Hard to find the right sounds

General Chat
#1

Gotta get something off my chest. I’m going to come right out and say it. Syrinscape has just got too much stuff.

I mean it. Too much stuff.

Of course in some ways that’s fantastic. So much material at our fingertips as SuperSyrin subscribers… so much material to choose from, to search through for the right sounds for your planned encounter… so much material to slog through.

I mean it’s fantastic if you’re running one of the specific adventure paths/ scenarios that Syrinscape has produced specific soundsets for. Reach a specific section in the adventure… hit play on the related mood. Fantastic. I get that that is Syrinscape’s bread and butter business model, I really do.

But if you’re running something else, or even worse something more heavily improvised, you’re in trouble, unless the scene happens to match one of the generic and obviously named soundsets like “Goblin Battle”. All that fantastic content you’ve got access to as a Supersyrin is effectively inaccessible, with the right sound elements to match your scene being a needle hidden in a stack of other needles.

It’s why despite the power and flexibility Syrinscape offers to create completely dynamic background sounds, I find myself only using as a player for the ten-minute soundscape files produced by other companies, or just generic music playlists. It’s not what Syrinscape is built for, and I feel like I’m using a Ferrari to tow a caravan. But those 10 minute soundscapes are accessible, I can just look a the list of files I have and from the filename say “That’s the one I need for this.” Whereas if I’m planning a scene featuring an attack by derros, it’s not as easy for me to find out I need to dig out the eoa Dead Warrens soundset.

I’m not just having a good old whinge here, I’ve actually got a concrete suggestion (apart from digitising HECook’s brain and offering the resulting AI as a free download, that is.) We can currently use the “Your Campagns” page to pull up info on each of the published soundsets, and the Soundset Features tab there lists each soundset’s Moods and Elements while the Overview on some of the adventure path soundsets often describes the moods in plain terms. If that data was somehow made available in a searchable format - even if only a .CSV file, it would make it so much easier to find the right sounds to build custom soundsets.

Right around now is usually the time that y’all say something like “But Stoopid, that’s already available right now in XYZ option.” In which case I’ll cease my complaining. Again… not hating Syrinscape, here. Still a big fan… just wish I was able to use more of its full potential than just as a glorified music playlist.

That is all.

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#2

I was having the same issue, then I started using the directions here to open all soundsets installed in soundset creator. Then I can using sql to search for elements and moods by looking up specific names. You can also use the export function in DB Explorer to export the mood, element and soundset tables to csv.

#3

You are going to LOVE the sample and element search functions we are 92% finished building for the Online Player!

Works amazing on our staging server.

Watch this space! :slight_smile:

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#4

I actually think the elements/samples need to be reorganised there is so many duplicates. Finding anything your after is a tough slog.

At the very least samples should be categortized, that way instead of looking just for the word yell or shout should come up as a category like individual emotion. This way you can find all those small samples your looking for rather then guess work.

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#5

I agree. There is the search function under any soundset tab but it only finds the names, it doesn’t search for sounds.

I created campaigns, which are just topic names, and then put sound sets under there. Battles, City/Town, Mountains, Swamps. But I completely agree with the OP that I have to remember that something is under an AP name for some things.

Even then, I feel like there could definitely be a rearrangement of sounds for general ambiance. I want a sound from one and a sound from one. Or I want a storm overlaid on the town sounds. Or to mix the NPC sounds.

As the OP said, if that’s what the creator is for, then I will also be using a few things here and there instead of getting use the full ability of Syrinscape.

#6

I really need to clarify my previous comments.

I enjoy Syrinscape a lot. I like that it is more than a sound board. I also like that the search function seems to look into the specific items created e.g. looking for ‘battle’ gives me HBS Rebuild the Ravens, which has Tooth Fairy Battle and Excruciation Battle.

But

What are they? What is an Excruciation battle? Or Chough Battle under HBS The Waspnest?

So, maybe what is needed are pop up descriptions, both on the main tabs, where you could also spell out the acronyms, and under the sound to have an idea of what it is? Alligator Battle -> “reptile roars and water sounds for a swamp fight” type thing?

I mean, I only put sets with Battle in the name of them under my campaign heading for battle, not realizing that there are a lot more battle sounds that I could have been using!

The point being that without having these memorized, both where they are located and what the sounds are, it’s tough to “wing it” which I do a lot, even if I am running an AP. But having a soundset that has all battle sounds presents the problem of having to scroll through them. Perhaps by level for DND/PF battles? Monster names?

Also, what about being able to customize the sound board area? I don’t really want all of the SciFi sounds in my fantasy player but if some do, let us customize it? Add remove sounds?

Again, I enjoy the product a lot and my hope is to now refine the UI so I can get even more use out of it.

