We are very pleased to announce the release of 95 new Atmosphere Orbs today!  These newest additions were recorded in and around Berlin, Germany.  The new audio is an amazing mix of both urban and natural backgrounds that can be matched up to many different in-world builds and projects.

We coordinated with Jan Northoff (aka January Lightfoot in SL) and Tobias Neisecke, the founders of YOUin3D.com and creators of the famous BERLINin3D sims, to identify specific locations around Berlin that were mirrored in the virtual world and then bring those soundscapes into Second Life.

To see the full list of new Atmosphere Orb titles, click to view our Press Release.

The new releases are available in-world at our Headquarters, the Mythos Sandbox, and on XStreetSL.

Want to see AND hear Berlin in Second Life?  Visit the BERLINin3D sims to hear these latest German soundscapes playing in their mirrored real world locations.

Our interactive Field Recording Map has been updated to show the approximate recording locations in Germany.  We have also included several photos from the trip.

We are visiting Germany for several days and taking the opportunity to record new real world audio for in-world soundscapes.

I was able to record over 30 different sound locations within the first 48 hours!  The soundscapes in Germany are incredibly beautiful and constantly changing.

Internet access will be sporadic, so I may be unable to respond to regular product inquiries until we return next week.   Here are a few initial pictures where some of the sounds were recorded.

More updates soon. 

The Mythos Sandbox has been expanded to over 16,000 square meters!  Rental space and ad boards are also available for visitors. 

Camping and bots are not allowed and the rules will be enforced by several volunteer moderators.

A dedicated sandbox page tab has been added to detail the rules and offerings.

Happy building!

Sound Recorder’s Tip #347b – Not all animals should be recorded.

Last night I heard a little noise coming from our patio. Once I got close, I decided to grab my camera instead of the audio recorder. Here is what was staring back at me.

He didn’t stick around for more than a minute.  About fifteen minutes later there was some more noise on the patio.  But this time it was a different visitor.

And he wanted in!

We are pleased to announce our newest Atmosphere Orbs that were made from recordings over the last two months at locations in California, Nevada, and Arizona.  A photo album with pictures from these locations has also been added.

A total of 61 new Atmosphere Orbs are now on display in-world at our main location in Mythos and have also been listed on XStreetSL for fast browsing.

I thought it would be interesting to label the exact locations where these recordings were made, so I started  geo-tagging each Atmosphere Orb source location on a Google map.  As time permits, we will go back and tag all of our recordings.

