Background Sounds To Write, Focus and Relax To - GT #28
20 unique apps and tools to stay focused when writing and thinking as well as for relaxing and recharging breaks.
Hello my friend, glad to have you for this new edition of Good Tools.
The focus of this edition is on digital tools that generate / playback background sounds that are ideal for writing, focusing and relaxing.
*Nonetheless the results of the last user poll were favoring “Logo Builders” I chose to focus on these sound apps for writing and focusing, because my favorite background atmosphere-generating tool just disappeared a few weeks ago into the void.
And boy, did I discover some interesting apps (!).
I am very happy to share the fruit of this research with you.
Try the ones that seem to fit your sound preferences and enjoy them for your writing, focusing and relaxing needs.
Robin
Background Sounds To Write, Focus and Relax To
My Favorite Ones (5)
This is a fantastic sound resource. Created by Stéphane Pigeon, a signal processing engineer with a great passion for sounds, MyNoise offers all kinds of sounds and mixed pre-sets that are excellent for writing, focusing and relaxing. From recorded nature sounds, to actual music and generated static noises this is probably the best background sound library that I know of. Each sound atmosphere can be personalized through sliders or sub pre-sets. It integrates a timer and a meditation bell. Absolute must-have.
Hundreds of mixable sounds.
Static noises library.
Web, iOS, Android apps.
100% free
Support this free tool with a monthly or a one-time donation and get access to privileged areas (e.g. meditation room) and tools .
ZenSounds
Complete, easy-to-use, straightforward. Great sounds and flexible personalization.78 mixable sounds.
Themes: Nature, rain, animals, urban, places, transport, things, color noise, binaural beats.
Unique sounds: Singing bowl, paper, submarine, temple, wolf, owl, river.
Save sound combinations as presets (through the hamburger menu). No login.
Integrated Pomodoro timer, countdown and writing notepad.
100% free. Open-source.
Super-rich selection of sounds. Personalization.
60+ mixable sounds (with multiple variants for each - *Pro) .
Unique sounds: Train, plane, traffic, underground, bells, fireworks, printer, keyboard, whale, static noises, vacuum cleaner and many more.
Save multiple sound mixes into playlists (requires logging in).
100% free version.
Pro option has 200+ soundscapes, can save unlimited mixes and has advanced mixing controls. Costs $24 / one-time.
30 mixable nature and ambient sounds.
Unique sounds: Wind chimes, fan, brown and pink noise.
100% free.
16 instruments, nature and ambient sounds.
Unique sounds: meditation, train, flute, code, singing bowl, study and code.
Integrates Pomodoro timer, location, date, temp.
100% free. Open-source.
2) Water - Rain Focussed Sound Apps (2)
Cool background sound app focusing only on rainy sounds.
5 mixable loops.
Unique sounds: Light rain, raindrops hitting a window, rainstorm, splashing rainfall, thunder.
100% free.
15 ocean sounds.
From seagulls to dolphins to underwater diving.
100% free.
3) Ambience Background Sound Apps (3)
Nice, tidy and effective. Calmy Leon has very few controls and sounds but it produces background sounds and atmospheres that sound immediately right.
5 dynamic sound atmospheres (zen, nature, rain, ocean, music) and
5 fixed nature/ambient sounds (rain, waterfall, wind, people and ocean).
100% free. (may not work properly on Chrome).
5 mixable ambient sounds plus
2 excellent background music loops (Jazz and Piano Bar).
100% free
8 mixable café-related sounds
Unique sounds: stirring, pouring, espresso machine, ice cubes, city ambient sounds, soft music jazz/piano bar tracks.
Free version
4) Uniquely Relaxing Animal Sounds (3)
Customizable sounds of a cat purring next to you.
6 variables: sleepines, liveliness, purring in/out, joyness, distance, meowiness
100% free. *May not work on Chrome. Try Firefox, Safari, etc.
Cicadas - Jungle Nightlife Sounds
10+ hours of cicadas singing and other sounds of night creatures - Part #1
Free
Hawaii Jungle Trails - Birds
6 hours of trail walking on Hawaii islands
videos of trail walking included
Free
4) White / Static Noises (1)
A finely curated collection of thematic atmospheres generated exclusively with color noise generators.
50+ pre-set infinite white noise soundscapes.
100% free.
5) Other Background Sound Apps for Writing, Focussing and Relaxing (7)
10 nature and ambient sounds. Mixable.
Unique sounds: crickets, singing bowl.
Integrated timer. Meander function (sound wave button left of Play button).*When active, any sound which isn’t silent will gently increase and decrease in a random pattern, creating a unique soundscape.
Web and mobile apps.
100% free version. Pro version (14.99/year) adds more sounds (15) and all future sound additions.
.
15 mixable sounds with two or more options for each (30 total sounds).
Unique sounds: frogs, different birds, steps, train, cafes, static noises.
100% free.
.
14 mixable basic nature and ambient sounds.
Unique sounds: sheep, chimes, pink/brown noise.
100% free.
.
6 non-mixable sounds.
Chrome extension
100% free.
.
16 mixable nature and ambient sounds.
Pre-set playlists: productivity, relax (available in free version)
Save and share sound combinations into playlists.
Integrated timer / text editor.
Web app, Chrome extension, iOS / Android.
Free version. Pro from $10/mo
.
24 non-mixable nature sound loops.
Themes: Sea, jungle, river, lake, forest, weather
Web page
100% free.
.
Nature’s Sounds - Jungle Stream
8 hours of jungle ambience
Sounds: rushing water stream, tropical animals, birds and monkeys
Youtube video
Free.
*No AI was used to research, write and prepare this issue.
Thank you for being a Good Tools reader.
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from sunny Koh Samui (Thailand)
Robin Good
This is AMAZING. Been using a combo of the Ambiance app + YT sounds but ... Meh.
These are great, saving the list ❤️
Thank you so much for this fantastic list! I've been searching way too long for this. Spotify failed horribly for this, coffitivity won't install on Mac OS and the free version interrupts you every so many minutes to encourage you to buy the paid version (so free is intolerable). Searching youtube for this is thankless, especially if you want music-free background chatter (No I don't want pomodoro timers, no, no, are you kidding me?, no, no. Yuck). So, thanks very much. Will tell everyone I know about this blog.