Adding a Custom Sound to a Block or Entity

Minecraft Bedrock accepts audio in two formats: Ogg Vorbis (.ogg) and uncompressed WAV (.wav). While WAV files work for short effects during testing, you should convert all final assets to .ogg to keep your pack size small and prevent memory issues on mobile devices.

For spatial 3D sounds—audio that gets quieter as the player walks away from the entity or block—your audio file must be exported with a single channel (mono). If you provide a stereo file, the game engine cannot calculate directional panning or distance attenuation, and the sound will play at full volume across the entire dimension or wherever the listener is standing.

Place your exported audio files inside the RP/sounds/ directory of your resource pack. Organising them into subfolders like RP/sounds/mob/goblin/ or RP/sounds/blocks/machine/ keeps your pack clean and matches the vanilla folder structure.

Before the game can play a file, it needs a short identifier known as a sound event. You define these in RP/sounds/sound_definitions.json. This file acts as a bridge between the physical file path on disk and the string identifier you use in commands, animations, and sound registries.

Notice that file paths inside this JSON never include the .ogg or .wav file extension. The engine automatically searches for a matching file at the specified path. You can also list multiple files in the sounds array; when the event triggers, the engine picks one at random, which prevents repetitive audio when a player breaks several blocks in a row.

{
  "format_version": "1.14.0",
  "sound_definitions": {
    "mob.goblin.ambient": {
      "category": "neutral",
      "max_distance": 16.0,
      "sounds": [
        "sounds/mob/goblin/idle1",
        {
          "name": "sounds/mob/goblin/idle2",
          "volume": 0.8,
          "pitch": 1.0,
          "load_on_low_memory": true
        }
      ]
    },
    "dig.custom_machine": {
      "category": "block",
      "sounds": [
        "sounds/blocks/machine_break1",
        "sounds/blocks/machine_break2"
      ]
    }
  }
}

There are two ways to make a custom entity play your registered sound event. For automatic lifecycle sounds—such as ambient noises, hurt cries, death sounds, and footsteps—you map them inside RP/sounds.json. This file sits in the root of your resource pack, not inside the RP/sounds/ subfolder.

Under the entity_sounds object, you add your custom entity's full identifier (including the namespace) and bind standard game events like ambient, hurt, death, or step to the sound event names you created in sound_definitions.json.

{
  "entity_sounds": {
    "entities": {
      "my_pack:goblin": {
        "volume": 1.0,
        "pitch": [
          0.8,
          1.2
        ],
        "events": {
          "ambient": "mob.goblin.ambient",
          "hurt": {
            "sound": "mob.goblin.hurt",
            "volume": 1.0,
            "pitch": 1.0
          },
          "death": "mob.goblin.death",
          "step": {
            "sound": "mob.goblin.step",
            "volume": 0.25
          }
        }
      }
    }
  }
}

For attacks, spells, or custom actions that do not fit into the standard hurt or ambient slots, you wire the sound through the entity's client description and trigger it in an animation.

First, open your client entity file (in RP/entity/) and add a sound_effects block under description. This assigns a short local alias to your sound event. Once declared, you can trigger that alias at an exact keyframe timestamp inside an animation file, or state-change it inside an animation controller.

{
  "format_version": "1.10.0",
  "minecraft:client_entity": {
    "description": {
      "identifier": "my_pack:goblin",
      "materials": {
        "default": "entity_alphatest"
      },
      "textures": {
        "default": "textures/entity/goblin"
      },
      "geometry": {
        "default": "geometry.goblin"
      },
      "sound_effects": {
        "laugh": "mob.goblin.ambient"
      },
      "animations": {
        "attack_anim": "animation.goblin.attack"
      },
      " render_controllers": [
        "controller.render.default"
      ]
    }
  }
}

Blocks use a two-tier system in RP/sounds.json. First, you define an interactive sound set under block_sounds, which groups the breaking, placing, hitting, and stepping audio under a single profile name. Next, you assign that profile name to your custom block inside RP/blocks.json.

In RP/sounds.json, add a block_sounds section alongside entity_sounds if you use both. Then open RP/blocks.json in the root of your resource pack and set the sound property of your custom block to match the profile name you just created.

{
  "block_sounds": {
    "custom_machine_sounds": {
      "volume": 1.0,
      "pitch": 1.0,
      "events": {
        "default": "dig.custom_machine",
        "item.use.on": "dig.custom_machine",
        "break": {
          "sound": "dig.custom_machine",
          "volume": 1.0,
          "pitch": [
            0.8,
            1.0
          ]
        },
        "hit": "dig.custom_machine",
        "place": "dig.custom_machine",
        "step": {
          "sound": "dig.custom_machine",
          "volume": 0.4
        }
      }
    }
  }
}

With the sound set named custom_machine_sounds defined in RP/sounds.json, reference it in RP/blocks.json using your custom block's identifier. Whenever a player walks on, mines, or places my_pack:machine_block, the game will look up the custom_machine_sounds profile and play the dig.custom_machine sound event.

If you also want your custom block to play a sound on demand—for example, when a player interacts with it or on a repeating tick—you can pair the standard Script API world.playSound or dimension.playSound methods with a custom component in your behaviour pack, passing the string "dig.custom_machine" directly to the function.

{
  "format_version": [
    1,
    1,
    0
  ],
  "my_pack:machine_block": {
    "sound": "custom_machine_sounds"
  }
}

Applies to all stable Minecraft Bedrock versions 1.14.0 and newer. No experimental toggles are required for custom sound definitions, entity sound mappings, or block sound profiles.

Read out of the game itself, so the ids match the version you are building for.