Abstract An intensive survey on community response to the sonic environment was conducted in a residential–industrial mixed use area. The size of the study area is comparatively small, about 6 ha. The survey consists of (1) observation of the sonic environment, where the density of observation points is about 7 points/ha, and (2) the investigation of the community response to the sonic environment applying a free response questionnaire method. The results of the survey are summarized as follows. The sonic environment is not homogeneous even in such a small area as investigated here. There are some differences in response to the sonic environment in which respondents live in different social contexts. Responses to questions on the sonic environment depend upon the dominant sounds. Thus, sonic environments observed be researchers and described by respondents cannot be regraded as homogenous. The fact suggests that the intensive survey is necessary for examining the community response to the sonic environment.