Free nature sounds/mp3s on-line?

December 28, 2009 5:37 PM

Where have you found good long streaming/mp3 sources for nature sounds, like rainfall or oceans or crickets? This question was asked and partially answered before (in 2005 and again in 2006) but here we are almost in 2010 so I figure there must be some new stuff out there.

I'm not looking for music, but rather something that is or that simulates the sounds of nature. Rain falling on a roof, or waves on a beach, or a babbling brook, or things like that. I'm listening to the only thing I've found so far, a beautiful 42-minutes-long rainfall recording here at archive.org by Jacques Richer. It's lovely, and I want more.

This is perfect for studying or trying to go to sleep or both. What have you found?

posted by math to Media & Arts (8 answers total)

Does it need to be streaming? Airefreshner, available here, has selectable soundscapes that continunally loop. Small executeable, almost infinitely configureable. Crickets, ocean, rain, streams, etc.
posted by cosmicbandito at 5:43 PM on December 28, 2009

There are tons on Amazon MP3, if you look under sleep sounds, and most are just a dollar or two and run up to an hour or 70 minutes. You can find just about every variation of rain and brooks you could imagine.
posted by Lyn Never at 5:45 PM on December 28, 2009

You want "Middle Cyclone," the latest CD by Neko Case. The first hour or so is an amazing disc of indescribable torch singer/David Lynch/surrealistic female singer-songwriter bliss, and the last track is 30 minutes of nature sounds recorded outside her barn studio.
posted by jbickers at 6:22 PM on December 28, 2009

from mefi's own strawberryviagra:

Atmospheres on mefi music. (see also: previously)
posted by namewithoutwords at 6:41 PM on December 28, 2009

BirdSongRadio.com
posted by scalefree at 8:27 PM on December 28, 2009

The Free Sound Project has a huge archive of sounds you can search through, including one of a 75-odd-minute-long thunderstorm track, if that's your bag. They have a huge assortment of rain sounds but it might take some digging to find a track of the length you desire.
posted by marble at 10:47 PM on December 28, 2009

Marble has it. Amongst many others Free Sound Project # 69978 is thirty minutes of babbling brook.
One can always loop a shorter recording with Audacity to lengthen it then burn it as a long mp3 CD.
posted by Dr.Pill at 5:05 AM on December 29, 2009

Try Nirvana Radio. Also look at pzizz. You can export particular tracks you like, and turn the voice off. You can get it for free by completing one of their offers.
posted by Solomon at 6:31 AM on December 29, 2009