AIBlast™ in Action

All your beautifully painted AI aircraft leaping into sky are a sight to behold...but they're not much to listen to. Until now...

Exclusive AIBlast™ (AIB) Technology instantly adds stunningly realistic Doppler sound effects to all your AI traffic, default or add-on.

And now Advanced AIBlast™ (AAIB) punches things up even more with takeoff spool-ups, tire screeches and overflights...even nearby aircraft while you're flying...55 sounds in all. New Directional Sound follows your view for full 3D effect. All with greater precision than ever in FS2004!

But AAIB doesn't stop there. If you like to tinker, you can create your own custom sounds and map them to default classes, aircraft model groups or even individual aircraft. Total flexibility. Every model can sound different. Upload your creations for others to enjoy.

AAIB immediately recognizes all your installed aircraft to to get you going fast. With 28 different default aircraft classes (up from 3 in Basic AIB) and 55 new sounds, your AI traffic environment will be richer than ever imagined!

All sounds are rendered with full Doppler 3D effects based on actual traffic movement, nothing is "canned". This is real airport ambience. Waiting on line for your takeoff clearance has never been this enjoyable!

AIBlast™ Basics & Notes

AIBlast™ (AIB) can be operated in one of two modes: Basic and Advanced. We strongly suggest the Advanced mode since it provides the highest degree of realism.

Basic AIB uses 3 sounds for all aircraft (generic piston, turboprop, and jet) which results in a 747 sounding the same as a Learjet albeit louder.

Advanced AIB (AAIB) does a much finer breakdown (55 different sounds) including engine spool-up sounds. With AAIB a 747 (a heavy jet) will not only be louder than a Learjet (a light jet) but will also sound different (including thrust reverse and spool-up.) The net result is a much more realistic experience for all your AI traffic, right out of the box. AAIB goes a step further by allowing the easy reassignment of sound globally, by aircraft model code, or by individual aircraft giving you have complete control over AI Traffic sounds.

Either AIB or AAIB may be used with either FS2002 or FS2004, however rendering is much more precise in FS2004. AAIB in FS2002 does take advantage of greater sound variety, identification accuracy, 3D effects and remapping ability.

All AI aircraft within 3 nautical miles of pilots aircraft will produce AIB sound if the aircraft is taking off, landing w/reversers (jets and turboprops only), over-flying or enroute. 

Aircraft sounds always fade out farther 3 NM from your aircraft location, no matter what.

The perspective of the sound is always centered on your aircraft regardless of camera view or position. When Directional Sound is enabled the aircraft sound follows your view direction (not azimuth).

Aircraft that are flying in your vicinity (<3 miles) are rendered (FS2004 only) including during flight. Up to 12 AIB traffic sounds can be active at one time.

AIB sounds model the AI aircraft flight profile and are therefore are at their mercy. For example, some aircraft may land at such a low speed and brake so quickly that thrust reverser sound may not deploy. Conversely, some aircraft reversers may seem to stay on too long but this is a function of poor braking. Bottom line...if it flies good, it generally sounds good.

Occasionally, MSFS will make an aircraft disappear during AIB rendering. This happens mostly on hard or crash landings with poor AI models. If this happens AIB may still render the sound for up to 15 seconds before fading it out.

Note that some sounds may be too quiet to hear depending on ambient noise and distance. Touchdown screech, for example, will generally be inaudible at a distances greater than 1/4 NM depending on aircraft weight. Spool-up sounds are generally inaudible (or very diminished) at distances greater that 1/2 mile.. As in real-life, low frequencies propagate much better with distance so distant sounds may just be a rumble, especially fly-overs.

When you enable Advanced AIBlast™ a reference copy of each of your aircraft.cfg files is placed in the individual aircraft folder under the name FSHSACBK.cfg prior to AAIB modification. If you disable AAIB later, AAIB mods will be removed from your aircraft.cfg but any changes you have made to your aircraft.cfg after AAIB install are retained. FSHSACBK.cfg is for your reference only, it's not used by AAIB. You are given the option of removing it at the time of AAIB removal. Removing AAIB will not, however, affect any modifications to Model Mappings or Aircraft Mappings.

Performance depends mostly on CPU speed, number of add-ons, and number of AI Aircraft. If AIB "surges" often with rapid volume or frequency changes it's a good indication that the systems is stressed and having difficulty transferring FSUIPC data. There is a setting in the FSUIPC.ini file, TrafficScanPerFrame, that be increased up to 100 to increase traffic scan rate. See FSUIPC Docs in the /extras folder. High-poly, non-LOD aircraft can have a huge impact on frame rates and should always be avoided.

