Munk Productions Ambisonic Ambiences (MPAA) are extensively grouped, categorised and metadata tagged. Because a library is not worth much if you can't find the files you're looking for.
Read here important information about file naming, categorisation, descriptions and the Unique Identifier to help you navigate the library.
Below that you can read about embedded metadata and which formats are supported.
Categorisation
Identifier
The Unique Identifier is an important item, as it uniquely identifies the content of the individual ambiences. It looks like this:
MPAAxxxx
where xxxx is a number between 0001 and 9999. It is appended with an underscore and a two-letter suffix indicating the Wave file format. Currently, two formats are available in MPAA:
| Suffix | Wave File Format |
|---|---|
| am | 16 channels, 3rd order Ambisonic |
| bi | 2 channels, binaural ("stereo") |
Example with Wave file format indicator:
MPAA0221_am
In addition, a Normalised indicator (_N) may be appended, if the audio of the file has been peak normalised (read more about this here).
Example of peak normalised file:
MPAA0221_am_N
If two files have the same identifier, it means they contain exactly the same content, i.e. they are the same recording in different Wave file formats. That way you will always know if you're dealing with duplicates of the same audio content.
The Unique Identifier is found at the end of the filename (see below) and in embedded metadata.
Type
The ambiences are separated into three distinctly different types: Static, Action and Transition. Read here for more information on types.
In addition, the Designed subtype may be added (Designed Static, Designed Action, and Designed Transition) for Designed Ambiences. Read here for more information on Designed Ambiences.
Any package contains only files from one type.
Category
Ambiences are further divided into categories. These inform you of the kind of scene recorded. Categories are:
| Category | Description |
|---|---|
| Domestic | Ambiences taking place in a private home. For the Transition and Action types: Occasionally in the home's garden. |
| Leisure | Recordings of leisurely activities such as restaurant dining, sports, amusement park visits, shopping centres, supermarkets, etc. |
| Nature / Rural | Soundscapes where Nature's sounds are in focus: Beaches, forests, fields, parks etc. Urban sound sources may be included (but not in focus), such as cars, bicycles etc. The Rural category contains ambiences from farms and the countryside, where nature isn't the focus (e.g. wind mills on a field). |
| Occupational | Workplace-related ambiences. Besides the obvious offices, it includes other locales from a workplace some of which could be used as non-workplace related, such as elevators, canteens, etc. |
| Transportation | Sounds related to the transportation of people: Cars, trains, buses, bicycles, etc. Usually in the form of rides in or on such vehicles, but also ambiences from train stations, bus stops, etc. |
| Urban | A large category of ambiences related to humans and civilisation. Typical locales are cities, towns, villages, residential areas, gardens, parks, etc. |
| Haunted & Horror | Supernatural ambiences, usually of the "Designed" subtype. These contain sounds and action you won't find in the real world. Typical locales are forests, castles, houses, dungeons, etc. |
Each category descriptor is appended with the information Relative Position ("Interior" or "Exterior"), indicating whether it was recorded indoors or outdoors. For Transitions, it may be both. In such cases, the order (Interior/Exterior or Exterior/Interior) designates where the recording starts and where it ends.
Locale
This is the "name" of the recording location. It consists of a location descriptor (like Beach, Fjord, City, Town, etc.) and either a single letter (A, B, C, etc.) or the Designed subtype indicator "D" followed by a single letter (D-A, D-B, D-C, etc.), indicating the particular location in question:
- Town 'A'
- Train Station 'C'
- Beach 'B'
- Castle 'D-A'
- City 'D-B'
The letter allows you to locate ambiences recorded in the same general surroundings. The reason for this is that many locations have their own "sound" with recognisable characteristics. A forest or fjord often has a characteristic sound depending on it's location in the countryside. And a house or apartment is normally built and decorated in a reasonably consistent manner, making reflections, floor types, possible exterior noises, etc. recognisable between rooms.
