SweejTech HDR: Come for the Sound, Stay for the Workflow

While technical features often take center stage, we love hearing how our tools impact real production workflows. At SweejTech, while we pride ourselves on building powerful audio technology, we're equally committed to enhancing developers' daily workflows. HDR exemplifies this approach - advanced audio capabilities paired with thoughtful, practical tools that make a real difference in production.

Here's the experience of John Tennant, Technical Sound Designer at Sweet Justice, after working several months with SweejTech HDR.

John's HDR Experience

Sometimes, a tool surprises you—not just by doing the job it’s meant to do, but by changing how you work. That’s been my experience with SweejTech’s HDR. While I could talk at length about how effortlessly it implements the ‘High Dynamic Range concept’ to an existing Unreal Engine audio project, I’m going to instead shine a spotlight on the unexpected workflow benefits I’ve been enjoying on a daily basis. 

UE Audio Without the Content Browser? Yes, Please.

Using the Unreal Engine, the Content Browser can end up quite quickly like the junk drawer of your kitchen—essential, but chaotic. Coming into my current project after it was in development for over a year, our audio assets were a mishmash of Marketplace Sound Packs, custom SoundCues & Metasounds, and random wave assets all scattered across various Plugin Content folders. These were all hooked up using a variety of techniques by well-meaning programmers, designers, and technical artists. Organising that? A nightmare. Rebuilding it all from scratch? Not feasible. 

Enter Loudness Definitions in HDR. At first glance, these seem like just another audio organisation tool, but they’ve become my go-to system for wrangling typical fast-paced game development chaos. Once I sorted all our sounds into logical Loudness Definitions, something magical happened: the HDR Authoring Window became my new audio home base.

The HDR Authoring Window: My New “Audio Hub”

Of course I still use the Content Browser, but with HDR, the Authoring Window replaces it for many tasks. It’s not just a utility for HDR mixing—it’s a streamlined command centre for making audio changes quickly and efficiently. Here’s why:

• Direct editing of Loudness and dB offset without opening Metasound, SoundCue, or wave asset editors. 
• Snappy filtering-by-string (including subtractive strings) for only the audio assets in the project.

• Mute/Solo buttons for HDR Loudness Definitions and individual assets. 

• Full/Write/Read HDR modes per Loudness Group with per-asset overrides make it that much faster to translate the mix in my head into actual sound. 

A Tool Beyond Its Purpose

The irony here is that my favourite part of SweejTech’s HDR actually has little to do with the core HDR system itself–though this all works beautifully. It’s the workflow enhancements—the way the Authoring Window creates a space where I can focus on the big picture sound of a project and individual sounds at the same time. 

For me, SweejTech HDR doesn’t just solve the HDR problem; it’s changing my entire process by eliminating friction from my daily tasks.