Controlling Volume

AIB global volumes are controlled by three slider controls as detailed in the table below. These controls affect all AIB aircraft sounds whether in Basic or Advanced Mode. To adjust individual sound volume see Customizing AIBlast™ Sounds.

By default, the overall Volume is set high; rolloff and distance are set ear the middle which results in a slightly exaggerated sound.

The following section is technical in nature and, if you are not interested in changing individual sound volumes or recording your own aircraft sounds, may be skipped. It assumes that you have a working knowledge of text file editing and basic MSFS aircraft.cfg file structure and layout.

Customizing AIBlast™ Sounds

(Please note that we do not provide email technical support for AIB custom sound mapping but you are welcome to post messages at the AIBlast™ Mods section of the FSHotSeat.com Forums)

Overview

Advanced AIB provides generic engine sounds for 28 different aircraft classes, 20 reverse thrust sounds for jets and turboprops, and 7 spool-up sounds scaled to classes.

All your aircraft are classified and sounds are assigned per the chart below. Question marks (?) indicate that a specific aircraft meeting that criterion is unknown or may not even exist at present (typically 3 engine types) and are included only for consistency.

Note: AIB uses empty weight as found in the aircraft.cfg file to classify aircraft. Occasionally, add-on AI manufacturers change the empty weight (normally lower it) in order to improve flight characteristics. This may cause AIB to play the wrong sound file. The type (turboprop, jet, piston prop) will be correct but the weight class may be wrong, for example, a light TP may be played instead of a heavy TP. If you simply change the empty weight to factory specs the AI plane may not fly correctly. If the weight is fairly close to the cutoff, you can simply lower or raise it to push it into its proper class. If not, you can model map or aircraft map to a new class.

Whenever these docs refer to an aircraft, it means a single aircraft folder/.cfg file which often contains many different "paints" of the same underlying aircraft. If you want to differentiate sounds, for example, between an aircraft available with GE, PW and RR engines then you will have to split tem into different aircraft folders.

AIBlast™ utilizes an auto-sensing caching system to avoid parsing all your aircraft each time it is loaded. However, any changes made to aircraft.cfg files while FSHotSeat is already loaded are not recognized until it is reloaded or manually refreshed.

Wave Sound Format

All sound files must be 22kHz, 1 channel (mono), PCM .wav files. Sound editing programs like Cool Edit or Sound Forge are a good choice for creating and modifying sounds.

Except for Config Mapping, sound files must always be placed in /AIBSound subfolder of the FSHotSeat install folder.

A sound set consists of three sounds for jets and turboprops (power, spool-up and reverser). Piston props have two (power and spool-up).

A single touchdown screech is used for all aircraft and automatically scaled based on aircraft weight.

Actual aircraft takeoff recordings are the best source for AAIB sounds. The spool and power sounds should be captured during the spool-and-roll phase when the aircraft is moving slowly since you do not want to capture any Doppler Effect. AAIB adds its own Doppler Effect when rendering sounds. Reverser sounds are more difficult since the aircraft is naturally moving at a higher rate of speed. Recording them at a distance can minimize Doppler artifacts.

Power sounds should be the robust sound the aircraft under full throttle. Reverser sounds are similar with a bit more rumble.

Power and reverse sounds file should be roughly 2 to 5 seconds long and seamlessly loop without cracks, pops or looping artifacts. They should be at a high volume but should avoid distortion.

Spool-up sounds are more complicated. They are not looped. They represent the engine moving from idle to full power over a short period. Jet and turboprop spools should be about 10 seconds long, rising to their maximum volume and frequency in about 5 seconds, and fading in volume for the final 2 seconds. Piston prop spool-ups should be about 6 seconds long, rising to their maximum volume and frequency in about 3 seconds, and fading out in the last 1 second. Spool-ups should be recorded at a volume that blends with its corresponding power sound since they are automatically scaled to power volume by AAIB. You may have have to "play" with spool sounds to get the most pleasing effect.

Sound Key System

Advanced AIB sounds use a key system, similar to a variable, for default sound assignment by aircraft class as detailed in this chart:

So a light twin turboprop like a KingAir would use AIB_2TL.wav for its base sound and AIB_2TLR.wav for reverser mode. Piston props do not use reverser sounds.

Spool-up sounds are automatically attached to the above sound keys with the prefix AIB_S followed by aircraft type and weight class. For the above KingAir, AIB_STL.wav would be used. Spool up sounds never have their own volume settings; they are always scaled to the current power sound volume.

Advanced AIBlast™ Sound Mapping Overview

Advanced AIBlast™ offers three different methods of altering default AAIB sounds, each with strengths and weaknesses.

