UCS Reference

Universal Category System (UCS) is an initiative to define some standardized metadata labels to be include to an audio file, so they can be categorized and retrieved later easily.

From file naming convention, the file name format with optional blocks is :

CatID(-UserCategory)_(VendorCategory-)FXName_CreatorID_SourceID_UserData

Here are some actual examples from files in my packs :

FEETHmn-FlipFlops Jump_House Dry Soil Grass, Flip Flops, Jump_ModFst_OFP001_1.wav
FEETHmn-FlipFlops Jump_House Dry Soil Grass, Flip Flops, Jump_ModFst_OFP001_2.wav
FEETHmn-FlipFlops Jump_House Dry Soil Grass, Flip Flops, Jump_ModFst_OFP001_3.wav
FEETHmn-FlipFlops Walk_Dry Leaf Long, Flip Flops, Walk_ModFst_OFP008_1.wav
FEETHmn-FlipFlops Walk_Dry Leaf Small, Flip Flops, Walk_ModFst_OFP008_1.wav

CatID

These are subset of Universal Category System (UCS) version 8.1 for quick reference.

These are not all UCS has to offer, you should visit the official page to see if there are more specific category suitable for your sound. It is just that the full list maybe daunting to remember, I think seeing some categories more relevant to Tiny Ambience as a teaser might invites you to learn more.

Category	SubCategory	CatID	CatShort	Explanations
FOOTSTEPS	ANIMAL	FEETAnml	FEET	Individual animal footsteps, dog, elephant.
FOOTSTEPS	CREATURE	FEETCrea	FEET	Monster feet, Put dinosaur feet in here too, but also for small fantasy creatures.
FOOTSTEPS	HORSE	FEETHors	FEET	All manner of horse feet, from single to running.
FOOTSTEPS	HUMAN	FEETHmn	FEET	Human feet, any surface, barefoot, shoes, it all goes here.
FOOTSTEPS	MISC	FEETMisc	FEET	Footstep sounds not fitting another category in this list.

UserCategory

UserCategory is specific to user. So I'm going to document it here what we are using for this.

Notice that there are only 5 categories for FOOTSTEPS officially in UCS. In Modular Footstep I would like to expand on that. It is a sequence of 2-4 more footstep specific sub-categories separated by space (dash and underscore are already used).

[Action] [Foot]

Action

This sub-category tells you what the stepper is doing to the surface that makes this sound.

Action	Explanation
Walk	Down step of normal speed walking. (May include lift if you don't care about separation.)
WalkLift	Just the lifting of normal speed walking.
Run	Down step of running. (May include lift if you don't care about separation.)
RunLift	Just the lifting of running.
Tiptoe	Down step of tiptoeing. (May include lift if you don't care about separation.)
TiptoeLift	Just the lifting of tiptoeing.
Jump	Sound when taking off the surface when jumping.
Land	Sound when landing on the surface after jumping.
Tap	Usually meant touching the surface intentionally with front side of stepper.
Knock	Usually meant touching the surface intentionally with heel side of stepper.
Stomp	Can use this with one foot or two foot (i.e. jumping with exaggerated landing) stomping.
Slide	Friction against flat surface or flat stepper.
Slip	Friction against corner or weird angle of the surface or misaligned stepper.
Misc	Anything else not fit the above.

Foot

This sub-category is a category of foot, including kind of footwears for human.

Foot	Explanation
Barefoot	Can also use this for all animals with no variations on their feet.
Sneakers	If it has specialized outer sole that tends to make different sounds, use Athletic instead.
Sandals	If the back part makes flapping sound on each step, use FlipFlops instead.
FlipFlops	Shoes that makes multiple flopping sound each step.
Flippers	This is for those thick indoor footwear.
Boots	Covers all kind of boots, like snow boots, cowboy boots, or hiking boots.
Athletic	Shoes made specifically for sports or extreme activities.
HighHeels	Woman's high heels.
Formal	This covers Oxford, Loafers, Derby, Brogue, etc. Usually leather shoes people wear with suits.
Formal	This covers Oxford, Loafers, Derby, Brogue, etc. Usually leather shoes people wear with suits.
Misc	Anything else not fit the above.

VendorCategory

We don't use this. Notice that official format states that dash character - is used to mark the boundary between VendorCategory and FXName, therefore we can't use any - in the FXName.

FXName

This is where we can type anything expressively. But we do have some sub-format inside this field.

[Surface/Location Explanation], [Stepper Explanation], [Action Explanation]

In between each section is divided by , (comma and space bar). It will ended up looking similar to CatID(-UserCategory) section, but we can type in more human-readable language here if we want. e.g. In front section we have to use FlipFlops exactly, but here we can type "Flip Flops" with space, or even "Egyptian Flip Flops".

CreatorID

ModFst stands for "Modular Footstep", meaning a pack released officially in this website. If you want to release a footstep audio package like this, then you can use your own ID.

SourceID

I always use OFP___ which OFP stands for "Official Footstep Pack". Number that follows always have leading zeroes to make up 3 digits.

UserData

UserData is also specific to anyone. In Modular Footstep, I use this for variation index. It starts from 1.