I think audio is one of the easiest ways to make a VaM scene feel much more immersive.
Real dialogue, background music and well-placed sound effects can completely change the atmosphere of a scene.
In this guide, I'll show you the workflow I personally use in my own scenes.
I'm not saying this is the only or the best way to do it — it's simply the method that works well for me, so I thought I'd share it.
The first thing we need is a way to play music and sound effects.
Add an AudioSource atom to your scene.
I recommend creating two separate AudioSource atoms:
Because you may want your background music to keep playing while different sound effects are triggered during the scene.
For example, I usually rename them:
Keeping them separate also makes the scene much easier to manage later.
You could create another AudioSource for spoken dialogue.
But I recommend using the HeadAudioSource already included with each Person atom instead.
The main reason is simple: it allows us to use VaM's Lip Sync, which makes the character actually move their lips while speaking.
That's much more convincing than simply playing a voice somewhere in the scene.
Enable Lip Sync
> Select your character atom :
> Go to "Auto Behaviors", then "Lip Sync" tab and click "Enabled"
Done!
Your character is now ready to speak.
There are several ways to organize this.
You could add trigger tracks directly inside the Timeline controlling each character.
Personally, I prefer keeping character animation and audio sequencing separate.
For example, a character might have a 5-second looping animation while speaking for 20 seconds. Keeping the two systems separate makes this much easier to manage.
My method:
> Add a CustomUnityAsset atom:
Rename it to something easy to recognize, for example: CUA-Talk Music and SFX
Then add Timeline to this atom.
Inside Timeline:
Target + → Trigger Track
I personally use Trigger Tracks instead of Sound Tracks. In my experience they've given me reliable results and I find them easier to manage.
For this example, I'll create an animation called: Intro Sound and Dialogue
This animation will start with the scene and will eventually trigger:
At this point, the basic structure of our scene is ready.
You'll obviously need some audio files.
These can be:
The important part is placing the files inside your VaM sound folder.
For example:
Custom/Sounds/
You can also create subfolders to keep things organized:
Custom/Sounds/MyScene/
If your scene contains lots of audio, I strongly recommend doing this.
Open:
Scene Audio
Click Browse, navigate to the folder containing your audio files and select the sounds you want to use.
Some of my scenes contain around 50 audio files, and loading them one by one without this option was painful.
Once finished, your loaded sounds should appear in the Scene Audio list.
In this example, I have:
Now we're ready to use them.
We've prepared the scene and loaded our audio.
Let's trigger everything through Timeline.
Then open its Timeline plugin.
Go to your Trigger Track and move to the exact moment where you want the sound to start.
Add a trigger and choose: Add Discrete Action
Give the action a clear name.
For example:
Play Sound 1
This becomes very useful later when you have dozens of triggers in the same scene.
Now click Settings.
Configure the action:
Receiver Atom: AudioSource-SFX
Receiver: AudioSource
Then select the appropriate audio file through the URL/Web target.
Click OK.
Done.
If your trigger is positioned at second 2, your sound will now play at second 2 when the Timeline animation runs.
The same principle can be used with your AudioSource-Music atom for background music.
The main difference is that instead of sending the audio to an AudioSource atom, we're sending it to the character's HeadAudioSource.
Open your audio Timeline again.
Move to the moment where you want the character to speak.
Add: Trigger → Add Discrete Action
Give it a recognizable name, for example: Female Dialogue 1
Click Settings.
Then configure:
Receiver Atom: the Person atom who should speak
Receiver: HeadAudioSource
Receiver Target: PlayNowClearQueue
Then select the dialogue file you previously loaded.
Click OK.
Your character will now play the dialogue at that exact point in the Timeline, with Lip Sync enabled.
In our example, we now have an Intro Sound and Dialogue Timeline animation with:
This is especially important when two or more characters are having a conversation.
Let's imagine:
Create Dialogue 1 as explained above.
Play your Timeline and note approximately when the spoken line finishes.
For example:
Leave a short natural pause — perhaps 1 or 2 seconds — and place Dialogue 2 around second 13 or 14.
Then replay the animation.
Listen to the conversation and adjust the timing until it feels natural.
Make sure your Timeline animation lasts long enough to contain all the dialogue.
If the Timeline animation ends before the dialogue has finished, the dialogue may be cut.
Always test the entire conversation and increase the animation duration if necessary.
That's basically it.
At first, setting up audio in VaM can look a little technical.
But once you've created your first AudioSource, Trigger and dialogue action, you'll realize that the same pattern can simply be repeated throughout the scene.
And from there, you can do a lot:
Audio can make a huge difference to how immersive a VaM scene feels.
I hope this guide helps!
I create the dialogue, voices, SFX and music used in my own VaM Chronicles scenes, and I also provide custom audio for other VaM creators.
If you'd rather focus on building your scene and have someone else prepare the audio files, feel free to send me a DM.
Real dialogue, background music and well-placed sound effects can completely change the atmosphere of a scene.
In this guide, I'll show you the workflow I personally use in my own scenes.
I'm not saying this is the only or the best way to do it — it's simply the method that works well for me, so I thought I'd share it.
1. Prepare Your VaM Scene
1.1. Create AudioSource atoms for Music and SFX
The first thing we need is a way to play music and sound effects.
Add an AudioSource atom to your scene.
I recommend creating two separate AudioSource atoms:
- one for Music
- one for Sound Effects
Because you may want your background music to keep playing while different sound effects are triggered during the scene.
For example, I usually rename them:
- AudioSource-Music
- AudioSource-SFX
Keeping them separate also makes the scene much easier to manage later.
1.2. Prepare your characters for dialogue
You could create another AudioSource for spoken dialogue.
