Best ambient sound site I've encountered so far. I love the DIY mixing approach. :)
Gabriel - please add wind. It goes well with the rain/thunder thing. The rain sound track - it sounds realistic, but I think for this specific purpose a bit less emphasis on high frequencies might make it blend into the background better. It sounds a little too hissy. Might just be my sound setup though. I'd also suggest adding a "true" white noise track - I'm guessing much of the tech crowd would love to use that as a baseline and then add specific noises on top.
Wind would be a great addition I agree. I've had a hard time finding good audio that has the right feel, but it'll be added at some point.
White noise is on the todo list. What I really need to do is make the audio loading more modular. At the moment it's very naive and everything buffers at once. I want to create a system where there's a core set of sounds that load by default, and then a menu of sounds that expand and load when selected. This would mean I could support a lot more sounds. At present, to add another sample I'd have to remove something already there, because performance is a little flaky even with just the six current samples.
Once you said that rain sounded hissy, I immediately noticed it. If I turn rain almost all the way down and waves just a little bit up, I get a muffled rain sound that sounds a little bit like rain falling on a tent that I'm inside, which I now realize is one of my favorite sounds. So add that sound too!
Nice. I love the minimal approach. Another site like yours is http://www.NatureSoundsFor.Me which has a whole bunch of other sounds like bees, cicadas, sheep, whales, and more. I like your UI better though, it's super simple and feels like an app. I made one too a while back http://TimeforZen.com but it's in bad need of a redesign.
I LOVE your "Fade to Slient in ___ minutes" feature. Perfect for inducing sleep.
I'm really curious about TimeforZen (based on your titles for the various tracks) but none of the them load for me (Chromium/Firefox on Debian testing).
I'd appreciate if the sounds mixture could slowly but constantly change, going from the "it's going to rain soon" mix to the "it's pouring rain" mix to the "sunny with hints of birds" mix.
Fabulous! Best of breed for creating ambiance that I've heard and the suggestions here are bound to improve it.
It works from Firefox browser on a phone (sliders don't function with Chrome and it fades out immediately on Dolphin and Android browsers.) An equalizer (even Baxendahl 2 knob tone control) would be cool but would probably be a drag on the server.
FWIW regarding sleeping to ambient sound, I have an extensive collection of 'phones and 'buds of all types for R&D purposes and the hands down winner for 'buds to sleep with is the Sennheiser CX200.
(Irrelevant aside: For $19 at Amazon they are also by far the best bargain I've encountered for pristine sound.)
I'm sure it would be a major effort, but it'd be nice to have the tracks crossfade into one another; right now, when a given track ends, there's a short and variable, but noticeable, interval between ending and restarting, whose presence is not a major issue but still less preferable than its absence.
There's actually a feature built in to mimic cross-fading; it must have not worked for you, and that worries me a little. What browser and OS are you using please?
It's not possible to do true seamless looping with HTML5 audio, but the site tries to achieve it by crossfading, as you say, using two tracks for each sample. On my setup the transition is imperceptible. I'd like to work out why it didn't work for you.
I would be great if you could a) download your mix as an MP3 and/or b) open your mix in a popup window.
Love the sound of rain and thunder. Makes me want to stay indoors and do stuff. I understand that this is at the moment not a problem for North Americans and Europeans but in Australia it's getting pretty hot/sticky at the moment..
Downloading as an mp3 is an interesting idea. It would be a good excuse for me to learn some backend stuff. This is the first thing I've ever written but I enjoyed the process a lot.
The popup window idea is also good and should be much easier to implement. I'll look into it. Thanks!
- maybe you could add some trees or forest option - coupled with birds it makes a good spring/summer ambient
- when decreasing the human option, instead of just decreasing the loudness, it should decrease the number of people speaking ; so many people in the background, even if they seem far, doesn't make this too cozy
This is great, and I'll use this while working. I love certain sounds, but not every types of noise, so it's great to be able to choose the combination.
There's a lot of ASMR youtube videos, which I find very relaxing and helps to get in the zone. However, sometimes it also helps me to fall asleep, which is bad when I want to work. Anyway, ASMR puts me in a state that is highly focused and relaxed at the same time.
The most soothing, easy-to-sleep-to sound for me is the sound of the forced-hot-air furnace in the house I grew up in. Other furnaces in other houses are OK, but nothing tops the original.
I assume this is something deep in my psyche, implanted when I was very young.
I relax the best when there are other people at my house, doing their own thing. I remember from being 5 or so when my parents would have company over and it was a very reassuring feeling of hearing other people carrying on. Unfortunately, as an "adult", it doesn't seem to be very socially acceptable to throw parties then stay upstairs and hope your guests enjoy things by themselves.
This motivation is very deep inside me: I went as far as giving out two free rooms to benefit from the comings-and-goings of two more people. And for a while I shared a house with my in-laws (8 people total) and found it quite enjoyable.
I haven't found a way to make it work on iOS devices, unfortunately. There are many restrictions on what javascript is allowed to do, and I don't own an iOS device for testing ways around this.
