Directional space sounds?

[Murishani]

Directional space sounds

Original Post:
So I was sitting quietly with all my systems turned off to enjoy the sounds of space and I noticed something interesting, curious if this can be confirmed by other explorers.
When I move my ship, the ambient space sounds vary depending on what Im looking at. Staring at stars or planets I generally get the usual 'music of the spheres', however today while listening in on an earth like planet.
I'm hearing distinct vocal patterns on the radio comms, something that sounds like a bird call and lots of radio static. Ive confirmed that pointing away from the planet yields the normal space sounds and as soon as I point at this planet I start hearing the other sounds. Is what your ship is pointed at relevant to what you're hearing, and more importantly, anyone else listened to an ELP before and got these same results?


So over the last week a lot of attention has been paid to the sounds of planetary and stellar bodies. We can now even detect specific types of planets from the system map: https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=144782

I originally had intended just to find out information about the sounds that earth-like planets were making but I thought I would expand the scope of this thread in case anyone is interested in collating data on the ambiance sounds of various planets. While it's not as useful as the system map information, it might be nice to keep track of the sounds were hearing coming from planets.

In order to hear these sounds you will need to come out of supercruise near a body in space. Turning off exploration music will probably be helpful. You do not need to point your ship at the body, but you must look at the body with your camera. After a short period (if not immediately) a certain ambiance track will begin to play, this is the catalog of those tracks, feel free to contribute with your findings if you want to participate. (this will be an ongoing thread and I will add information as I discover it or it is reported in the thread.):

PLANETS:
Icy
-
Rocky
-
Rocky Ice
-constant bass drone with lots of windy whispery overtones, occasional sound like rocks or ice clattering
High Metal Content
- deep windy sweeps, reverb-y bass, high pitched metallic overtones
Metal Rich
-
Water World
- windy sweeps and bass drones
Earth-Like World
- various reports of low rumbling, radio chatter, radio static, bird calls, morse code, whispers and screams
Ammonia World
- VERY quiet, steady constant low volume drone, occasional rising wind or higher pitched drones, occasional chirp or digital distortion, rising high pitched buzzing, (this may simply be the sound of empty space and ammonia worlds are totally silent)
Water Giant
-
Helium Rich Giant
-Very quiet rising and falling wind with very occasional buzzing drones
Gas Giants
I
-constant wind with rising and falling bass drones, intermittent electric buzzing interference sound
II
III
IV
V

Gas Giant with Ammonia-Based Life
- quiet, lots of wind, frequent chirps and digital distortion, occasional drone, buzzing (may be same as gas giant which hosts it)
Gas Giant with Water-Based Life
- quiet, windy, static, frequent chirps and distortion, buzzing, droning (again may be same as gas giant which hosts the life)

SOLAR BODIES:
O
B
A
-windy, intermittent but distinct musical tones, occasional rising and falling drones, electrical distortion, chirps, very occasional buzzing.
F
-windy, quiet, occasional musical tones, lots of digital distortion, rising and falling drone, chirps.
G
-frequent digital distortion sound, occasional stringed instrument, lots of windy droning.
K
-fairly quiet, very distinct musical tones like stringed instruments, chirping, lots of wind, occasional electric buzzing, occasional rising and falling drones
K Giant
-windy, lots of radio static and interference, electric buzzing, crunchy static, chirps
M
- Higher pitched ethereal droning with occasional electronic pulsing and something like a stringed instrument.
L
- Lots of static distortion, higher pitched droning, rising and falling windy sounds, chirps and 'crunchy' pulsing static
T
-frequent radio interference sounds and digital distortion, static, 'crunchy' static sounds, whistles, higher pitched ethereal drones,
Y
-very quiet, quiet musical tones, some radio interference, occasional musical tones, wind.
BLACK HOLE
NEUTRON STAR
-Low frequency pulsating bass, regular high frequency radio signals, bass is low frequency but much louder than space.
T-Tauri
-very quiet droning and musical tones with windy sounds, intermittent radio static and interference, soft chiming sounds
more...
Ae/Be
-quiet, low wind, persistent drone note, quiet chiming

MAN MADE OBJECTS:

GALACTIC CORE:

 

[Katejina]

I shall experiment and et back to you with my results.

