Ambience

Listening to ambient sound during music playback (Ambient Sound Mode)

You can hear ambient sound through the microphones embedded in the left and right units of the headset while enjoying music.

Press the CUSTOM button while the noise canceling function is on.

To change the setting of the Ambient Sound Mode

You can change the settings of the Ambient Sound Mode by connecting the smartphone (with the “Sony | Headphones Connect” app installed) and the headset via Bluetooth connection.

Voice focus: Unwanted noise will be suppressed while announcements or people’s voices are picked up, allowing you to hear them as you listen to music.

To turn off the Ambient Sound Mode

Press the CUSTOM button repeatedly until the Ambient Sound Mode is turned off.

Each time the button is pressed, the function switches as follows and is announced by the voice guidance.

The noise canceling function: OFF/The Ambient Sound Mode: OFF

The noise canceling function: ON

The Ambient Sound Mode: ON

Hint

Ambient Sound Mode settings changed with the “Sony | Headphones Connect” app are stored in the headset. You can enjoy music with the stored settings of the Ambient Sound Mode even when the headset is connected to other devices which do not have the “Sony | Headphones Connect” app installed.

Note

• Depending on the ambient condition and the type/volume of audio playback, the ambient sound may not be heard even when using the Ambient Sound Mode. Do not use the headset in places where it would be dangerous if you are unable to hear ambient sounds such as on a road with car and bicycle traffic.
• If the headset is not worn properly, the Ambient Sound Mode may not work correctly. Wear the headset properly.

• If the CUSTOM button is set as the Google Assistant button, the noise canceling function and Ambient Sound Mode cannot be switched from the headset. In this case, you can change the settings of the noise canceling function and Ambient Sound Mode with the “Sony | Headphones Connect” app.

• If the CUSTOM button is set as the Amazon Alexa button, the noise canceling function and Ambient Sound Mode cannot be switched from the headset. In this case, you can change the settings of the noise canceling function and Ambient Sound Mode with the “Sony | Headphones Connect” app.

• Depending on the surrounding environment, wind noise may increase when the Ambient Sound Mode is turned on. In that case, cancel the voice focus with the “Sony | Headphones Connect” app. If the wind noise is still significant, turn off the Ambient Sound Mode.

Underwater ambience[]

This feature is exclusive to Java Edition. 

Not to be confused with the sound produced by flowing water.

Underwater ambience plays while the player’s head is underwater. There are 22 different underwater ambience sounds in total.

They can be heard within a body of water of any size and in any dimension.

Underwater ambience is divided into two groups: «Loop» and «Loop Additions». Both of these play independently of each other while player is underwater. Additionally, «Loop Additions» are divided into 3 more groups.

Its code name is ambient.underwater.<group code name>

Note that Rare Loop Addition’s and Ultra Rare Loop Addition’s rarity is exaggerated in their name. Their names are derived from their in-game code names.

Arguments[]

JE: : BE: :

Specifies the sound to play.

In Bedrock Edition, it must be either a single word (no spaces) or a quoted string. Can be a sound event defined in (for example, ).

In Java Edition, must be a resource location. Can be a sound event defined in (for example, ).

A sound event may be affiliated with multiple sounds, and the sound that is actually produced is chosen at random from them, modified by their «weight», just as the game normally would. For example, the sound event plays one of several pig sounds at random, because the event has multiple sounds associated with it.

Resource packs may add their own events to sounds.json; the command successfully plays these. File names are not used by this command; it strictly uses the events defined in sounds.json (which may not even be similar to the original file names and paths), and thus a resource pack adding new sound files must define events for them (this is not necessary when replacing old sounds already defined in events).

JE:

Specifies the music category and options the sound falls under. Must be , , , , , , , , , or .

JE: : BE: :

Specifies the sound’s target.

Must be a player name, a target selector or a UUID. And the target selector must be of player type.

JE: : BE: :

Specifies the position to play the sounds from.

Must be a three-dimensional coordinates with floating-point number elements. Accepts .

JE: : BE: :

Specifies the distance that the sound can be heard. If not specified, defaults to 1. For values less than 1, the volume diminishes. For values greater than 1, the sound does not actually grow louder, but its audible range (a 16-block radius at 1) is multiplied by volume. There is always a gradual falloff to silence based on distance from the center of the sphere. For values equal to or less than 0, no player can hear the sound.

Must be a Single-precision floating-point format number. In Java Edition, it must be greater than or equal to 0.0.

JE: : BE: :

Specifies the pitch of the sound. If not specified, defaults to 1.

Must be a Single-precision floating-point format number. In Java Edition, it must be between 0.0 and 2.0 (inclusive).

