Minecraft has a big selection of sounds which you can choose from. Check out the SoundEvents class to view all the vanilla sound event instances that Mojang has provided.

Using Sounds in Your Mod

Make sure to execute the playSound() method on the logical server side when using sounds!

In this example, the useOnEntity() and useOnBlock() methods for a custom interactive item are used to play a "placing copper block" and a pillager sound.

@Override
public ActionResult useOnEntity(ItemStack stack, PlayerEntity user, LivingEntity entity, Hand hand) {
	// As stated above, don't use the playSound() method on the client side
	// ... it won't work!
	if (!entity.getWorld().isClient()) {
		// Play the sound as if it was coming from the entity.
		entity.playSound(SoundEvents.ENTITY_PILLAGER_AMBIENT, 2f, 0.7f);
	}

	return super.useOnEntity(stack, user, entity, hand);
}

The playSound() method is used with the LivingEntity object. Only the SoundEvent, the volume and the pitch need to be specified. You can also use the playSound() method from the world instance to have a higher level of control.

@Override
public ActionResult useOnBlock(ItemUsageContext context) {
	if (!context.getWorld().isClient()) {
		// Play the sound and specify location, category and who made the sound.
		// No entity made the sound, so we specify null.
		context.getWorld().playSound(null, context.getBlockPos(),
				SoundEvents.BLOCK_COPPER_PLACE, SoundCategory.PLAYERS,
				1f, 1f);
	}

	return super.useOnBlock(context);
}

SoundEvent and SoundCategory

The SoundEvent defines which sound will be played. You can also register your own SoundEvents to include your own sound.

Minecraft has several audio sliders in the in-game settings. The SoundCategory enum is used to determine which slider will adjust your sound's volume.

Volume and Pitch

The volume parameter can be a bit misleading. In the range of 0.0f - 1.0f the actual volume of the sound can be changed. If the number gets bigger than that, the volume of 1.0f will be used and only the distance, in which your sound can be heard, gets adjusted. The block distance can be roughly calculated by volume * 16.

The pitch parameter increases or decreases the pitch value and also changes the duration of the sound. In the range of (0.5f - 1.0f) the pitch and the speed gets decreased, while bigger numbers will increase the pitch and the speed. Numbers below 0.5f will stay at the pitch value of 0.5f.