Unfortunately limitations on mobile audio will make this next to impossible to work on mobile for the time being. I wrote howler.js (http://howlerjs.com) to solve this issue, but I'm guessing your source audio files are too large to use Web Audio reliably on mobile (this would be the only way to play multiple sounds at the same time).
I've successfully used a phonegap wrapper (iframe works just fine in the cases I tried) to work around the IOS auto-play and other sound restrictions. Auto play html5 audio elements 'just worked'. This might also be an alternative for whatever restrictions you're dealing with. Of course it's an app not a website, and you still need an IOS device and an apple developer account to build the app, even with 3rd party services like build.phonegap.com.
[+] [-] Havoc|12 years ago|reply
Gabriel - please add wind. It goes well with the rain/thunder thing. The rain sound track - it sounds realistic, but I think for this specific purpose a bit less emphasis on high frequencies might make it blend into the background better. It sounds a little too hissy. Might just be my sound setup though. I'd also suggest adding a "true" white noise track - I'm guessing much of the tech crowd would love to use that as a baseline and then add specific noises on top.
[+] [-] gabemart|12 years ago|reply
Wind would be a great addition I agree. I've had a hard time finding good audio that has the right feel, but it'll be added at some point.
White noise is on the todo list. What I really need to do is make the audio loading more modular. At the moment it's very naive and everything buffers at once. I want to create a system where there's a core set of sounds that load by default, and then a menu of sounds that expand and load when selected. This would mean I could support a lot more sounds. At present, to add another sample I'd have to remove something already there, because performance is a little flaky even with just the six current samples.
[+] [-] tptacek|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] hobo_mark|12 years ago|reply
http://mynoise.net/
sadly, does not work on mobile either (somewhat on firefox for android which is too slow on my underpowered phone)
[+] [-] wylee|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ChrisNorstrom|12 years ago|reply
I LOVE your "Fade to Slient in ___ minutes" feature. Perfect for inducing sleep.
[+] [-] gabemart|12 years ago|reply
Thanks! It's my favorite feature too. I probably need to tweak the UI a bit to made it to make it more prominent though.
[+] [-] noufalibrahim|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] gioele|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] gabemart|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] soundscapes|12 years ago|reply
Boodler FTW!
[+] [-] DonGateley|12 years ago|reply
It works from Firefox browser on a phone (sliders don't function with Chrome and it fades out immediately on Dolphin and Android browsers.) An equalizer (even Baxendahl 2 knob tone control) would be cool but would probably be a drag on the server.
FWIW regarding sleeping to ambient sound, I have an extensive collection of 'phones and 'buds of all types for R&D purposes and the hands down winner for 'buds to sleep with is the Sennheiser CX200.
(Irrelevant aside: For $19 at Amazon they are also by far the best bargain I've encountered for pristine sound.)
[+] [-] aaronem|12 years ago|reply
I'm sure it would be a major effort, but it'd be nice to have the tracks crossfade into one another; right now, when a given track ends, there's a short and variable, but noticeable, interval between ending and restarting, whose presence is not a major issue but still less preferable than its absence.
[+] [-] gabemart|12 years ago|reply
It's not possible to do true seamless looping with HTML5 audio, but the site tries to achieve it by crossfading, as you say, using two tracks for each sample. On my setup the transition is imperceptible. I'd like to work out why it didn't work for you.
[+] [-] pan69|12 years ago|reply
I would be great if you could a) download your mix as an MP3 and/or b) open your mix in a popup window.
Love the sound of rain and thunder. Makes me want to stay indoors and do stuff. I understand that this is at the moment not a problem for North Americans and Europeans but in Australia it's getting pretty hot/sticky at the moment..
[+] [-] gabemart|12 years ago|reply
The popup window idea is also good and should be much easier to implement. I'll look into it. Thanks!
[+] [-] croisillon|12 years ago|reply
- maybe you could add some trees or forest option - coupled with birds it makes a good spring/summer ambient
- when decreasing the human option, instead of just decreasing the loudness, it should decrease the number of people speaking ; so many people in the background, even if they seem far, doesn't make this too cozy
[+] [-] elliottcarlson|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] codequickly|12 years ago|reply
There's a lot of ASMR youtube videos, which I find very relaxing and helps to get in the zone. However, sometimes it also helps me to fall asleep, which is bad when I want to work. Anyway, ASMR puts me in a state that is highly focused and relaxed at the same time.
[+] [-] arjn|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] brianbreslin|12 years ago|reply
any studies on what types of noise actually induce deeper sleep?
[+] [-] unknown|12 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] pgopalan|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] michalstanko|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ddoolin|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] mariocarvalho|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] dded|12 years ago|reply
I assume this is something deep in my psyche, implanted when I was very young.
[+] [-] MichaelGG|12 years ago|reply
This motivation is very deep inside me: I went as far as giving out two free rooms to benefit from the comings-and-goings of two more people. And for a while I shared a house with my in-laws (8 people total) and found it quite enjoyable.
[+] [-] wavelander|12 years ago|reply
The sound of fire and humans is something new I've seen (or heard) in such a site.
What about cricket chirps, and to be a little bold, traffic ? Traffic in the distance ?
[+] [-] gabemart|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] james33|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] allannienhuis|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] cupcake-unicorn|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] audiosampling|12 years ago|reply