In Java Edition, values less than 0.5 are equivalent to 0.5. Values lower than 1 lower the pitch and increase the duration; values greater than 1 raise the pitch and reduce the duration. The pitch value is a multiplier applied to the frequency, so if a value from 0.5 to 1 is doubled, the pitch goes an octave higher. (See for converting other intervals to pitch values, but be aware that 1 isn’t F♯ for all sound effects.)

In Bedrock Edition, only values between 0 and 256 work. Values above 256 are equivalent to the default value; values less than or equal to 0 makes the sound inaudible.[more information needed]

JE: : BE: :

Specifies the volume for targets outside the sound’s normal audible sphere. If a target is outside the normal sphere, the sound is instead centered some short distance (two blocks away) from the target, and this argument determines its volume. If not greater than 0, targets outside the normal audible sphere cannot hear the sound.

If not specified, defaults to 0.0.

Must be a Single-precision floating-point format number. In Java Edition, it must be between 0.0 and 1.0 (inclusive).

Ambient Sound Configuration

The ambient sound configuration screen, shown when first creating an ambient sound, or by double-clicking an existing sound.

Sound Type

Configure the type of sound emitted by this source. Ambient Sounds can either be local which are blocked by any Walls which inhibit perception or global which are always audible within their area regardless of the presence of Walls.

Audio Source

You must choose a path to a valid sound file which plays when Tokens are within the area of effect. Ambient Sounds always repeat on loop, so it is recommended to use a format like webm, wav, or ogg which allows for seamless looping, but other audio file formats are also supported.

X & Y Position

The x/y coordinates for the center of the Ambient Sound area of effect give the precise location of the emitter in a scene. All newly created sounds have these fields automatically filled in based on where in the scene the sound was created. Repositioning the sound in the scene also changes these values automatically.

Sound Radius

The radius of the area of effect for the Ambient Sound, expressed in distance units. For example, if your Scene is configured where each square represents 5ft.

Volume Easing

This option specifies that the volume of the Ambient Sound should automatically reduce as Tokens are further from its origin (but still within the area) and increase in volume when Tokens are closer to the origin of the sound. If this option is disabled, the volume level of the Ambient Sound will be the same everywhere within the affected area.

Maximum Volume

This slider configures the maximum volume level of the Ambient Sound at its point of origin (if easing is applied) or throughout the area (if no easing).

Darkness Activation Range

These fields configure the darkness levels in which the Ambient Sound plays. The default setting of between 0 and 1 results in a sound that is always playing.

Modifying Placed Sounds

After an Ambient Sound has been created, you can edit it later by double clicking on its control icon that is visible when on the Sounds Layer. To move the position of an existing Ambient Sound you can click and drag its icon to move it. You may also use and commands to copy and paste sounds.

Players can control the volume level of playing Ambient Sounds using the global Ambient slider in the Playlists tab of the Sidebar.

Note that Ambient Sounds always loop if a Token is within their area of effect. If you are interested in one-time audio effects which play at a certain time that will be handled by the Event Trigger system, a post-release feature that is not yet added.

Muting Placed Sounds

Once an Ambient Sound has been created, you can mute/un-mute it by right-clicking on the icon for the emission point when on the Sounds Layer.

Previewing Placed Sounds

Once an Ambient Sound has been created, you can toggle the preview audio feature from the Sounds Layer tool bar. While this is toggled your mouse cursor will be treated as an actor on the canvas, allowing you to hear sounds based on where it is in the scene. This is useful for quickly checking how a scene would sound based on current ambient sound placement and settings. Please note that this toggle remains even if you switch to a new layer.

Underwater ambience

Underwater ambience plays when the player’s head is underwater. There are currently 22 different underwater ambient noises in total. They can be heard within a body of water of any size in any dimension.

Underwater ambience is divided into two groups: «Loop» and «Loop Additions». Both of these play independently of each other when the player is underwater. Additionally, «Loop Additions» are divided into three more groups: Rare and Ultra Rare. The rarity of both is exaggerated in their name, and are actually derivd from their in-game code names.

The codename for underwater ambience is

Note: The sounds are very quiet, so if you can’t hear it it’s not audio error.

Подводные звуки[]

В океане чаще всего слышатся подводные фоновые звуки.

Подводные фоновые звуки проигрываются, когда игрок полностью находится под водой. Всего существует 22 подводных фоновых звука.

Эти звуки можно услышать в водоёме любого размера и в любом измерении.

Подводные фоновые звуки делятся на 2 группы: «Loop» и «Loop Additions». Они проигрываются независимо друг от друга. Кроме того, группа «Loop Additions» делится еще на 3 подгруппы.

