The Feelings sounds are parked

Decided by the owner on 2026-10-09: "lets strip out all Feelings actually. we need to do a full improvement of them before bringing them back (tbd)."

The Feelings group held eleven soundscapes: wonder, mystery, triumph, chase, haunted, sad, angry, happy, excited, thrilling and scary. From this change nothing in RISE offers or names one. A reader cannot choose one, a look or Today cannot play one, a model cannot pick one, and a Current that names one is refused. Their synthesis code stays in the tree for the rework.

What was removed

• The sound list. The Feelings group is gone from SOUND_GROUPS (src/audio/sound-list.js), so the Chamber's look sheet, the setup Sound panel and every other picker built on it offer four groups: Silence, Atmospheres, Music and Tones.
• What a composition may name. The ids are gone from SOUND_IDS (src/audio/sound-ids.js). That list is the source for both the v2 Current validator (src/core/beats.js) and the Worker's MCP input schema enum (worker/mcp-server.mjs). A beat that names one is refused with BEAT_SOUND.
• What can be created. SOUNDSCAPES (src/audio/soundscapes.js) no longer lists them, so createSoundscape returns null for them. The Workshop's soundscape picker and the Workshop agent's offered soundscapes (src/core/curator-context.js) read SOUNDSCAPES, so they lost them too.
• What Jev and Kev may choose. The eleven rows are gone from src/content/decision-catalog.json and the ids are gone from JEV_AUDIO_IDS (src/core/jev-config.js), so the menu a model chooses from no longer holds them. The code that forced triumph onto a "triumphant ending" (requestsTriumphantEnding, the triumphant alias and the instruction that named it) went with them.
• The Composer guide. Open Field taught mystery and used it in a worked Current. It now names faded-signal (src/live/guide/styles/open-field.js, and the same Current in docs/evals/creative-control/open-field/a-thought-forming.json).
• Evaluation inputs. The Kev evaluation cases and option files under scripts/ expect each parked sound's stand-in. The arena's known-probability controls (scripts/arena/controls.json) name offered sounds in place of wonder, mystery, happy, sad and haunted.

Substitutions

Where	Was	Now
Look Flame	wonder	aurora
Look Iris	triumph	starlight ("…under starlight")
Look Revel	chase	night-drive ("…and a night drive")
Today	Revel's chase on 2026-10-09; Iris's triumph on 2026-10-08	night-drive; starlight
Portable example Energetic	thrilling, chase	night-drive, night-drive (new identity portable-ccde7f0ab9c4b4d09fa07528789680b7)
Open Field worked Current	mystery	faded-signal

A saved reading, a saved setup preference or a saved Workshop project that names a parked sound plays its stand-in (PARKED_SOUNDS and standInSound in src/audio/sound-ids.js). The fallback is applied where those are read: the Session model, the setup preferences (ChamberOrbital) and the Workshop project's defaults. New Currents still refuse parked sounds with BEAT_SOUND.

A score that names one on a passage is translated the same way wherever a saved or imported program is read: validateExperienceProgram (Workshop projects, imports, portable sequences, sessions) and normalizeAudioProgram (saved audio programs). A portable sequence exported before the parking keeps the identity it was hashed with and imports with the stand-ins. If a parked id still reaches AudioEngine.startSoundscape, the engine starts its stand-in and logs a warning, so a missed path plays the substitute instead of silence.

Parked	Stand-in
wonder	aurora
mystery	faded-signal
triumph	starlight
chase	night-drive
haunted	faded-signal
sad	faded-signal
angry	night-drive
happy	starlight
excited	night-drive
thrilling	night-drive
scary	aurora

Where the parked code lives

• src/audio/cinematic-pieces.js: wonder, mystery, chase, triumph and haunted (CINEMATIC_SOUNDSCAPES, beside Starlight, which stays offered).
• src/audio/soundscapes.js: the six mood beds (MOOD_BEDS: sad, angry, happy, excited, thrilling, scary). All eleven are reachable for the rework as PARKED_SOUNDSCAPES, which nothing in the app reads.
• src/core/render/audio-mix.js and src/core/render/cinematic-piece-sample.js: their offline beds for export, kept and still tested.

The Decision Arena's first run

The committed arena run (public/content/arena/run-1c8b7b636f83.json) was captured against the old catalog, cases, options and controls. Its integrity tests re-scored it against whatever those files held at the current commit, so any change to the sound catalog would have failed them. The inputs it was captured with are now pinned in scripts/arena/inputs/1c8b7b636f83/, each checked against the hash the run recorded, and arena.mjs report takes --catalog. The run still reproduces its recorded scores byte for byte.

Bringing them back

They come back only after:

1. a quality rework of each sound, and
2. an owner listening pass that accepts it.

Returning a sound means listing its id again in SOUND_IDS, SOUND_GROUPS, JEV_AUDIO_IDS and the decision catalog, moving it out of PARKED_SOUNDS, and deciding whether the looks above go back to it.

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Published from docs/product/discussions/2026-10-09-feelings-sounds-parked.md. Edits made here are overwritten on the next push to main.