Free Online Player
Crystal Drift
Crystal Drift is the pad with no bass. Almost everything in it sits in a tight cluster in the low mid-range, with one clear tone an octave above, and below that there is essentially nothing. That makes it the one to choose when low frequencies are the problem: thin walls, or a small speaker that could not deliver them anyway.
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.
A cluster where the bass would be
Six separate tones sit within a whole tone of each other, right at the point where the bass would normally begin. Held together they interfere slowly, which is what gives the pad its shifting, glassy quality. Two clearer notes sit above the cluster, and nothing in the 32-second loop ever starts or stops.
Packing near-identical pitches together is the same technique Gentle Lullaby uses, and it produces the same slow interference. The difference is where it happens: that file does it in the mid-range with treble above, this one does it where the bass should be.
When missing bass is the feature
Low frequencies are what travel through floors and walls, and what phone and laptop speakers cannot reproduce in the first place. A loop with none of them plays back honestly on any device, and it leaves the bottom of the range free for a separate layer underneath. That second point is the useful one: try the Crystal Drift and brown noise blend in the free sound mixer, where the noise supplies the bottom end the pad omits.
The nearest existing comparison is Moonlight Lullaby, which also removes the bass but is mono and melodic where this is wide and static. For the opposite approach entirely, Cosmic Drift is almost all bass and nothing else.
Frequently asked questions
Why does Crystal Drift sound the same on every device?
There is almost no bass in it for a small speaker to fail to reproduce, so a phone gives you nearly what a good pair of headphones does.
What is the pitch of the cluster?
Six tones within a whole tone of each other, centred on a G sharp in the low mid-range, with an F and a G sharp above them.
Is it good for a shared flat?
Better than most. Low frequencies carry through structure, and this loop has fewer of them than anything else measured here.
Can I add bass to it?
Yes. Layer it with brown noise or another low pad in the mixer and set each level independently.