Acoustic Alchemy Field Recordings Map

List of new Atmosphere Orbs

Atmo-AZ-Grand Canyon – Hermit’s Rest 1:10
Atmo-AZ-Grand Canyon – Outside Park Passing Heli 1:10
Atmo-AZ-Grand Canyon – Outside Park Passing Plane 1:20
Atmo-AZ-Grand Canyon – Pipe Creek Vista 0:40
Atmo-AZ-Grand Canyon – Visitors Center 0:50
Atmo-AZ-Sedona – Basha’s Grocery 0:50
Atmo-AZ-Sedona – Boyton Canyon Near Resort 0:30
Atmo-AZ-Sedona – Call of the Canyon Birds 1 0:40
Atmo-AZ-Sedona – Call of the Canyon Birds 2 1:00
Atmo-AZ-Sedona – Call of the Canyon Breeze & Birds 0:30
Atmo-AZ-Sedona – Call of the Canyon Cricket Traffic 0:50
Atmo-AZ-Sedona – Call of the Canyon Stream 1 0:30
Atmo-AZ-Sedona – Call of the Canyon Stream 2 0:30
Atmo-AZ-Sedona – Chimes Distant Bird 1:00
Atmo-AZ-Sedona – Frog Pond 1 1:30
Atmo-AZ-Sedona – Frog Pond 2 1:40
Atmo-AZ-Sedona – Frog Pond Waterfall 0:40
Atmo-AZ-Sedona – Morning Birds 1:10
Atmo-AZ-Sedona – Oak Creek Vista 1:00
Atmo-AZ-Sedona – Palatki Birds 1:00
Atmo-AZ-Sedona – Residential 0:50
Atmo-AZ-Williams – Residential Morning 1 0:40
Atmo-AZ-Williams – Residential Morning 2 0:40
Atmo-AZ-Williams – Route 66 Traffic Music 2:30
Atmo-CA – Red Robin Crowd 1:00
Atmo-CA – Restaurant Crowd 2:00
Atmo-CA – San Clemente Pier 1 1:00
Atmo-CA – San Clemente Pier 2 1:20
Atmo-CA – San Clemente Pier Restaurant 1:20
Atmo-CA – San Diego Midway Machine Room 0:30
Atmo-CA – San Diego Midway Radio Room 1:20
Atmo-CA – Shopping Mall Holidays 1 1:10
Atmo-CA – Shopping Mall Holidays 2:50
Atmo-CA – Solvang Residential 1:30
Atmo-CA – Vandenberg Beach 2:00
Atmo-CA-JWA – Airplane Interior Inflight 0:20
Atmo-CA-JWA – Airplane Interior Preflight1:40
Atmo-CA-JWA – Arrivals Area Traffic 1:10
Atmo-CA-JWA – Security Notice 2:30
Atmo-CA-JWA – Terminal Background 1:50
Atmo-CA-Morro Bay – Dorn’s Restaurant Crowd 3 2:00
Atmo-CA-Morro Bay – Waves & Horn 1:00
Atmo-CA-Pismo – Early Morning Surf 1:30
Atmo-CA-Pismo – Pier at Sunset 1:10
Atmo-CA-Pismo – Residential Background 1:10
Atmo-CA-Pismo – Small Waves 3:00
Atmo-CA-Pismo – Surf & Birds 1:30
Atmo-CA-Pismo – Tide Pools 2:00
Atmo-CA-Pismo – Waves & Birds 2:00
Atmo-CA-Port San Luis – Pier Birds 1:20
Atmo-NV-Vegas – Airplane Interior 0:20
Atmo-NV-Vegas – Airport Arrivals Area 2:00
Atmo-NV-Vegas – Airport Terminal 1:40
Atmo-NV-Vegas – IHOP Restaurant Crowd 1:40
Atmo-NV-Vegas – In-N-Out Restaurant Crowd 1:30
Atmo-NV-Vegas – Pinball Hall of Fame Addams Family 2:50
Atmo-NV-Vegas – Pinball Hall of Fame Black Knight 2K 3:00
Atmo-NV-Vegas – Pinball Hall of Fame Simpsons 3:00
Atmo-NV-Vegas – Pinball Hall of Fame Star Wars 2:30
Atmo-NV-Vegas – Resort Courtyard Pool Birds 1:00
Atmo-NV-Vegas – Theater Lobby 2:50

Attention Affiliates: If you are subscribing to a category where these new Atmosphere Orbs are classified, they will soon appear in your vendors.  The sound previews for each of these items will be installed as well.  If any problems are reported, please notify us and we will fix it ASAP.

Our latest trip up the California coast to Pismo Beach yielded about 23 new Atmosphere Orb recordings and a sizable number of audio recordings perfect for randomizer or full perm sound clips.  However, the time needed to process, upload, and package those recordings has not been in great abundance the last two weeks and we are heading out again for another trip.

We will be unavailable from May 15th to the 24th as we will be on a trip to Las Vegas, Sedona, and the Grand Canyon.

I’m looking forward to making some new recordings in some of the natural and urban hot spots, including several of the Vortex sites in Sedona.

We will post more information (and pics!) when we get back and are ready to make the latest soundscapes available in-world.

It’s here!!!  We are pleased to announce our newest and most feature packed sound product, the Super-Randomizer.  One of the top new features is the ability for the sounds to roam to random locations all around you!

Please visit our online slide-show that details all new features and menus.  The presentation is also viewable in-world.

The Super-Randomizer is available as pre-packaged and Build-Your-Own editions.  The pre-packaged editions have 30, 40, or 50+ individual sounds ready to go.  The sounds are MOD/COPY, so they can be copied into additional Randomizer Orbs.

We would like to thank all the beta testers for their time and insightful feedback!

Many new individual sounds and pre-packaged editions will be added soon.

