Cat meows as ambient noise (in Newbrooke)...

[Kayako Mayako]

Just curious if there is a way to substitute bird chirps for the cat meows (as ambient noise in the Newbrooke regions)?  If no, can the cat meows be turned off (without turning off other ambient sounds)?  Thank you in advance.

[LittleMe Jewell]

53 minutes ago, Kayako Mayako said:

Just curious if there is a way to substitute bird chirps for the cat meows (as ambient noise in the Newbrooke regions)?  If no, can the cat meows be turned off (without turning off other ambient sounds)?  Thank you in advance.

I might be wrong, but I don't think cat meows are part of the Mole supplied sounds - they tend to stick to normal nature sounds.  ETA: Apparently the Moles did add cat sounds to this Theme.

There is a way to find the source of sounds - though I can't remember off the top of my head.  Find the objects making the sounds and block them

Edited March 7, 2022 by LittleMe Jewell

[Elena Blossom]

19 minutes ago, Kayako Mayako said:

Just curious if there is a way to substitute bird chirps for the cat meows (as ambient noise in the Newbrooke regions)?  If no, can the cat meows be turned off (without turning off other ambient sounds)?  Thank you in advance.

Try World/Sound Explorer. That should you give you a hint on where the sound is coming from, probably some neighbour has a kitty

[Nika Talaj]

I thought it was someone's pet! 

It appears to be this sound box, which @Garden Mole has placed in the trees here and there.  There are fairly quiet animal and cat noises, and then a few louder ones, seemingly triggered randomly and not frequently during the day.  I'll have to check at night. 

None of the dog noises bother me, even the "bigdawg" bark.  But there is one cat noise that bugs me, probably a "yowl", which I can hear perfectly well at a distance of 58m.

I can't think of any great way of a resident silencing these, other than muting individual boxes.  If you have firestorm, just area search for things with "sound" in the name that are owned by "mole".  If one cat noise is really loud or bothersome, LL could address this by replacing the sound file for that UUID.

[Kayako Mayako]

@LittleMe - I hear the meows on my house plot and thought the sound might be coming from a neighbor.  Yet, when I visited the Newbank commons area, I heard the meows again.  It could be a coincidence but hearing the sound in two places led me to conclude the meows are part of the ambient sounds. 

@Elena - Thank you for the World/Sound Explorer tip. 

@Nika - You solved the mystery!

Thank you to everyone! 

[Blush Bravin]

*edit = I see now that the answer has already been posted. I should have faster typing skills!

 

If you search region objects using area search in FS you can find this:

So there are mole sounds for cats and dogs in this theme.  If you really want to turn off those specific sounds and not all the sounds outside of your parcel, you'll need to locate those sound effects boxes and block them.

Edited March 7, 2022 by Blush Bravin

[Kayako Mayako]

@Blush - Your example (re:  the Firestorm viewer) helps -- thank you. 

[Nika Talaj]

OK, I've spent some time zoomed into a cat/dog noises box with the volume way up high on my computer, while I do things around my RL place.  To my taste, all the dog noises are fun.  The cat noises fall into two categories:

1.  Mews; I'd love for some Mole to take a listen to these.  All the mews I've heard are very plaintive.  They trigger my: 'OMG somebody help that poor cat!" reflex. Any way these could be changed out for more normal "oh look, my own tail" type meows instead? I think I may also have heard a purr, and if so, that's nice.

2.  Yowls.  These are quite loud noises of an angry cat.  One of these has a hiss at the end of it, definitely a 'fighting cat' noise, another starts with kind of a growl.  These noises seem to occur in a group, as if a cat fight were happening outside that disperses afterward.  I'm "um, ok I guess" about these, but I do wish they were happening much less often.

I LOVE the ambient urban sounds .. traffic, car doors, etc.  Those are really cool.

I LOVE all the bird sounds, except ... I could totally do without the owls, who appear to have their own boxes that I can mute, thank God.  These were omnipresent in early SL, and hey, there just ARE NOT that many owls vocalizing IRL.

I actually wish there were more water sounds, when we live near water it is so nice to hear it.

[Cinnamon Mistwood]

@Nika Talajon hearing those cats, I get the feeling they're in heat not distress.  I have a pair outside my bedroom window singing 24/7

[Madelaine McMasters]

1 hour ago, Nika Talaj said:

I LOVE all the bird sounds, except ... I could totally do without the owls, who appear to have their own boxes that I can mute, thank God.  These were omnipresent in early SL, and hey, there just ARE NOT that many owls vocalizing IRL.

Come sit near my RL bedroom fireplace. The owls love to perch on top of the chimney, just 15ft away. They hoot, sing, scream, and eat bunnies and squirrels who scream like owls. Still, it's the sparrows that drive me nuts. They get up at dawn and congregate in the breakfast diner that is the hedge under my window, There they kibbutz and bang silverware and little coffee cups until I get up to yell at them. The moment I return to bed, they're back at it. If LL ever puts that racket in a sound thingie, I'm gonna AR it.

[Kayako Mayako]

@Madelaine - Your RL experience provides a good alternative for SL.  That is, even if we cannot control our RL ambient sounds, it would be nice to be able to select our SL ambient sounds.  Accordingly, I vote for being able to control our ambient sounds via our Linden house controller...

[LittleMe Jewell]

@Garden Mole- To be realistic, the dog barking needs to start as soon as an avatar is detected anywhere within a block or two -- and not let up until a few minutes after there are no longer any avatars within range.