Thanks!

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#7

I think something like a tag to all the samples would be the best way to go. Elements I do not really care for so much as they are unique for the soundset. Whereas Samples should have a tag system. The tag system should have a certain number of options, please do not make it open slather otherwise without the same naming convention is just still a mess.

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#8

Awhile ago, I suggested crowdsourcing the tagging of different sounds and just let supersyrins tag them. Then other people can search for sound tags and see what other people have used sounds for. Doesn’t even need to be a native feature either, just give us a public excel spreadsheet of each sample in the program, with the different soundsets the sample is in, lock those cells, and then add a “tag” cell that super syrins can fill in and search. Then if I search “giants” and someone has tagged some things are “giants” I can easily find them and know what sound sets I need to download to get that sample.

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#9

You know I was thinking about proposing a crowdsourcing effort on this, but I wouldn’t have a clue how best to co-ordinate the effort.

It could be done at either the Mood or Element level. Tagging Samples would be useful for Supersyrin subscribers using the Creator, but regular users wouldn’t be able to access the individual samples. They could still use the Moods & Element data to create custom Moods.

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#10

Yes, yes, yes.

OK. I’l add this a list of things SuperSyrins could do benefit/help/participate in the community.

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#11

Basically, I think the UI needs an overhaul. And ability to customize it.

I know the info button exists but I would prefer a title bar that has the name of the soundset, so it’s always visible.

I would like popups on the soundsets for the full name. Maybe that could also include the tags, which is a great idea! This stops me from having to select it, then press info.

Along with that, it would be nice to have a “return to playing soundset” button so when I go looking, I can get back to what is playing easily.

I still want a customizable quick sound area. I’m not sure what it is called but the items on the far right in the box. First of all, I want to remove all of the modern sounds (laser, shotgun, automatic) from my fantasy sounds. Second, I want to put spell sounds there. I get having soundset specific ones above it but commonly used below would be nice.

I love the program and hope these are taken as intended, to make it better.

Thanks!

1 Like
#12

Is there a master list of URIs for the desktop client? There’s been some turmoil in the Fantasy Grounds community today, and the developer who created the Fantasy Grounds/Syrinscape integration extension has pulled his work.

The sheer volume of sounds in Syrinscape is

  1. Impressive (thank you!)
  2. Nearly impossible to manually click and gather all of the URIs for import into Fantasy Grounds.

As mentioned in other posts, the UI is VERY friendly as a standalone tool, but for newcomers, the sheer volume of content is overwhelming. Since we all tend to work differently, I personally would LOVE to have a categorized, collapseable, text list of sounds. Tags would go a LONG way to helping people slice and dice the trove in different ways.

Ultimately, an API to the list of sounds and their URIs would allow third parties to build the UIs that suit them best, or to build Virtual Table-Top integrations. The best part is that this only works if you’ve paid for the content. Giving the community more methods of accessing the content would (hopefully!) lead to more sales!

#13

I normally keep an eye on the FG forums but hadn’t spotted anything about this today!

We are working at the moment to actually make the integration even more streamlined and easy to use. In the mean time you might find this post pretty useful Generate CSV with soundstring I know @brunocalado has been looking at gathering the codes into an easy to use format

#15

Unfortunately, Steve — the recommended $5 solution is from the developer that discontinued his work, today.

The original subject of the post that you linked to was a request by a user asking for the same thing I’m asking for.

#16

I’d love what @brunocalado was recommending.

#17

I was referring to Brunocalado’s posts, he’s putting together his own mod and list :slight_smile:

He’s had several conversations with @sonofconan our Lead developer looking at the best ways to implement the list and how to make it available

#18

@brunocalado is doing the grunt work of copying every single sound link manually.

This wouldn’t be necessary if there were an API to grab the always-up-to-date, accurate links programmatically.

If @brunocalado decides to stop his efforts, or cease sharing, we all end up left in a lurch, again.

#19

@macdork he is not manually copying links. We have implemented the CSV export requested by @brunocalado and he has used it successfully in a Fantasy Grounds extension. Check the hamburger menu (top right) of the master interface.

I’m not sure what his plans are for it, if he intends to release it or not. But you (anyone, in fact) can export a CSV with play/stop links for the online and genre players for ALL of the content that the authenticated user has access to.

If you’re building a Fantasy Grounds integration, you’ll just need to replace https with syrinscape-online in the online player links, to make use of the registered protocol handler that is now included with the online player (as of version 1.4.6, just released) to avoid the system opening a browser window for each action.

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#20

Actually, he has not shared his work.

#21

omg seriously? Thank you! I’ll look later – bath time for kiddos right now.

This is exactly what I was hoping for. Thank you!

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