You may utilize any or all of these methods in combination to give you complete control over aircraft AI sounds.

Key Mapping

AAIB sounds keys represent the default method that AAIB uses to render AI aircraft sounds. AAIB sound key mapping is the simplest way of changing default sounds and volumes but do have some limitations and are best suited for tweaking the basic sounds.

Note: You should never modify any of the AIB_* key .wav files. The may be overwritten without warning in subsequent updates. Map replacements instead.

In your FSHotSeat install folder, locate the text file ADVAIBlast.ini. The [USER_AIBLAST] section is reserved for you to override default key mappings.

The [SYS_AIBLAST] section contains default file/volume mappings for AIB sound keys. Never modify this section. It may be updated by FSHS in the future without warning.  It is for your reference only to determine key remapping instructions. The section looks like this:

[SYS_AIBLAST]
AIB_1JL=AIB_1JL,60
AIB_1JLR=AIB_1JLR,65
AIB_1JH=AIB_1JH,85
AIB_1JHR=AIB_1JHR,90
AIB_1JM=AIB_1JM,65
AIB_1JMR=AIB_1JMR,70
AIB_1PH=AIB_1PH,65
etc...

Use these entries as reference templates for your [USER_AIBLAST] overrides.

The number at the right is the relative volume level for the corresponding key. Changing the volume will affect all aircraft mapped to that particular key. Remember, these volumes are relative to other aircraft so AIB_4JH (a 4-engine heavy jet like a 747) should be the loudest, at or near 95% and AIB_P1L the quietest (normally around 50%). Reverser sounds are generally about 5% higher than their corresponding power sound.

You can modify the volume of a default sound by creating a corresponding entry in the [USER_AIBLAST] section with a different sound level.

Example:

[USER_AIBLAST]
AIB_1JL=AIB_1JL,65

This would change the default volume of the single-engine light jet power sound from 60 to 65%.

You can also create your own global sounds and map them to the system keys by creating a corresponding [USER_AIBLAST] entry that will override the default. To the right of the equal (=) sign is the name of the actual wav file that is played. By changing this reference you can change the sound that is played for any of the sound keys.

Example:

[USER_AIBLAST]
AIB_1JL=MyLtJet1,65

This would play MyLtJet.wav, at 65% volume, whenever a default single engine light jet power sound was requested. You can do the same with reverser sounds (R suffix, AIB_1JLR) and spool-up sounds (AIB_S prefix, AIB_SJL, Spool Jet Light).

If you do not remap all the sounds in a set the default sounds will play which may or may not be okay. In the above example, the default reverser sound (AIB_1JLR) would have to be reasonably compatible MyLtJet1.wav, in tone as well as in volume. Same with the spool-up, AIB_SJL.. In addition, the spool-up AIB_SJL is used for all light jets (but now scaled to power volume 65% when rendered with remapped AIB_1JL) so it's best to keep your remapped default sounds fairly generic and rely on more accurate Model Mapping or Config Mapping when getting very specific.

The single touchdown screech, AIB_TD, is also available for remapping. The same sound is used for all aircraft and is automatically scaled based on aircraft weight. The touchdown sound must include volume assignment which represents the loudest the screech will play for the heaviest aircraft.

Model Mapping

Model Mapping allows you to assign custom sounds based on aircraft model codes as found in the aircraft.cfg [General] section, "ATC_MODEL" value. This is the most efficient method of adding specific custom sounds, especially when you distribute them to others. These sounds will override default sound assignments.

For model mapping to work properly your aircraft.cfg files must contain useable model codes. Most of them do but some do not (especially private aircraft.) Aircraft without useable ATC_MODEL codes will be assigned default sounds. Consult MSFS Types and Models  in the FSHS Help File for info on using model codes.

In your FSHotSeat install folder, locate the text file ADVAIBlast.ini. The [USER_MAP] section of this file contains all Model Mapping information in the following format:

[USER_MAP]
modelcode_soundcode=sound file,[volume]

Model code must correspond to the ATC_MODEL value of the target aircraft.cfg file (see MSFS Types and Models). It may include wildcards.

Sound code is an underscore (_) followed by one of the following: P=power takeoff/flight sound, S=spool-up sound, R=reverser sound

Sound file is filename without .wav extension; it's assumed.

Volume is optional (0-100, ignored for spool-up sound.)   If not given, volume will be the same as that assigned to that aircraft class in global key mapping.

