Do you use SL with sound enabled?

Afew days ago, myself and a team have built a haunted mansion for halloween. The mansion itself worked not only on the visual, but on the sound side of things to deliver an irry, menacing atmosphere and to run some of the special effects used in the building.

SecondLife is usually a very silent place, with the occasional soundtrack or shoutcast station being the exception - so building an enviroment that counted so much on sound effects was an intresting change.

During Halloween however, i've noticed an intresting trend: Many of the visitors to the mansion actually missed quite abit of the special effects that were sound enabled. When I checked on why, the answer surprised me: They simply did not have audio turned on (or had volume turned down with Winamp blowing some music).

So.. this got me curious: Just how many of you out there use SL with sound disabled or drowned out by some third-party soundtrack?

(Also, if you're intrested - the mansion is still on its place and will be for the rest of the week. Feel free to take a peek before its gone!)

so enabled! so spooked out as i got more and more immersed in your house!

I played the first few months with sound enabled, but there just aren't that many compelling atmospheric sound installations around (and I don't care for other people's streaming music), so I just don't bother with sound anymore. I will enable sound for specific events like live music or a haunted mansions, though, if the announcement is clear that there is something to hear as well as to see

I can't understand people playing sl without sound. Where I live is certainly not a silent place. There is a noisy waterfall, gulls, parrots, fountains and general wildlife sounds apart from the Linden ambient sounds.

I would say that anybody who plays with the sound turned off is losing a complete dimension from their experience.

I used to play with sound on all the time but I don't anymore, apart from rarely if there's a compelling reason to. Most environmental sounds I come across tend to be the same samples, played too frequently and, unlike Selador, I get sick of hearing the same waterfall sound looping

Actually this reminds me that I need to finish off some ambient sound machines I worked on a long time ago. Now to find them in my inventory....

What Jackal said

but I must admit Selador that you have a point there I can agree with, I only turn the sound on when I think it is worth turning on, for instance in a place where I know they play good music or to listen to a waterfall or to instructions... For the most part, I like silence.

Moopf,

<<and, unlike Selador, I get sick of hearing the same waterfall sound looping>>

Ah, I made my own.

I loved your house CrystalShard, totally awesome experience. The sounds were great, and the textures/effects/furniture were wonderful.
Thankyou for the experience.

But in answer to the question, I have streaming sound disabled, though I do hear environmental sounds, and the ever-annoying sound bites people insist on playing.

Usually though I have Winamp on and listen to music.
Why? Because here in Australia, the cable ISP's still have monthly download limits. Mine is 12 GB per month, and SL on it's own uses almost 95% of that allowance. If I enabled sound as I did when I first joined, I would find that well before the end of the month my download allowance would be used, and I would be throttled back to just 25.6 kbps, not even enough to open Google.

If my family is home, the sound is off. No headphones either. It's too hard to moderate fighting that way...

But when no one is home but me, sound is cranked.

Sound is muted and streams are off. I activate them on when I'm touring something that requires them, then turn them off again. There are probably reasonable explanations for this behaviour; but I just call them Preferences.

on or off depending... very rarely is there sound worth listening to..

I usually have sounds on and have winamp going at the same time. However if Im in a place where the DJ plays good tunes I'll turn off winamp and listen to the in game stream (or tune into the stream via winamp).

Sound always on. Sometimes speakers, sometimes headphones. You (CS) might have guessed that though, from the ambiant sounds all over Fhtagn Point (next door to CS's haunted house).

-Ghoti

I generally kill the audio stream and listen to my own music, but keep SL's sounds effects on.

I have my sound on as much as possible.

The problem is, sometimes I'm on Photoshop as well, making some textures. When I flip from photoshop to SL, the audio sometimes gets all crackly and grinds on my nerves, so I turn it off and sometimes forget to turn it back on.

Otherwise, it's always on

Everytime I turn my sound on in SL I am reminded almost instantaneously as to why I turned it off in the first place.

In addition to that, I keep the sound off because Flipper and I both SL from the same room and often have the television or music on.

I have mine mostly enabled. At times, however, I have to turn it off cause I'm at places (the WA for example) where the same sound clip gets played over and over again and to avoid throwing my laptop across the room, I will turn it off. I do have the music and movie stream turned off.

MJ

agrees wholeheartedly.....ambient sounds are a definate part of the landscape on all of the properties of Selador....(girl purrs)

mostly depending on what i am doing in real life.

I always have my sound enabled, but the volume will depend on what else is going on in my house.

*turns sound on for 5 seconds*

*howlzz*
*baby giggle*
*howlz*
*simpsons quote*
*baby giggle*
*howlz*
*howlz*
*baby giggle*
*simposons quote*



Nope, sounds firmly OFF here

I do enable sounds when I remember to turn them back on. Since I host a couple of radio shows every week I have to turn off sound for broadcasting and usually just forget to re-enable them when I'm done with a show.

Always on! As a musician, I tend to be driven aurally as much as visually. Without sound, I feel like I would be missing a significant part of the experience. That is not to say that I always have my sound up loud, or there are not moments where I have it turned off, but for the most part I enjoy the sights and sounds of Second Life.

Now, if somebody could tell me how to enable smell and touch I will feel completely immersed ...

sound usually off, listen to my own music collection, which varies with my mood. But if there's a dj that I like playing something, i'll turn it on. LOVED your haunted mansion, btw.

Listen closely...leave the club...leave the club now....you will not poof, you will not suffer, just leave the club in search of sound!! ((afraid the music has deafened you))