The rune sound

I have the most important question in D2. No, it’s not about fixing Herald’s. Nor is it about gear selections to hit breakpoints. Nor even is it about binding demons or nerfing Mosaic.

Rather, this is a question about the acoustics of runes.

When you move a rune around in your inventory, it obviously makes a noise. But what on earth is that noise supposed to be? Runes are like little rocks, but the sound sounds like something sticky being peeled off.

For anyone who remembers the game Designosaurus, it’s like the same sound as when your dino walked across the oil sands. If you remember this game, please share!

So what is this rune sound??!!???

To me it sounds just like what you expected for "little rocks", or when you put GO pieces on a solid board.

Dude is out here asking the real D2 questions.
I encourage more of this.

It's the sound smooth rocks make when they scrape a hard surface.

At least in my head...

Don't call yourself true Diablo player if you don't fully listen to this little video while farming tower and then cube'ing all your findings into one single Um:




PS Respect to the guy who walked the river for Eternity. Humankind will not forget him.

HaveANiceDay wrote: 4 months ago

PS Respect to the guy who walked the river for Eternity. Humankind will not forget him.

That is some serious dedication!

Most importantly though, apparently I just had a really narrow sense of what rocks sounded like! I buy this now.

After some extensive auditory analysis I come to this conclusion: Lots of sounds in D2, especially sounds that items do, make no sense. They have nothing to do with the real world.

Gems and jewellery making a *ping* sound when they are actually just some pieces of metal and light stones. (Get your girlfriends' or wives' jewellery and try emulating this sound).
The runes should make a *clong* sound when you "put them down".
Charms sound like little rattling coins when they are actually massive Stone.

And then you put all of these items in your inventory which is probably just a cloth bag. So there is no sound at all or rather just the sound of the items bouncing against each other. We must have sounds for: jewellery hitting gems, gems hitting runes, runes getting put in between the pages of tomes, a burning said tomes, items being put in a cube with no holes etc.

This might all be because D2 is a piece of art that is not meant to imitate reality but rather to alter and elevate it to a level that invokes strong feelings.

And ping sounds are more pleasant to the Ear than clong sounds. (Quod erat demonstrandum.)

I always felt like it sounded like tiny pebbles scraping to each other or something similar. Definitely not sticky being peeled off but now that you said that, it does indeed sound like that and now that is all I can think of when hearing it. THANKS :DD

mikelessar wrote: 4 months ago

After some extensive auditory analysis I come to this conclusion: Lots of sounds in D2, especially sounds that items do, make no sense. They have nothing to do with the real world.

Gems and jewellery making a *ping* sound when they are actually just some pieces of metal and light stones. (Get your girlfriends' or wives' jewellery and try emulating this sound).
The runes should make a *clong* sound when you "put them down".
Charms sound like little rattling coins when they are actually massive Stone.

And then you put all of these items in your inventory which is probably just a cloth bag. So there is no sound at all or rather just the sound of the items bouncing against each other. We must have sounds for: jewellery hitting gems, gems hitting runes, runes getting put in between the pages of tomes, a burning said tomes, items being put in a cube with no holes etc.

This might all be because D2 is a piece of art that is not meant to imitate reality but rather to alter and elevate it to a level that invokes strong feelings.

And ping sounds are more pleasant to the Ear than clong sounds. (Quod erat demonstrandum.)

Actually i don't think charms should be considered massive stones.
I always thought of them like a tribal jewelry, some pendants you would be able to wear around neck etc.
Obv they take a lot of space in inventory. But I think we all agree that six rings are not the same size as full body armor.

To me sound job for diablo 2 is kinda good. It helps to distuingish items of different classes.

Semirotta wrote: 4 months ago

I always felt like it sounded like tiny pebbles scraping to each other or something similar. Definitely not sticky being peeled off but now that you said that, it does indeed sound like that and now that is all I can think of when hearing it. THANKS :DD

You're welcome

I have been pouring my thoughts over this lately too. And, I cannot shake the sense that they are 'muddy'. Like squelching sediment. Further research is needed.

Also: CHARMS!?

D2 sound effects are one of the main reasons the game is so good IMO.

A sphincter. It's the sound of a sphincter.

@ Deckard Cain Why is the sound effect of runes not similar to that of actual real-life stones being shuffled about?