Ambient Sound List

by Tom Green aka Doc4
twg@technologist.com



I created this list of sounds to make it easier to see what all the amazing ambient sounds were in System Shock 2, to categorize them, and give a description to each of them. The purpose of this list is not for you to find exactly the sound you want because there are just far too many similar sounds in the game. Rather, it is to give you a fighting chance to find the one you want and help limit the number of sounds you have to use.

Basically, I listened to 243 ambient sounds so you don't have to.



********************
HOW TO USE THIS LIST
********************

1) Sort the XLS file an darn way you want to help find the sounds you want (mainly by type)
 OR do a search for a keyword you have seen (alien, airy, warble)
 OR just skim through looking for something you want

2) Use the command "play_schema ###" where ### is the name of the schema to hear it. "halt_schemas" stops all the playing sounds.

3) In ShockEd, add a "Marker - Ambient Sound Trap" to where you want the sound to be heard. Go to its properties and add an "A - Ambienthacked". Enter the radius for the sound (in feet), type the name where it says "Schema" and your done. If you want the sound to be ever present (good for rumbles) then add the Environment flag (this will make it once the raidus is entered the sound will start and will not stop ever unless another environment sound is triggered).

4) And dont forget to rebuild add a "room" and rebuild the room database for the sounds to be heard.



********************
NOTES
********************

1) The descriptions are highly subjective. What is smooth to me may be aggrivating to you.

2) My terminology might be confusing: LFO is for low frequency oscilator (you'll recognize it if this doesn't ring a bell) or something like "dull" doesn't mean its a bad sound at all just that it doesn't stick out.

3) There were lots of duplicate sounds listed in the schemas, and they are noted. You can simply skip those as they are listed elsewhere.

4) And yes, I did listen to EVERY one of the ambient sounds, even those which I knew that they were going to be duplicates just by their title, I still listened just in case.

5) The terminology used by the sound engineer changes a bit, sometimes he uses F and P at the end of a sound (presumably for "forte" and "piano") but then sticks with L and S for the rest (for "loud" and "soft"), just a fun little fact for those who care

6) I double checked my spelling of the schema names so they should be good, but nobody's perfect

7) I put the sounds in their schema order, though this really has no meaning to us editors. There is no reasonable need to have it ordered like this, but I kept it this way so that you could see that all sounds were accounted for. Please feel free to sort it by type.

8) Any comments send them to twg@technologist.com