But I recommend using the HeadAudioSource already included with each Person atom instead.
The main reason is simple: it allows us to use VaM's Lip Sync, which makes the character actually move their lips while speaking.
That's much more convincing than simply playing a voice somewhere in the scene.
Enable Lip Sync
> Select your character atom :
> Go to "Auto Behaviors", then "Lip Sync" tab and click "Enabled"
Done!
Your character is now ready to speak.
1.3. Prepare timeline
Since we're going to synchronize dialogue, music and sound effects with the scene, we'll use the excellent Timeline plugin.There are several ways to organize this.
You could add trigger tracks directly inside the Timeline controlling each character.
Personally, I prefer keeping character animation and audio sequencing separate.
For example, a character might have a 5-second looping animation while speaking for 20 seconds. Keeping the two systems separate makes this much easier to manage.
My method:
> Add a CustomUnityAsset atom:
Rename it to something easy to recognize, for example: CUA-Talk Music and SFX
Then add Timeline to this atom.
Inside Timeline:
Target + → Trigger Track
I personally use Trigger Tracks instead of Sound Tracks. In my experience they've given me reliable results and I find them easier to manage.
For this example, I'll create an animation called: Intro Sound and Dialogue
This animation will start with the scene and will eventually trigger:
- background music
- sound effects
- character dialogue
At this point, the basic structure of our scene is ready.
2. Prepare your audio library
2.1. Prepare your audio files
You'll obviously need some audio files.
These can be:
- dialogue
- narration
- music
- ambient sounds
- sound effects
The important part is placing the files inside your VaM sound folder.
For example:
Custom/Sounds/
You can also create subfolders to keep things organized:
Custom/Sounds/MyScene/
If your scene contains lots of audio, I strongly recommend doing this.
2.2. Load your sounds into the scene
Once your files are inside Custom/Sounds, return to VaM.Open:
Scene Audio
Click Browse, navigate to the folder containing your audio files and select the sounds you want to use.
Important tip: KEEP OPEN
Enable Keep Open in the browser. This allows you to select multiple files one after another without reopening the browser every time. This sounds like a tiny detail, but it can save a huge amount of time.Some of my scenes contain around 50 audio files, and loading them one by one without this option was painful.
Once finished, your loaded sounds should appear in the Scene Audio list.
In this example, I have:
- 2 dialogue files
- 2 sound-effect files
Now we're ready to use them.
3. Animate your audio
Now for the fun part.We've prepared the scene and loaded our audio.
Let's trigger everything through Timeline.
3.1. Music and sound effects
Open your audio CUA: CUA-Talk Music and SFXThen open its Timeline plugin.
Go to your Trigger Track and move to the exact moment where you want the sound to start.
Add a trigger and choose: Add Discrete Action
Give the action a clear name.
For example:
Play Sound 1
This becomes very useful later when you have dozens of triggers in the same scene.
Now click Settings.
Configure the action:
Receiver Atom: AudioSource-SFX
Receiver: AudioSource
Then select the appropriate audio file through the URL/Web target.
Click OK.
Done.
If your trigger is positioned at second 2, your sound will now play at second 2 when the Timeline animation runs.
The same principle can be used with your AudioSource-Music atom for background music.
3.2. Dialogue
Dialogue works almost exactly the same way.The main difference is that instead of sending the audio to an AudioSource atom, we're sending it to the character's HeadAudioSource.
Open your audio Timeline again.
Move to the moment where you want the character to speak.
Add: Trigger → Add Discrete Action
Give it a recognizable name, for example: Female Dialogue 1
Click Settings.
Then configure:
Receiver Atom: the Person atom who should speak
Receiver: HeadAudioSource
Receiver Target: PlayNowClearQueue
Then select the dialogue file you previously loaded.
Click OK.
Your character will now play the dialogue at that exact point in the Timeline, with Lip Sync enabled.
In our example, we now have an Intro Sound and Dialogue Timeline animation with:
- a sound effect at 2 seconds
- dialogue at 15 seconds
4. Sequence your dialogue properly
This is especially important when two or more characters are having a conversation.
Let's imagine:
- Female Dialogue 1
- Male Dialogue 2
Create Dialogue 1 as explained above.
Play your Timeline and note approximately when the spoken line finishes.
For example:
- Timeline duration: 20 seconds
- Dialogue 1 starts: 2 seconds
- Dialogue 1 lasts approximately 10 seconds
- Dialogue 1 therefore finishes around 12 seconds
Leave a short natural pause — perhaps 1 or 2 seconds — and place Dialogue 2 around second 13 or 14.
Then replay the animation.
Listen to the conversation and adjust the timing until it feels natural.
Important
Make sure your Timeline animation lasts long enough to contain all the dialogue.
If the Timeline animation ends before the dialogue has finished, the dialogue may be cut.
Always test the entire conversation and increase the animation duration if necessary.
5. Enjoy!
That's basically it.
At first, setting up audio in VaM can look a little technical.
But once you've created your first AudioSource, Trigger and dialogue action, you'll realize that the same pattern can simply be repeated throughout the scene.
And from there, you can do a lot:
- conversations between multiple characters
- background ambience
- footsteps
- doors
- environmental sounds
- music changes
- reactions
- narration
- timed sound effects
- complete voiced scenes
Audio can make a huge difference to how immersive a VaM scene feels.
I hope this guide helps!
Need custom audio for your VaM project?
I create the dialogue, voices, SFX and music used in my own VaM Chronicles scenes, and I also provide custom audio for other VaM creators.
If you'd rather focus on building your scene and have someone else prepare the audio files, feel free to send me a DM.
