Spatial audio issues
When proximity audio sounds too quiet, off-balance, or echoey.
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Why does spatial audio sound wrong in flat.social?
Most spatial audio issues are not bugs. They are the system working as designed: voices fade with distance, pan left or right based on position, and depend on your headphones. If audio sounds too quiet, off to one side, or echoey, the fix is usually to move closer, switch to stereo headphones, or change your audio setup. Here is how to tell which one you're hitting.
Put on stereo headphones and walk your avatar closer. That solves most spatial audio complaints at once. To understand the why, read how spatial audio works.
Voices are too quiet
If people sound faint, you're probably standing too far away. Flat.social fades voices with distance on purpose so several groups can talk in one room. A voice is at full volume when you're close, roughly within 5 meters in the room, and fades to silence by around 15 meters. Walk your avatar toward the person and the volume comes back up. Picture this: Mia joins a busy networking room, hears almost nothing, and assumes her audio is broken. She's just parked at the edge. Two steps toward the group and the conversation is suddenly clear.
Left and right sound off
Flat.social pans voices to your left or right based on where people stand relative to you. That directional effect only works in stereo. If you're on a single laptop speaker, a mono Bluetooth speaker, or one earbud, the panning collapses and voices can feel like they're coming from the wrong place or vanish when someone moves to one side. Use stereo headphones with both ears in, and the direction will line up with what you see.
Some rooms have a zone that isolates audio so a group can talk privately. If you can see people but suddenly can't hear them, you may have stepped out of their zone. Walk back in.
Echo or feedback
Echo happens when your speakers play other people's voices and your mic picks them right back up, sending the loop back into the room. The fix is simple: use headphones instead of open speakers. With headphones, your mic can't hear the room audio, so the loop never forms. If you must use speakers, lower the volume and keep your mic farther from them.
When a Bluetooth headset uses its mic, many switch to a low-quality "call" mode that makes everyone sound muffled and tinny. If audio quality drops the moment you unmute, try wired headphones, or use your laptop mic with Bluetooth headphones for output only.