 

[Katejina]

Found an Earthlike. There is definitely a difference in the ambient effects though I cannot discern any particular sounds that may denote certain lifeforms on the planet itself. Check out my stream if you'd like to see.

Edit: Okay, it's starting to sound kind of Dead Space-ish with some muffled screaming and whispers...

 

[Murishani]

Okay, it's starting to sound kind of Dead Space-ish with some muffled screaming and whispers...

screaming and whispers? whoah.
I distinctly heard what sounded like... just radio chatter, muffled voices, and something like a tropical bird sound. Nothing like that. I wonder how many different sounds there are.
watching the stream now btw if youre still in the system.

 

[Murishani]

having trouble with the stream breaking up (it's on my end) but from what I heard that is distinctly different from what I heard on the other earthlike. Very interesting.
EDIT: wait no, I hear it properly now, that's the same as I heard on the other earthlike. So I guess its the same ambiance loop.

 

[Katejina]

Could be. Could also be general ship ambiance. I don't hear any birds.

 

[Murishani]

I don't hear any birds.

yeah I was just trying to compare the sound to something, it was sort of a bird-like tone, I heard it the same on your stream, whatever it is. The stream is breaking up too badly for me to get a solid listen on the audio on that rock but it sounds different to me than the earthlike. Im thinking every planet "type" gets its own loop, Im betting all earthlikes sound like that, all rocks sound like that, etc.

Thanks for checking into it, if you get any earthlikes making different noises or notice anything cool let us know?

 

[Katejina]

yeah I was just trying to compare the sound to something, it was sort of a bird-like tone, I heard it the same on your stream, whatever it is. The stream is breaking up too badly for me to get a solid listen on the audio on that rock but it sounds different to me than the earthlike. Im thinking every planet "type" gets its own loop, Im betting all earthlikes sound like that, all rocks sound like that, etc.

Thanks for checking into it, if you get any earthlikes making different noises or notice anything cool let us know?

Certainly will. Few hours left in the night for me. May get lucky.

 

[Nexolek]

I've noticed a lot of really awesome and sometimes spooky sounds depending on what I'm pointing at. Some planets are really creepy.

Also, check this out:
[video=vimeo;121620196]https://vimeo.com/121620196[/video]

That's what made me turn off my music out in the black and just listen every now and then. It's incredible!

 

[Murishani]

Also, check this out:

ok so, from that video: "planet types radiate specific stellar ambiances while inhabited planets are recognizable for their faint radio transmissions"
Im thinking theres just one sound loop per planet type based on the first part, but the second part is interesting, Im wondering if they're saying that planets with radio signals (like the ELP's we just heard) are supposed to have intelligent life since they're making radio comms. Does that mean all ELP's are supposed to have life? or that it just so happens to be their ambiance track?

Very cool, +rep all around for science.

 

[Nexolek]

Good question! The next time I find an ELP I'll have a listen (if I remember to). There's science to do!

 

[Katejina]

I found another ELP today and I can tell you that the audio is much different. I heard some chirping and other noises I did not recognize from the previous encounter.

 

[Murishani]

I found another ELP today and I can tell you that the audio is much different. I heard some chirping and other noises I did not recognize from the previous encounter.

The plot thickens! Good info Kat, +rep (as soon as I can rep you again).
I guess we'll have to start paying closer attention to those background sounds maybe.

 

[Murishani]

update: some interesting sound related stuff happening over here too: https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=144533

 

[AH_ImADot]

There's also a long thread where people are trying to decode the "Unknown Artifact" sounds. I've read that indeed you hear different faint background sounds depending on where your ship is pointed. Have you tried pointing at a space station and just listening?