Of course, this is not always the case; a large city can sound vastly different from area to area, and the same goes for especially larger workplaces, and certain other locales. But we decided to be consistent to make reading of the metadata easier, so it's included in nearly all ambiences.
The exceptions to the lettering scheme are places like buses or trains, where the individual vehicle within its type is expected to be unrecognisable.
The Designed subtype has its own lettering scheme, because these Ambiences can be a combination of several recordings from different locales. Therefore these locales can be considered "virtual locales".
Filename
The filename is an abbreviated version of the Description. It's been designed to
- contain the most important descriptive information of the ambience
- be "DAW friendly" so, when working on your project, it's as easy as possible to know which files are placed where
- be "directory friendly" so that, when sorting ambiences in a directory on your computer, they will organise in the way that makes finding specific files as easy as possible without consulting the documentation
Of course, if you're using a metadata tool to manage your sound effects, how files sort in a directory is not that important. But in other cases, it's convenient - and it's always valuable when trying to keep an overview of a project in a DAW.
If a Static ambience contains one sound source which is very much in focus, to the point that it could be used as a single sound effect, that sound source is CAPITALISED to stand out in both the filename and the description.
The filename consists of the following fields and abbreviated information:
Category_RelativePosition_Locale_Season_keywords_Level_Type_UniqueIdentifier_WaveFileFormat.wav
Italised fields are optional; they appear where relevant. The fields that haven't yet been explained are:
| Field | Meaning |
|---|---|
| RelativePosition | Exterior or Interior. Values: "Ext", "Int", "ExtInt", "IntExt" |
| Season | The season of the year of recording. Normally only relevant to exterior ambiences. Values: "Spring", "Summer", "AutmnWint", "Autmn", "Wint" |
| Level | An optional attenuation in dB for very loud ambiences (see Gain and Level Options) |
| Type | The Ambience type. Values: Stat, Act, Trans (for recorded Ambiences), and Des-Stat, Des-Act, Des-Trans (for Designed Ambiences). |
Examples:
Transport_Ext_CityB_AutmnWint_bikeRide_fromHouseA-to-parkingLot_Trans_MPAA0244_am.wav Urban_Ext_gardenB_AutmnWint_forecourt_birds_distantTraffic_Stat_MPAA0067_am_N.wav Leisure_Int_fromSupermarketA-to-shoppingCentreA_fromEntranceThroughCheckout_busy_voices_handlingNoises_shoppingCarts_Trans_MPAA0159_bi.wav Domestic_Int_HouseA_kitchen_cleaningAfterDinner_Act_MPAA0223_bi_N.wav HauntedHorror_Ext_ForestD-A_hauntedForest_windy_background_Des-Stat_MPAA0737_bi
Description
The Description contains nearly all information about the Ambience. It has the following format:
Category, RelativePosition, Designed, Locale, textual description of scene/actions/locale followed by a listing of all noteworthy sound sources, Level, Region, Microphone. Matching Ambiences. Other notes.
Italised fields are optional; they appear where relevant. The fields that haven't yet been explained are:
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| Designed | Appears only if the Ambience is of the Designed subtype |
| Region | The region of the world where the Ambience was recorded. Example values could be: Northern Europe, Southern Europe, Northern America... |
| Microphone | The microphone(s) used to record the Ambience or elements of it (only for recordings made by Munk Productions) |
| Matching Ambiences | A list of Unique Identifiers. For recorded Ambiences: Lists Ambiences recorded at the same time and location, such that they match this one sonically and can be crossfaded to without creating a scene change For Designed Ambiences: As above, except these are designed (not recorded) to be sonically matching |
| Other notes | Extra information about the Ambience, such as when a static Ambience can't be directly looped |
Example:
Transportation, Exterior, Field A, Summer, someone walking up to Toyota Auris, unlocking and opening door, getting into car, closing door, starting engine, stopping engine, car window open. Birds, unlocking door, slightly windy, Northern Europe, ZM-1-3E
Metadata
We provide metadata in two forms:
- embedded in each file
- as a TSV file you can import into a spreadsheet for searching, sorting, and further manipulation. This file follows the Soundminer fomat
Our metadata support the following formats:
- Soundminer Metawrapper Metadata v4
- BWAV (Broadcast Wave) Metadata
- MacOS Spotlight Metadata
A large number of audio applications on different platforms support some or all of these formats, so, in general, you'll be able to view and search this information almost regardless of your chosen application.
