Ambience is a variety of sound that plays under specific conditions. Currently, there are 167 different ambience sounds.
Currently there are three groups of ambiences: cave, underwater and nether.
In Java Edition, the volume of ambience sounds can be changed individually through "Music and Sounds" in the options menu by changing the "Ambient/Enviroment" bar.
All ambiences can be played using /playsound command. All type of ambiences have a specific codename and all starts with "ambient.<codename>".
Cave ambience[]
A dark cave in which a player may hear cave ambience.
Cave ambience (also known as cave sounds, or eerie noises in Java Edition subtitles) are sounds that play occasionally when the player is underground or in a dark area. These sounds can play in all biomes except the Nether biomes, as long as there is a cave or a dark enough area present.
The codename of cave ambiences is ambient.cave. There are a total of 19 different cave noises.
| Sound | Description |
|---|---|
| Cave1.ogg | Echoing steam-train whistle. |
| Cave2.ogg | Angelic singing. |
| Cave3.ogg | Low pitch orchestra. |
| Cave4.ogg | Demonic roar / Wind echoing in a tunnel. |
| Cave5.ogg | Ringing |
| Cave6.ogg | An engine passing by. |
| Cave7.ogg | A gong ringing softly. |
| Cave8.ogg | Devilish whiff / Blaze breathing. |
| Cave9.ogg | A sound as if an airplane was flying in distance. |
| Cave10.ogg | Echoing bang and violin screech. |
| Cave11.ogg | A distant minecart passing by. |
| Cave12.ogg | Loud bell. |
| Cave13.ogg | Demonic grunt. |
| Cave14.ogg | Steaming sound. |
| Cave15.ogg | Possibly a distorted train whistle. |
| Cave16.ogg | Banging metallic object. |
| Cave17.ogg | An Iron door slamming shut with a bell ringing. |
| Cave18.ogg |
A Minecart tumbling down / something banging on wood with keys. |
| Cave19.ogg | Growling noise. |
Underwater ambience[]
Underwater ambience plays when the player's head is underwater. There are currently 22 different underwater ambient noises in total. They can be heard within a body of water of any size in any dimension.
Underwater ambience is divided into two groups: "Loop" and "Loop Additions". Both of these play independently of each other when the player is underwater. Additionally, "Loop Additions" are divided into three more groups: Rare and Ultra Rare. The rarity of both is exaggerated in their name, and are actually derivd from their in-game code names.
The codename for underwater ambience is ambient.underwater.<group code name>
| Group | Info | Codename |
|---|---|---|
| Loop | Plays in never-ending loop as long as player is underwater. | ambient.underwater.loop |
| Loop Additions | Plays commonly while player is underwater. | ambient.underwater.loop.additions |
| Rare Loop Additions | Plays uncommonly while player is underwater. | ambient.underwater.loop.additions.rare |
| Ultra Rare Loop Additions | Plays rarely while player is underwater. | ambient.underwater.loop.additions.ultra_rare |
Note: The sounds are very quiet, so if you can't hear it it's not audio error.
| Sound | Group |
|---|---|
| Underwater Ambience | Loop |
| bubbles1.ogg | Loop Additions |
| bubbles2.ogg | Loop Additions |
| bubbles3.ogg | Loop Additions |
| bubbles4.ogg | Loop Additions |
| bubbles5.ogg | Loop Additions |
| bubbles6.ogg | Loop Additions |
| water1.ogg | Loop Additions |
| water2.ogg | Loop Additions |
| animal1.ogg | Rare Loop Additions |
| bass_whale1.ogg | Rare Loop Additions |
| bass_whale2.ogg | Rare Loop Additions |
| crackles1.ogg | Rare Loop Additions |
| crackles2.ogg | Rare Loop Additions |
| driplets1.ogg | Rare Loop Additions |
| driplets2.ogg | Rare Loop Additions |
| earth_crack.ogg | Rare Loop Additions |
| animal2.ogg | Ultra Rare Loop Additions |
| dark1.ogg | Ultra Rare Loop Additions |
| dark2.ogg | Ultra Rare Loop Additions |
| dark3.ogg | Ultra Rare Loop Additions |
| dark4.ogg | Ultra Rare Loop Additions |
Nether ambience[]
Nether ambience plays while the player is in The Nether. Each biome has its own unique ambience. There are 126 different nether ambient sounds in total.
Nether ambience is divided into three groups: "Loop", "Loop Additions", and "Mood", all of which play independently of each other while the player is in the Nether.
The codename for Nether ambience is ambient.<biome>.<group code name>
| Group | Info | Codename |
|---|---|---|
| Loop | Plays in never-ending loop for as long as the player is in the biome. | ambient.<biome>.loop |
| Loop Additions | Plays commonly while the player is in the biome | ambient.<biome>.additions |
| Mood | Plays once at least every 6000 ticks while the player is in the biome, based on the mood algorithm. | ambient.<biome>.mood |
Trivia[]
Ambient sound 14 viewed in a spectrogram.
- Ambience does not direct to ores or generated structures; it directs towards unlit caves and unexplored areas underground.
- There is nothing dangerous about ambience, yet it may scare players. It may be thought dangerous as ambience could lead to a dark cave with monsters inside, but it is not dangerous itself. It can warn a player that hostile Mobs can spawn in an area they are trying to light up, which means that it can help prevent danger.
- Ambience was made by C418 and Samuel Åberg, the sound designers and music creators for Mojang Studios.
- When "Cave 14" is viewed in a spectrogram, it appears to show the face of a creeper.
- In both Java Edition and Bedrock Edition of 1.16.0, cave ambience are played based on mood, a value between 0-100%. The mood value increases when player is in dark zone/underground and decreases if not. If the mood hits 100%, one of the sounds will play and mood will be reset to 0%. The deeper the player is and the darker it is, the quicker the mood value increases. Mood can be seen in debug screen.
- Most of the ambience in the Crimson Forest was made with balloons, which Samuel Åberg says creates a disturbing feeling of something stretching and forcing itself to bend.
- "Basalt Deltas click" is likely based on the sound a Geiger counter makes when in the presence of radiation, despite neither Geiger counters nor radiation existing in vanilla Minecraft.
- Cave ambience is the only ambience that has subtitles.