 

[Katejina]

ok, now you guys have done it. Thanks a bunch!

Sitting here looking at a gas giant and listening to it chirping and bubbling to me. It's a class ii. And now of course i want to know if other classes sound different. And if stuff-based life makes a difference. As if i'm not losing enough time taking pictures! And sure enough, it just started whistling.

Thanks. Thanks a bunch.

I swear ... This forum sometimes.

for science!

 

[Murishani]

There's also a long thread where people are trying to decode the "Unknown Artifact" sounds. I've read that indeed you hear different faint background sounds depending on where your ship is pointed. Have you tried pointing at a space station and just listening?

Well we know from the video that various things make sounds, like space stations. The coolness of the sound is not the interesting bit. If were pointed at a space station we know its a space station, thats fine and it's pretty. The reason this is intersting to me merges with the stuff being discussed in the other thread. Im wondering if these sounds can be USED for anything, detecting life from a distance, listening to the sounds made by the stars in the galmap to determine whats in the system, etc.

Tell that to my girlfriend who found me with my ear to the speaker.

"What're you doing?"
"Shhhh"
"...."
"Hmm, nothing"
"Nothing what?"
"Moons don't make any sound"
"Moons don't ... what?"
"Gas Giants do"
*backing off slowly "Sure, they do dear, sure they do"

Literally just had this happen.

Im not sure but I might be going crazy. it's entirely possible the sounds are procedural too and Im chasing shadows.

 

[Fenric]

Well we know from the video that various things make sounds, like space stations. The coolness of the sound is not the interesting bit. If were pointed at a space station we know its a space station, thats fine and it's pretty. The reason this is intersting to me merges with the stuff being discussed in the other thread. Im wondering if these sounds can be USED for anything, detecting life from a distance, listening to the sounds made by the stars in the galmap to determine whats in the system, etc.

Hasn't been any link so far. There's lots of different sounds in the GalMap based on how far you zoom in, moving the camera around, stars going past the camera, etc. But nothing seems to be distinct to certain stars, star types, sectors, etc.

As you said Earth-like worlds will make transmission sounds, even ones that are not inhabited by humans.

I made a couple videos of some sounds if you want to listen.

[video=youtube;oHREcg1pEKs]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oHREcg1pEKs[/video]

Black holes sound creepy.

 

[Murishani]

I made a couple videos of some sounds if you want to listen.

Good stuff, kind of want to loop these and sleep to them.

I think the reason I am obsessing over this is: If they took the time to make procedural sound layering for space stations based on the modules present on the station, detect looking at the galactic core, etc. And we already know theyve made specific sounds for things like BH's Im wondering what levels of sound design Im missing that could be useful for exploration. Such as, being able to listen to a gas giant or a blue marble in a system that Im in from the solar body to detect if theres life on it or not.

I have the feeling that its too procedural and too randomized to be of any use, but Im going to keep listening and see if I can discover anything. I think Ill add "listen to the gal map" to my list of experiments to do when I get back to the bubble, along with testing FSD spool up time and throwing myself into a neutron star to see how fast I burn.

 

[Fenric]

Good stuff, kind of want to loop these and sleep to them.

I think the reason I am obsessing over this is: If they took the time to make procedural sound layering for space stations based on the modules present on the station, detect looking at the galactic core, etc. And we already know theyve made specific sounds for things like BH's Im wondering what levels of sound design Im missing that could be useful for exploration. Such as, being able to listen to a gas giant or a blue marble in a system that Im in from the solar body to detect if theres life on it or not.

I have the feeling that its too procedural and too randomized to be of any use, but Im going to keep listening and see if I can discover anything. I think Ill add "listen to the gal map" to my list of experiments to do when I get back to the bubble, along with testing FSD spool up time and throwing myself into a neutron star to see how fast I burn.

That's interesting, I'll try to remember to test it on my next trip. Of course, you most likely have an advanced discovery scanner, so you can just target something and look at it's icon. That tells you what it is, and doesn't require line of sight.