We built our documentation to fit this specific area of audio files as well as possible. Not only are we dealing with non-music files, but even within the sound effects category, ambiences have their own specific needs. For example, we decided not to include a short-form "name" of each file - many such "names" would be the same (beach, beach, beach, and... well, beach), and the information such a name provides would just be a duplication of information already present in both Filename, Locale and Description. On the other hand, Locale is a specifically important information in our ambiences - but none of the popular metadata formats have such a field. So we created this field knowing it would take some imagination mapping it in a meaningful way to the supported metadata formats. And this goes for other fields as well. We hope you agree that the way in which we have done it makes sense and helps to sort ambiences in a helpful way within e.g. Soundminer.
The following helps you to understand where the information can be found.
Soundminer
In the table below you can see which metadata fields we include, and how our documentation's fields are mapped to Soundminer's fields.
| Soundminer Field | MPAA Field | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Ambience (Type) / Category(1) | Ambience (Static) / Leisure |
| SubCategory | Category(2) / Locale | Interior / Supermarket 'A' |
| Filename | Filename | Leisure_Int_SupermarketA_nearGreensSection_mediumBusy_telephone_ checkoutBeeps_voices_handlingNoises_footsteps_Stat_MPAA0157_bi.wav |
| Description | Description | Leisure, Interior, Supermarket 'A', large supermarket, near greens section, distant phone ringing, distant checkout beeps, display coolers humming, medium busy, voices, handling noises, footsteps, ZM-1-3E |
| Designer | - | Christian Munk |
| Manufacturer | - | Munk Productions |
| URL | - | https://www.munkprod.dk/shop |
| Library | - | MP Ambisonic Ambiences |
| Location | Unique Identifier | MPAA0157 |
| Microphone | - | Zylia ZM-1-3E |
| ShortID | Unique Identifier_formatIndicator | MPAA0157_am |
| Notes | Format | Ambisonic, 3rd order |
| ReleaseDate | - | 2020-05-20 |
| BWDescription | Description | Leisure, Interior, Supermarket 'A', large supermarket, display coolers humming, medium busy, voices, shopping cart, handling noises, footsteps, faint background music, ZM-1-3E |
| BWOriginator | - | Christian Munk |
BWAV
In the table below you can see which metadata fields we include, and how our documentation's and Soundminer's fields are mapped to Broadcast Wave's fields.
| BWAV Field | Soundminer Field | MPAA Field | Example |
|---|---|---|---|
| Description | Description | Description | Leisure, Interior, Supermarket 'A', large supermarket, display coolers humming, medium busy, voices, shopping cart, handling noises, footsteps, faint background music, ZM-1-3E |
| Originator | Designer | - | Christian Munk |
MacOS Spotlight
If you select an MPAA file and press ⌘I (or right click and select the "Get Info" option) MacOS will show file information on screen. Under "More Info" you'll see a number of metadata fields with metadata. The fields we include are the following:
| MacOS Field | Soundminer Field | MPAA Field | Example |
|---|---|---|---|
| Authors | Designer | - | Christian Munk |
| Copyright | Year Manufacturer (Library) URL | - | 2020 Munk Productions (MP Ambisonic Ambiences) https://www.munkprod.dk/shop |
| Musical genre | Category | Ambience (Type) / Category(1) | Ambience (Static) / Leisure |
| Comment | Description | Description | Domestic, Exterior, Garden 'A', Autumn, back garden, collecting leaves, leaves rustling, electric train passing above, Northern Europe, ZM-1-3E |