Example:

To map all your Embraer EMB-120 Brasilias to custom sounds you could enter:

[USER_MAP]
E120_P=MyEMB120Power
E120_R=MyEMB120Rev
E120_S=MyENB120Spool

All aircraft with E120 ATC_MODEL designation would play your custom sounds at a volume determined by default key class for heavy turboprop (AIB_2TH/AIB_2THR) volume settings. Adding volume levels (MyEMB120Power,75) to power and reverser sounds would override these defaults. It is generally a good idea to omit the volume since you can then control the overall sound of all mappings in the same class by changing the key class volume. However, this assumes that all the .wavs are recorded at a balanced relative volume.

Using Wildcards

In many cases the type designation is not as clear cut as the example above. The Boeing 757 has two designations, B752 and B753.

In this case you would use wildcard designation. A question mark (?) accepts any single character as valid at its position. An asterisk (*) recognizes any sequence of characters as valid for its position.

To assign all Boeing 757s power sound you would use the designation B75?_P.

Not that all assignments are wildcard friendly. The King Air, for example, may be ATC_MODEL designated: B350, BE10, BE30, BE9L, or BE9T. You cannot use B* or B??? since they would also map the Boeings (like B752.) You cannot use BE* or BE?? since they would map to other Beech models. Even BE9* or BE9? unless you wanted to remap the Beech 99 (BE99), a similar type. So, to pick up all the King Airs you would have to list each one separately (repeating each sound assignment) or see MSFS Types and Models for model code workarounds.

Note that sounds are assigned sequentially so if you did have a BE99 entry listed before a BE9? entry then the BE99 assignment would be picked up prior to the BE9?. This applies to each sound so if the BE99 had no reverse sound assigned but BE9? did, the BE9? reverse sound would be assigned to the Beech 99.

You can take advantage of sequential parsing to create a exception to wildcard mapping. Just list the exception earlier on the list. For example, you want to assign the same sound to all your 737s except a different sound for your B73Q model:

[USER_MAP]
B73Q_P=My737QPower,80
B73?_P=My737Power,90

Would do the trick.

You should always check the MSFS Types and Models chart when using wildcard mapping to prevent inadvertent mapping.

Key Reclassing

Key reclassing allows you to quickly shift an aircraft type from one default class to another, normally up or down a weight level. Say, for example, you want to punch up all your Beech 1900s from the default light to heavy turboprop sound. If you enter (in the [USER_MAP]) section:

[USER_MAP]
B190_P=AIB_2TH

All your Beech 1900s would now play the default heavy turbo sounds, at default heavy volume, including heavy spool and reverse. Reclassing only applies to default sound keys. So entering:

[USER_MAP]
B190_P=My1900Power

Would play your custom file, keeping the 1900 in the light-turbo class, with light turbo volume, spool and reverser sounds. You can, of course, explicitly assign different default sounds:

[USER_MAP]
B190_P=My1900Power,70
B190_R=AIB_2THR,75
B190_S=AIB_STH

Would play your custom sound and explicitly use default heavy reverser and spool sounds.

Config Mapping

Note: If you disable Advanced AIBlast™ after it has been enabled you will lose all Config Mappings (not Key or Model Maps).

Config Mapping is the most accurate method of AAIB sound assignment. It allows you to assign or reclass sounds on an aircraft by aircraft basis, overriding any usr or system Key Mapping or Model Mapping. This can come in handy when, for instance, you have Model Mapped an aircraft type and want to make an exception.

Config Mapping is based on your aircraft.cfg file and not your "paints".

After Advanced AIBlast™ is installed, each of your aircraft.cfg files will contain a new [FSHS_AIBLAST] section at or near the end of the file.

There are three possible sound entries:

SndPower=power sound[,relative volume]
SndRev=reverse sound[,relative volume]
SndSpool=spool sound

The volume entry (a number from 0 to 100 representing the relative sound volume always with a preceding comma) is optional. If volume is omitted, the sound will play at the same volume as the aircraft's default AAIB class. You can map any or all three sounds. Entries that are not mapped will be Model Mapped (if it exists) or Key Mapped, in that order.

Example: SndPower=My1900Power

If this line is included in your Beech 1900 aircraft.cfg it will play My1900Power.wav as the power AI engine sound instead of any Key or Model Mapped sound.

f you are planning on using your sound for more than one aircraft.cfg file then place it in the FSHotSeat/AISound subfolder. If it applies to one aircraft only you can place it in the aircraft's main folder (not its sound subfolder.)

Aircraft Key Reclassing

Aircraft may be individually reclassed in a manner similar to Model reclassing.

Example: SndPower=AIB_T2H

Would reclass this specific turboprop aircraft from light to heavy turboprop sounds and volume levels.

Distributing Custom Sounds