Название подводных фоновых звуков в коде игры — ambient.underwater. <название группы в коде игры>

Mood algorithm[]

Mood ambience sounds occur based on a «mood» percent value between 0–100. The mood increases when the player is in a cave or in a dark place, and decreases otherwise. When the mood reaches 100%, one of the sounds plays randomly, resetting the mood to 0% and thus restarting the cycle. The darker it is, and the more non-transparent blocks there are, the quicker the mood increases. in Java Edition, the current mood value appears on the debug screen.

This is the simplified algorithm for computing this value in pseudocode:

updateMood(mood):
    tickDelay = 6000
    maxLightLevel = 15
    block = select a random block in a 17×17×17 block cube centered around the player
    skyLight = block.getSkyLightLevel()

    if (skyLight > 0):
        mood = mood - (skyLight / maxLightLevel) * 0.015
    else:
        blockLight = block.getBlockLightLevel()
        mood = mood - (blockLight - 1) / tickDelay
    
    if (mood ≥ 1.0):
        player.playSpookySound()
        mood = 0.0
    else if (mood < 0):
        mood = 0.0

This method is called once every tick. It selects a random block in a 17×17×17 area centered around the player’s eye position, and alters the mood value accordingly:

• If the selected block has sky light, it decreases the mood by 1⁄₁₀₀₀ per sky light level.
• If it has a block light level above 1, it decreases the mood value by (block light level — 1)⁄₆₀₀₀.
• If the block light level is 0, it increases the mood value by 1⁄₆₀₀₀.

This means that if you are in complete darkness and there are no lit blocks around you, an ambient noise will play every 6000 ticks (5 minutes).

Since non-transparent blocks are considered to have a sky and block light level of 0, the mood value increases especially fast if you’re in a cave.

Flags

 Bug: This flag is broken at engine level for Soundscripts. It will only work when a sound is played with its raw filename.

16: Start Silent

The map will start without this sound playing. Enabled by default.
 Bug: Looping sounds that do not start silent cannot be controlled!

32: Is NOT Looped

Changes how the handles stopping and starting playback. It won’t stop a sound that loops from looping, but it is still very important to set it to the right value. You might not be able to stop and/or start the sound if it isn’t!
 Bug: Having this option ticked while using a looped sound WILL prevent you from controlling it!

Cave ambience[]

Cave ambience (also known as cave sounds, or eerie noises according to the subtitles) are sounds that occasionally play when the player is underground or in a dark area, based on the .

Cave ambience sounds can play in all biomes except the Nether biomes, as long as there is a cave or a dark enough area present.

The code name for cave ambience is . There are 19 different cave ambience sounds in total.

Trivia[]

Cave 14 viewed in a spectrogram.

• When «Cave 14» is viewed in a spectrogram, it appears to show the face of a creeper.
• Cave ambience is the only ambience that has subtitles.
• «Basalt Deltas click» is likely based on the sound a Geiger counter makes when in the presence of radiation, despite neither Geiger counters nor radiation existing in vanilla Minecraft.
• «Cave 1,5, and 13» can also be heard in lower pitches. The pitch can range from 0.65x to 1.00x.
• «Cave 5 and 13» also sound a little similar, but they are played with different speeds. Also the sound for «Cave 5» sounds like a low-ringing bell while «Cave 13» sounds like an intense brush of wind.
• Although the mood algorithm works in all vanilla dimensions since Java Edition 1.16, due to the mood system isn’t programmed properly for the End ambience sounds to be played in the End, so the Overworld cave ambience sounds could be played in the end instead.[verify]
• «Warped Forest Mood 9» is actually a slowed-down and reverberated idle sound of the witch.

Nether ambience

Nether ambience plays while the player is in The Nether. Each biome has its own unique ambience. There are 126 different nether ambient sounds in total.

Nether ambience is divided into three groups: «Loop», «Loop Additions», and «Mood», all of which play independently of each other while the player is in the Nether.

The codename for Nether ambience is

Cave ambience

A dark cave in which a player may hear cave ambience.

Cave ambience (also known as cave sounds, or eerie noises in Java Edition subtitles) are sounds that play occasionally when the player is underground or in a dark area. These sounds can play in all biomes except the Nether biomes, as long as there is a cave or a dark enough area present.

The codename of cave ambiences is . There are a total of 19 different cave noises.

Подводные звуки

Подводные фоновые звуки проигрываются, когда игрок полностью находится под водой. Всего существует 22 подводных фоновых звука.

Эти звуки можно услышать в водоёме любого размера и в любом измерении.

Подводные фоновые звуки делятся на 2 группы: «Loop» и «Loop Additions». Они проигрываются независимо друг от друга. Кроме того, группа «Loop Additions» делится еще на 3 подгруппы.

Название подводных фоновых звуков в коде игры — ambient.underwater. <название группы в коде игры>