Outdoor Ambience

[Jennifer_P]

Well, I've been looking through the free jungle ambiences at Soundsnap lately; but so far I haven't found anything that sounds alien enough yet. I mean, we've heard these noises before on Nature, you know? I think we might just have to assemble our own ambience out of individual sounds. Which brings up some interesting questions: how do we describe the outdoor feel of the Age? Okay, so we've often said the garden would be peaceful and soothing. What else, a slight hint of Japanese around the area of the pavilion?

1. Peaceful
2. Soothing
3. Japanese (by the pavilion)?

Then, there's the fact that most of the jungle ambience I've heard doesn't match peaceful and soothing very well. It sounds more like, hmm...
1. Alive
2. Teeming
3. Exotic
4. Wild
5. Dangerous
6. Loud
7. Strange
8. Jurassic Park?

Is our jungle going to sound different from that? Or if not, then how do we reconcile the jungle ambience with the peaceful garden ambience? Shall we try for a forest ambience instead of an actual jungle ambience?

And here are the ambiences I've been listening to on Soundsnap, if you're interested:
http://www.soundsnap.com/search/audio/jungle+ambience/score?page=1

[Ruvinka]

Well...
Rain falls in the jungle a lot so different levels of rain would work well.
If we decide that our jungle has no large animals but only birds and insects we could find cricket chirps and different bird calls. If we decide on one or two major predator types we could find 2 sound files that we like as use them sparingly.
As for Japanese sounds : there's bamboo stinking against other bamboo, brass windchimes, sounds of tall grass in wind
just to name a few things.

Oh... is there a way to have a sound only happen in one area of the age?
IE: near the jungle-line where it meets the cleared area for the ERC and its gardens... the sound of things walking in the jungle... like snapping twigs, grunts etc.


P.s. I just went through a few at the link and i love the one described as : Collared Laughingthrush calls, busy forest ambience with flies.

[Jennifer_P]

Rain falls in the jungle a lot so different levels of rain would work well. ... As for Japanese sounds : there's bamboo stinking against other bamboo, brass windchimes, sounds of tall grass in wind
just to name a few things.

Hm, I don't think rain is possible yet. We could have thunder rolling in the distance...that might be pretty? Also we can't show tall grass swaying--although the windchimes are a maybe.

If we decide that our jungle has no large animals but only birds and insects we could find cricket chirps and different bird calls. If we decide on one or two major predator types we could find 2 sound files that we like as use them sparingly.

Oh, but large predators are so fun! So I like the idea of the two sound file types that play occasionally. I do like hearing something big making a racket off in the distance in some of Cyan's Ages. The bird calls and insect noises are a must too, of course.

Oh... is there a way to have a sound only happen in one area of the age?
IE: near the jungle-line where it meets the cleared area for the ERC and its gardens... the sound of things walking in the jungle... like snapping twigs, grunts etc.

Yes, we can do that. That's an excellent idea! The sounds would get wilder and wilder as you went further from the gardens.

I like the collared laughingthrush track as well, so let's use that one.

[Jennifer_P]

Hey, do you like the moustached barbet "song"? It might sound nice if it weren't so long-running.
http://www.soundsnap.com/node/3784

For predators (if we decide to have any large ones)...
Here's a (short) large beast roar:
http://www.soundsnap.com/node/41403
http://www.soundsnap.com/node/14649
These would have to be muted so that they sounded like they came from somewhere far in the distance (until, of course, the player entered the jungle).