New Pre-Packaged Super-Randomizer Editions (Direct Teleport)

• Costa Rica – Birds 1 (40 Sounds)
• Costa Rica – Birds 2 (40 Sounds)
• Costa Rica – Birds 3 (40 Sounds)
• Costa Rica – Birds 4 (40 Sounds)
• Costa Rica – Birds 5 (40 Sounds)
• Costa Rica – Birds 6 (40 Sounds)
• Costa Rica – Birds 7 (40 Sounds)
• Costa Rica – Birds 8 (40 Sounds)
• Nature – Frogs 1 (40 Sounds)
• Nature – Frogs 2 (40 Sounds)
• Nature Coyotes & Wolves (61 Sounds)
• Nature – UK Blackbird (33 Sounds)
• Nature – UK Nightingale (38 Sounds)
• Nature – UK Robin (35 Sounds)
• Scifi – Mechanics 1 (30 Sounds) <– Synth tones, drones, etc.
• Scifi – Mechanics 2 (30 Sounds)
• Scifi – Mechanics 3 (30 Sounds)
• Scifi – Offworlds (55 Sounds)
• Scifi – Servos 1 (30 Sounds)
• Scifi – Servos & Shimmers (33 Sounds)
• Scifi – Sweeps (30 Sounds)

.

During this release cycle, we have also introduced several new Atmosphere (looping) Orbs.

New Atmosphere (looping) Orbs (Direct Teleport)

• Atmo-CR – Costa Rican Jungle 1 1:30
• Atmo-CR – Costa Rican Jungle 2 1:30
• Atmo-CR – Costa Rican Jungle 3 1:30
• Atmo-CR – Costa Rican Jungle 4 2:20
• Atmo-CR – Costa Rican Jungle 5 1:40
• Atmo-CR – Costa Rican Jungle 6 1:10
• Atmo-CR – Costa Rican Jungle 7 1:00
• Atmo-CR – Costa Rican Night 1 1:00
• Atmo-CR – Costa Rican Night 2 1:10
• Atmo-CR – Costa Rican Swamp 1:00
• Atmo-CR – Jungle Frogs 0:20
• Atmo-CR – Rufous-Naped Wren 1:10
• Atmo-CR – Spider Monkey 1:30
• Atmo-CR – Swamp Birds & Insects 1:40
• Atmo-Jungle – Brazil Birds & Insects 1 2:00
• Atmo-Jungle – Brazil Birds & Insects 2 1:40
• Atmo-Jungle – Brazil Morning Birds 2:00
• Atmo-Jungle – Brazil Swamp 1 1:10
• Atmo-Jungle – Brazil Swamp 2 2:00
• Atmo-Jungle – Brazilian Birds 1 2:00
• Atmo-Jungle – Brazilian Birds 2 2:00
• Atmo-Jungle – Brazilian Night 1:50
• Atmo-Jungle – Tropical Birds 0:40
• Atmo-Scifi – Control Room Drone 5a 0:20
• Atmo-Scifi – Control Room Drone 5b 0:20
• Atmo-Scifi – Control Room Drone 5c 0:30
• Atmo-Scifi – Distorted Harmonics 0:50
• Atmo-Scifi – Event Horizon 0:40
• Atmo-Scifi – Factory Interior 1:40
• Atmo-Scifi – Factory Pumps 1 0:20
• Atmo-Scifi – Factory Pumps 2 0:20
• Atmo-Scifi – Factory Pumps 3 0:20
• Atmo-Scifi – Fusion Reactor 0:20
• Atmo-Scifi – Hissing Machine Drone 1:00
• Atmo-Scifi – Infinity 0:30
• Atmo-Scifi – Rising & Falling Drone 1 1:00
• Atmo-Scifi – Station Ventilation 0:50
• Atmo-Scifi – Unwelcome Tunnels 0:40

A large portion of our preview clips that are linked to product listings on XStreet have become unavailable.  We are working to correct the problem but it may take a few days to ensure all listings are restored to normal.  Thanks!

Vendor Systems Upgraded

All of our in-world vendors have been upgraded to the latest Hippovend 2.0 edition!