 

At least that is what my RL neighborhood is like.

Edited March 8, 2022 by LittleMe Jewell

[Rolig Loon]

I've wandered around a bit in the Newbrooke neighborhoods and have found the ambient sounds very pleasing. They are all pretty soft, but I know people react to outdoor sounds in different ways. I have had city guests in my home several times, for example, and have heard more than one comment about how unnerving it is to hear birds instead of traffic sounds in the morning.  I have exactly the reverse problem when I have to stay in a hotel near the highway.  I'm like Maddy.  My RL outdoors is full of tweeting, honking, cooing, snarling, barking, meowing and hooting critters, lots noisier than the tame ones in Bellisseria.  🦝

[Persephone Emerald]

4 hours ago, LittleMe Jewell said:

@Garden Mole- To be realistic, the dog barking needs to start as soon as an avatar is detected anywhere within a block or two -- and not let up until a few minutes after there are no longer any avatars within range.

 

At least that is what my RL neighborhood is like.

Thank the Linden gods that my SL neighborhood doesn't sound like my RL one. There are 3 ambient noises in my RL neighborhood that I hate. One is a cart vendor who uses a horn to announce his presence. That horn reminds me of one a clown would use in a circus. One is a roaster who crows at intervals all through the night. The worst is a pair of small dogs that go into full on barking aggressively mode whenever someone walks by their house across the street. I also don't like the sound of police helicopters flying in circles and warning of someone who is wearing (too muffled to hear) and moving in some direction on a major street nearby.

I love the sound of waves on the beach or a stream in SL. I even like the SL birds, though my previous land partner wanted to get a gun and shoot them.

Edited March 8, 2022 by Persephone Emerald

[Madelaine McMasters]

14 hours ago, Persephone Emerald said:

There are 3 ambient noises in my RL neighborhood that I hate. One is a cart vendor who uses a horn to announce his presence. That horn reminds me of one a clown would use in a circus.

I wish I had the version we doctored (ETA: I recreated it, on the right), which included a woman (wearing Larson's trademark cat eye glasses), a schematic diagram instead of equations, and a soldering iron instead of a microscope, but we had large copy of this Far Side cartoon pinned up on the lab wall. It was sooooooo true.

A few years ago, an ice-cream truck drove down my rural road with his little jingle playing. He was doing maybe 45, likely on his way to some nearby subdivision, and I flagged him down.

I was shocked to discover that two Push-Up Pops cost almost as much as a push-up bra.

ETA: I added my rendition of the doctored cartoon. The original work was done entirely with Wite-Out and ink pen, by one of my teammates. He was a gifted cartoonist, who's silly contributions adorned some of our circuit boards, buried on inner layers where no spoil-sports could find them.

Edited March 8, 2022 by Madelaine McMasters

[Madelaine McMasters]

Let's hope @Garden Mole and @Quartz Mole don't see this...

https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/biosphere-treehotel-sweden/index.html
 

[Eirynne Sieyes]

Dear Moles, Kitty Cats are people too! Please don't cancel any kitties, and please, please add more!  (I can't take credit for this adorable cat video; it was posted somewhere earlier in the forums.  Original poster: thanks for this gem; so worth repeating! ) 

 

[Love Zhaoying]

I'm reminded that there's a Eurorack synthesizer module (RL, a brand I've got some of), that only makes cat sounds.

[Love Zhaoying]

6 hours ago, Eirynne Sieyes said:

Dear Moles, Kitty Cats are people too! Please don't cancel any kitties, and please, please add more!  (I can't take credit for this adorable cat video; it was posted somewhere earlier in the forums.  Original poster: thanks for this gem; so worth repeating! ) 

 

Just in case nobody posted this yet..

If you've not seen it - it is really worth watching / hearing at least once.

 

[BJoyful]

My cat can say hello pretty well... but I don't think it would be a suitable replacement if I could figure out how to post a sound clip I caught of her greeting me at 5:10 AM with a plaintive "heh-whoa"  I'm sooo lazy (smh)

[Patch Linden]

Has anyone heard the fox yet?

[Kayako Mayako]

@Patch Linden - Happily, I do not hear a fox on my plot (per the sound a fox makes in the attached video clip).  The only ambient animal sound I hear is a cat meow (that sounds like someone just stepped on the cat's tail).  Still, thanks to the advice provided by @Nika Talaj and @Blush Bravin above, I now know how to mute the cat sound. 

Note:  The good news is that continually hearing a sound I did not find pleasing reminded me I can add my own ambient sounds (but a fox squeal will not be one of my choices!).

https://youtu.be/1VJBWTypVNU

[Frigga Freidman]

1 hour ago, Patch Linden said:

Has anyone heard the fox yet?

Does it happen regularly at 4am SLT, as it does in my RL back yard? Add in the sound of a neighbor's repeatedly faulty burglar alarm and the line between my aural RL and SL will be well and truly erased. 😕 

[Patch Linden]

3 minutes ago, Frigga Freidman said:

Does it happen regularly at 4am SLT, as it does in my RL back yard? Add in the sound of a neighbor's repeatedly faulty burglar alarm and the line between my aural RL and SL will be well and truly erased. 😕 

Maybe!   What I really want to know is....

 

 

[Frigga Freidman]

2 minutes ago, Patch Linden said:

Maybe!   What I really want to know is....

 

 

He lost me at "big blue eyes".

(I don't know what the foxes in Georgia sound like, but here in the middle of England they sound like a woman being murdered, and that's when they're *not* being hunted...)