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Cafe
Cafe is a busy indoor room tone: voices blurred well below the level of words, with roughly eight bright clatter events a second from cups, spoons and machinery. It is the brightest and most eventful of the three crowd recordings here. Suits anyone who wants company in the room rather than quiet.
Ready to play
Stack this under rain or a fire, keep the blend, and play it with your screen off. Slo, on iOS, Android and Mac.
What the recording actually contains
Counting bright transients across the file gives about eight a second from crockery, cutlery and the short hiss of a machine, roughly double the rate in the Restaurant recording. It also carries about six decibels more energy between 4 and 8 kHz, and that is the difference you hear as brightness. Speech is present throughout but sits well below intelligibility, with the slow rise and fall of a room rather than any followable conversation. The stereo image is moderately wide, and the loop is 32 seconds.
Choosing between the three crowd recordings
These three are genuinely different scenes rather than renamed copies. This one is the brightest and busiest. Restaurant is warmer, with most of its energy in low room rumble and half the clatter rate. Summer Evening Chatter is outdoors: much wider, with a continuous insect band and almost no crockery. Compare all three from the sound library index.
Cafe recordings are eventful by nature, so a steadier layer underneath can even them out. Open the Cafe and brown noise blend in the free sound mixer and set each layer to its own level.
Frequently asked questions
Can you make out what people are saying?
No. Voices are present but sit below intelligibility throughout, so there is nothing to follow.
How is it different from the Restaurant track?
This one runs brighter and roughly twice as eventful: about eight clatter hits a second against four, with about six decibels more energy in the 4 to 8 kHz band.
Is there music in the recording?
The file holds no sustained musical line. You hear room tone, voices and hard-surface clatter.
Does it loop cleanly?
Yes. The 32-second file repeats continuously until you stop it or the sleep timer does.