Attention Affiliates: Your machines have already been upgraded to the latest edition.  You do not need to do anything with the vendors rezzed at your locations.

Gift Certificate System

A new integrated Gift Certificate system is now online.  These certificates (gift vouchers) can be used directly with the vendors and require no manual intervention on our part.  The certificates are the perfect unique gift for someone to choose their own atmosphere and soundscaping effects for their home or project.

Features

• Perfect for Weddings, Rez Days, Birthdays, Anniversaries, Party Gifts, and Holidays.
• Over 1,200 in-world Acoustic Alchemy scripted sound products to choose from.
• Automated and hassle free redemption process! No waiting on IMs or reimbursements!
• Online help.

The gift certificates are available both in-world and on XStreetSL. Available certificate amounts:

L$100, L$250, L$500, L$1000, L$1500, L$2000, L$2500, L$5000, L$7500, L$10000.

Gift Certificate Affiliate Vendor

A gift certificate reseller edition is available at no cost and provides a 20% commission on all affiliate sales.

Coming Up Next

With the core system upgrades completed, the next round of product releases is about to begin!  More details to follow very soon!

A new page has been added to the website to better focus community attention on three major sound bugs.  Under certain conditions, these bugs can result in unreliable sound playback and a few have remained unresolved for an unacceptable amount of time.

Please take a few moments to review the details below and add your votes to the bug tracking system.  If you are familiar with the JIRA system, you can use the direct bug ticket links to view, vote, and comment on the tickets.  Be certain not to “unvote” if you have voted previously.  Step-by-step instructions are located on the Sound Bug page.

VWR-291 / http://jira.secondlife.com/browse/VWR-291

• Issue: Sound Files Often Not Downloaded
• Reported: 3/24/2007 / Escalated attention on 12/17/2007, still unresolved.
• Cause: Sound file downloads can be aborted when SL asset severs become lagged.  If the download is aborted, the SL client inserts a period of “silence” for that queued sound clip.  This can be observed in the SL client debug view (CTRL+SHIFT+4) as the “BOOM — Abort Transfer” error message.  Whenever that sound clip is triggered, only silence will play.  The only way to re-download the proper sound asset is to dump cache and have the sound asset re-queued.
• Impact: Unreliable sound system.  No recovery process.  Workaround procedure is unrealistic.
• Desired Resolution:  Sound file downloads should reliably downloaded when queued.  If asset data transfer is aborted, SL client should attempt to redownload without inserting silence.

VWR-8147 / http://jira.secondlife.com/browse/VWR-8147

• Issue: Cached sound data is purged at every exit or login.
• Reported: 7/2008
• Cause: Uncertain when this behavior was introduced.
• Impact: Clients must redownload every single sound asset every time they relogin.  This causes a massive amount of unnecessary client side bandwidth usage, SL asset server queries and file transfers.
• Desired Resolution: Cached sound data should not be purged on client exit and should remain client-side according to the main SL client cache preferences.

VWR-770 / http://jira.secondlife.com/browse/VWR-770

• Issue: llPlaySound() sometimes loops sound or wont even play
• Reported: 5/17/2007
• Cause: llPlaySound will sometime not play or make the sound play randomly or repeat itself.
• Impact: Unreliable sound system.  No workaround procedure.
• Desired Resolution: Sound playback should be reliable.

You are encouraged to forward this information on to friends, colleagues, and anyone else that may want to preserve their audible soundscapes.  After adding your votes and comments, be sure to get a free Atmosphere Orb of your choice.  Details at the bottom of this page.

10/28 Update – The initial run of votes has really bumped up the numbers on the JIRA tickets.  VWR-8147 was at 2 votes last week and landed at 24 votes ahead of the Linden Triage meeting.  I attended the meeting to push the urgency with the Linden developers.  There appeared to be a consensus that VWR-8147 should not be dumping the sound assets on every exit.  It appears that the issue has been imported and may be moving along to another level.  Although it was not on the meeting agenda, VWR-291 was also discussed and may be receiving some additional attention.  Unfortunately, the chat transcript from the meeting was lost.  I hope to attend future triage meetings, but we need to keep the votes and comments coming in.