In the BBB it states under Astral Senses that while Astally percieving (or projecting) you can see, hear, feel, etc. the Astral plane. Or at least that was always my reading of it. If there's a large amount of astral activity going on, is there anywhere that defines perception tests to "hear" it?

For example, I have to imagine the cliche hermetic elf (CHA 8) with 8 elementals on call. If said elf would summon all elementals at once (assume for the moment their all of the same element) I was wondering if there was a way to allow other astrally-active beings in the area to "hear" the noise of their arrival. Or if someone drops that force 6 manaball does it make a sound?

Depends if there's anyone around to hear it, I suppose.

There are no rules in MiTS or the old Grimoire that I could find that relate to senses other than "vision" and assensing on the astral. I'd treat "sound" on the astral as another psychic sense, similar to astral "vision."

I seem to recal there are some alchera and mana-storm effects that are associated with strange sounds or music.

That's what found, too, in a mulit-book search last night. I'd like to find a new and less targetted way to deal with a character similar to the example above (only a cha of 6!!) without having to resort to threats targeted specifically for the elemental army. I'm almost hoping that I can come up with a way to say that when all the elementals show up, the Lone Star (or in our case the Zone Defense Force) anti-spirit team shows up to blast the marauding spirits and arrest the errant mage. I've also thought that maybe all of those spirits helping out Ghostwalker might tip off the Zone Defense Force if things got to "noisy" or that the elementals might resist the commands of the mage if the mage's purpose goes against whatever agenda Ghostwalker has for his spirits. The last option seems too nebulous, though, consider the hazy nature of Ghostwalkers plans.

Just going off of the astral patrol rules in MiTS, the ZDF is almost never going to find a disturbance. With a +8 modifier for a patrol zone 80,000 m^2 (that's 280 meters on a side), keeping tabs on a whole city center (several km on a side) would impose tremendous mods. The question is, how big an astral party would you have to throw to combat the size modifer by using the force-of-spirits modifiers and/or the magic user magic rating mods.

A huge number of spirits/elementals were on duty, you could divide up the zone into a number of sub-zones, making for much easier astral patrol tests. Conversely, you could use the rules for random patrolling astral security (like the rules that were in the latest SRMissions for random park patrols and LS patrols).

Actually the perception test to hear things on the astral plane is the same as on the physical. If the elementals were talking, singing or performing a vocal orchestra anyone astrally present would hear them if they were in speaking distance. Yes its "psychic" in nature (it does not depend on meat equivilant) but they function just like regular senses. You "see" out of your eyes and "hear" out of your ears. The GM just has to determine how much is actual noise. 6 elementals standing and waiting don't make anymore noise than 6 people standing and waiting unless they are doing something. Since their communication with their summoner is psychic and they probably don't talk to each other, there is nothing to hear.

As for spells, I don't believe mana ones make noise unless their caster wants them to. If you learned Invisibilty in such a way that required hand gestures and video game noises, well, bonus points for style but minus points for loss of stealth.

thats why they have not replaced drones and beat cops with spirits and wizards rangerjoe. the patroling rules are for building or grounds patrols not city patrols. hell, doing a astral city patrol would bring up a lot of weird and wonderful storys back at the briefing room

most likley what happens is that when a beat cop or drone rigger suspects magic in use they contact dispatch and have them send over a wizard with some spirits on hand in the astral. spirits deal with the physical presense of magic while the mage deals with whatever is on the astral (with backup from the spirits if needed).

as for haveing a spell make a sound. most likely it will do so if your hit by it (atleast in your mind ). its not very likely that you will hear it comeing barreling down on you (as most spells happens on the spot, only elemental manipulations have a physical precense that travels and that means that it have all the properties of a physical presense). astral perception in fact covers translating astral energy patterns into sensory input the wizard can understand or interpet given training and experience. like say a angry mans aura feels and sounds hot like a inferno (a similar image but with a more freindly undertone can indicate hot love ) and so on to a someone doing a arua read. a hold spell may well feel like spider web or funny glue or something to someone astraly active while the spell is in effect but it have no physical presense even if it is a physicaly targeted effect unless the description says so (like the armor spell that creates a glowing field).

I think you got it wrong. The written word cannot be deciphered, but sometimes emotional content can.

As far as I know, speech is just exactly the same as on the physical plane.

Otherwise what would a Lonestar mage do if they were trying to tell another Mage to stop doing what ever questionable actions they were doing?

Either it is a form of sound transmitted or a conscious mental wave that emanates from the speaker just like sound would but is based on a limitations of perception... IE Your used to the physical worlds patterns of transmission of sound thereby mimicking the spoken action but really transmitting thought at short range.

Technically telepathic communication.