Sound

See also: Tutorial:Sound directory

Sounds are auditory outputs of the game intended to communicate the happening of certain events, as well as create atmosphere. Different objects such as mobs, weapons or blocks have sounds.

Gameplay

In Java Edition, up to 255 sounds can be played at once but general sounds can take only 247 slots, with mood slots taking the remaining 8 slots. In Bedrock Edition, up to 32 sounds can be played at the same time.[1]

Most sounds can be heard from up to 16 blocks away, with the exception of:

  • Note Blocks, which can be heard up to 48 blocks away.
  • Jukeboxes, which can be heard up to 64 blocks away.
  • Goat Horns, which can be heard up to 256 blocks away, subject to server view distance.
  • Global sound events, which is played for every player at the same volume, regardless of distance. These include:

In Java Edition, these global sound events can be disabled by setting the game rule globalSoundEvents to false.

Mood

Main article: Ambience

Mood is a special group of sounds that play after an internal counter reaches 100%, visible on the debug screen, activating only when the player is in light level 0.

Commands

Sounds can be played and stopped with the /playsound and /stopsound commands.

Categories

Sound Name Technical Name Description Default
Master Volume‌
Main‌
Master​ 		master Controls the overall volume of the entire game. 100%‌

50%​

Music music Controls the volume of the in-game soundtrack. 100%‌

30%​

Sound - Bedrock Edition only, controls the volume of certain special sounds including GUI sounds, and sounds with an invalid category. 100%
Jukebox/Note Blocks‌
Musical blocks​ 		record Controls the volume of jukeboxes and note blocks.
Weather weather Contols the volume of rain and thunder. [note 1]
Blocks block Controls the volume of block interaction and passive block sounds.

This includes redstone, fluids, player interaction with blocks and explosions.

Hostile Creatures‌
Hostile Mobs‌​ 		hostile Controls the volume of all monsters and bosses.
Friendly Creatures‌
Friendly Mobs‌​ 		neutral Controls the volume of all non-monster entities; mostly animals.
Players‌
Other players​ 		player Controls the volume of player movement, throwing/shooting projectiles and interaction with entities.
Ambient/Enviroment‌
Environmental audio​ 		ambient Controls the volume of ambience and firework rockets going off.
Voice/Speech‌
Text to Speech‌ 		voice Controls the volume of the narrator.
UI‌ ui Controls the volume for sounds played by UI elements, like button clicks.
  1. ↑ A custom snow sound is also affected, but normally not noticeable because snow is silent by default.

Entity-dependent categories

Some sounds choose their category based on the entity that performs the action. For example, if a vindicator steps on a block, the step sound is in the Hostile Creatures category, but if a player steps on a block, the step is in the Players category.

Accessibility

See also: Narrator

Subtitles

This feature is exclusive to Java Edition.
 
Main article: Subtitles

Subtitles display text for in-game sounds in the bottom-right corner of the screen. They also add arrows next to the sounds that show the general direction that the sound came from. They allow deaf people to not be at an extreme disadvantage, as well as to aid other players in knowing where sounds came from. Subtitles can be toggled in the Music & Sounds and Accessibility Settings option menus.

Data values

Main article: Sound events

All sound events have names, such as block.stone.hit ‌ or step.stone ‌.

Videos

History

See also: Java Edition history of sound events and Bedrock Edition history of sound events

Due to a change in how Minecraft downloads its resources, Alpha v1.1.2_01 is the oldest version in which sounds work using the modern Minecraft Launcher.

