged through the lens of game audio or hobbyist producer or anyone else.
TechAudioTools was released alongside 5.6, but TechAudioTools Content for 5.7 adds a ton of sample content that makes it clear just how powerful these interactions can be.
[Epic video]
From the announcement:
Since these tools were created entirely in-editor, all of the underlying widgets are included as well, and can be used, modified, or extended to fit the needs of your own projects.
In Unreal Engine 5.6, we released the TechAudioTools plugin with the core tech used to power our tools, MetaSound Viewmodels. Note that these are two separate plugins: TechAudioTools is the engine plugin, and TechAudioTools Content is the Fab plugin containing all of the widgets and blueprints. MetaSound Viewmodels expose properties of MetaSound assets to UMG widget bindings, which makes creation of advanced tools and preset widgets much easier. It’s highly encouraged to spend some time learning how the UMG Viewmodels plugin works, as MetaSound Viewmodels use the same framework. Examples of widgets using MetaSound Viewmodels can be found all throughout the TechAudioTools Content plugin.
I really hope we see more stuff like TechAudioTools. That screenshot alone should tell you there’s potential here. Documentation, widgets, and everything you need to make synths and sound tools are here.
This hooks into Epic’s UMG Viewmodel, which is decided explicitly for building interfaces — the part of working with MetaSounds where I see a lot of folks get quickly lost. For a quick review of that feature (it handles UIs across Unreal Engine, not just for sound):
UMG Viewmodel for Unreal Engine
UE users know the drill: activate that plug-in first. Then, add on the free TechAudioTools plugin, the Content download from Fab, and you’re off to the races. You get a bunch of widgets and examples built internally by the Epic team (a couple of whom I know well and respect!), all set for you to reuse or modify in your own projects.
TechAudioTools Content [Fab]
TechAudioTools Content 5.7 Documentation
Those of you who did bravely venture into the wild, woolly world of MetaSounds, let’s have a quick word. How many of you got as far as building some interesting sound toy, but then sort of gave up when you realized there wasn’t a quick way to put together a UI or share it with anyone else? Yep, this is for just that.
Specifically, here you get:
MetaSound Input Migrator for managing default values between assets (with presets, overwrite, and save capability) — so you can easily reuse all your bits and bobs.
MetaSound Metadata Editor. One interface for document and pin metadata.
Sound Generator. Rapid iteration of sound effects. Randomize, set parameters, and record a bunch of sound waves. That means you can even use this if your ultimate target is outside Unreal Engine, whether that’s another game engine (cough) or even your hardware drum machine.
Will I wind up making weird drum kits with this? Hell, yes. Making weird one-shots that only I want to hear is my Fortnite.
You can use this on Windows, macOS, and Linux (!), and deploy the results to Windows and macOS. You do need to be on Unreal 5.7, but that makes sense — they’ve done some work on UMG.
There’s still a lot more Epic could do with MetaSounds, but it seems to me that for all the unique niche work being done with it, Epic has had a real chicken-and-egg issue. So I will shout about this one from up on the mountaintops, because it’s really little details like this that could get people to finish and distribute what they make — and that could be great for helping the MetaSounds ecosystem to grow.
And, you know, if not, I mean… one-shots. Here’s someone turning that into a cool live rig, complete with MIDI input:
This is under the Fab Standard License, which means you can do everything except try to redistribute these tools as a standalone.
That is admittedly a little confusing, because I’d think Epic would want people to distribute tools with the widgets, and it could even be that this could become a basis for other widget sets. But I’ll ask them for some clarification. As far as working on your own projects, you’re essentially unlimited, very much including free users. And this use does seem to explicitly allow you to build, say, a polysynth that uses these UI widgets and distribute that freely (or for fee).
It does not deal with sound specifically, but if you’re like me, the sound element of MetaSounds is the easy part and the rest of UE is what makes your head hurt. So it’s nice to have this “first hour in Unreal” tutorial up that gets you going and includes some focus on UMG, which is the foundation of some of this tool. Prerequisite course in session!
Excerpts:
From last year in Orlando, this is also worth a look:
Previously: