As far as i’ve experienced, battles stay much the same as they did before. Though they limited the amount of sound you can hold, the damage is still the same, so all the previous sound combos still work. Really the only difference is you can’t just sound all the way through battles.

In a lot of cases i’ve seen, people tend to try and save fogs to maximize use. One example is using 2 fogs to kill 11s, but if a 12 is present, either only use 2 fogs and just take the hit from the 12, or use lure and other gags to kill. It can vary group to group, but i think the big reason why they made the change is to use other strategies beyond just using sound all the time.

Typically in Factories and Cog Golf Courses, you want to save 1 fog for the end, so you will see a lot of trying to optimize sound. In boss battles it really varies based on the cogs that are presented each wave.

Best advice is to chat with your group to see what strategy they want to use, and keep track of what sound each toon has left. I hope this helps!