Java Edition Classic
June 4, 2009C418 uploaded a mockup video on June 4, 2009, showcasing his sound design for the game dubbed over footage of this version. This is not a developer version; the video is edited.
0.0.22aAdded sounds.[4][5][6][7]
0.0.23aAdded options for turning on/off sounds and music.
Java Edition Indev
0.3120100104-2154Added a new sound engine made by Paul Lamb.[8]
20100207-1101Switched sound system to use OpenAL.[9]
Java Edition Alpha
v1.1.1Added sliders for the volume of sounds and music.
Java Edition
1.4.212w38bUpdated the sound engine.
1.6.1releaseAdded /playsound.
1.7.213w36aReplaced the sounds volume slider with sliders for juke boxes and note blocks, hostile mobs, passive mobs, players, weather, blocks, ambient/environment, and the master volume.
13w42aRewrote the sound system.
Added the ability for custom sounds using resource packs.
1.7Music now pauses while the game is paused.
1.915w43bAdded subtitles.
16w02aAdded the "Voice/Speech" volume slider.
1.9.3pre2Added /stopsound.
1.1419w12aRewrote the sound system.
19w14aAdded a new sounds section to the debug screen.
1.1922w11aAdded the "Directional Audio" option, which allows for more accurate 3D sound on HRTF-compatible software.
1.19.322w44aAdded the game rule globalSoundEvents.
1.2023w12aStep sounds can now combine for blocks walked through and stepped on.
23w18aWalking on non-solid blocks with no collision no longer plays their walking sounds.[10]
Walking on the edge of a block now properly plays step sounds for that block.[11]
1.21.525w05aDead bush blocks have a chance of playing ambient sounds when placed on top of two blocks that are any color of terracotta, sand or red sand blocks in any biome.
Sand, red sand and terracotta of any color have a chance of playing ambient sounds when surrounded by any one of them on at least 3 sides 8 blocks away.
25w10aBlocks that are broken by a piston now play their breaking sound.
1.21.625w15aRules for when ambient desert blocks sounds play have been tweaked.
Changed location on the sounds for glow squid, squid, guardian, horse, rabbit and pufferfish from the entity folder to the mob folder.
Pre-Release 2The following sound categories have been renamed: Friendly Creatures -> Friendly Mobs, Hostile Creatures -> Hostile Mobs.
Pre-Release 3Added the "UI" volume slider.
Pocket Edition Alpha
Pre-releaseAdded sounds.[12]
v0.1.2Added a toggle for sounds.
v0.7.0Added a volume slider.
v0.12.1Changed the sound engine to allow for multiple sounds.
Pocket Edition
1.0.4alpha 1.0.4.1Music and sounds can now be changed using resource packs.
1.0.5alpha 1.0.5.0Added /playsound and /stopsound.
Bedrock Edition
1.10.0beta 1.10.0.3Added sound events to the scripting API.
1.12.0beta 1.12.0.2Sound effects can now be triggered by animation events.
1.16.100beta 1.16.100.58Added /music.
1.16.200beta 1.16.200.53Added volume sliders for other sound categories.
1.20.10Preview 1.20.10.20Sound positioning is now based on the camera's position, rather than the player's position and rotation. This means that audio is flipped when in the third-person front view.
Upcoming Bedrock Edition
1.21.100Preview 1.21.100.20The following sound categories have been renamed: Main -> Master, Sound -> Sound effects, Jukebox/Note Blocks -> Musical blocks, Hostile Creatures -> Hostile mobs, Friendly Creatures -> Friendly mobs, Players -> Other players, Ambient/Environment -> Environmental audio, Text to Speech -> Text to speech.
Changed the default values for Master to 50% and Music to 30%.
Legacy Console Edition
Xbox 360Xbox OnePS3PS4PS VitaWii USwitch
TU5CU11.001.001.00patch 11.0.1The player hurting sound has been changed from deep "Ooh!" sound to a "tick" sound.
Updated some mob sounds

Issues

Issues relating to "Sound" are maintained on the bug tracker. Issues should be reported and viewed there.

Trivia

  • In Java Edition, The "Oof" sound effect can be found at .minecraft/assets/objects/9d/9d485556b89bf776042080774679c37300bc744b if the player has used a version with that sound.

Gallery

References

  1. ↑ Introduction to Sounds | Microsoft Learn
  2. ↑ MC-177741 — Wither spawning sounds play for all players
  3. ↑ MC-57057 — Guardian laser attack sound ignores distance
  4. ↑ IRC logs: "P4:58:39 <08Notch> yeah, this is very basic sound". (21:58:39 UTC)
  5. ↑ IRC logs: "P4:59:46 <akuryo> SOUND IS HERE" (21:59:46 UTC)
  6. ↑ IRC logs: "P5:00:04 <AlLnAtuRalX> I hear music?" [...] "P5:00:59 <Quatroking> what the hell is this music" [...] "P5:03:36 <Lmaoboat> Lol, I heared the music after a while without it, and I was about to yell at my brother for playing the piano again" (22:00:04 to 22:03:36 UTC)
  7. ↑ IRC logs: "P5:01:51 <C418> I should have made hard techno" [...] "P5:46:34 <08Notch> no, C418 did the music" (22:01:51 & 22:46:34 UTC)
  8. ↑ New sound engine implemented – The Word of Notch, January 5, 2010
  9. ↑ And software sound is now gone – The Word of Notch, February 7, 2010
  10. ↑ MC-2604 — Walking on non-solid blocks with no collision plays their respective walking sounds — resolved as "Fixed".
  11. ↑ MC-1133 — Whether or not a player experiences some effect is calculated based on the block under the center of the player — resolved as "Fixed".
  12. ↑ https://youtube.com/watch?v=jxfj84mdfl8

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