Free Online Player
Soft Bowl
Soft Bowl catches a struck singing bowl after the strike. The loop holds the ring and the slow turning inside it, with no attack anywhere in the file, so it hums and wavers instead of spiking. It reads low and round rather than glassy. Monkay recorded it and released it under Creative Commons 0.
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 ring with no strike in it
Bowl recordings that keep the strike put a sharp attack in front of you every few seconds. That suits punctuating a meditation and is poor for anything you want running in the background. This one only hums, wavering as the bowl’s overtones move against each other, and it stays at much the same level from start to finish.
Most of its weight sits low, which is why it sounds round rather than bright, and the two channels carry nearly the same thing. Headphones add nothing over speakers.
How it differs from Singing Bowl
Both loops run 36 seconds, and there the resemblance stops. Singing Bowl was played round the rim rather than struck, holds one pitch without wavering, and spreads so wide across the stereo field that it seems to come from nowhere in particular. Soft Bowl is struck, sits in the middle, and carries more weight underneath.
For metal that rings brighter, Chime Bells and Tiny Bells both sit far higher. The full catalogue is on the sound library index.
Where the recording came from
A real bowl recorded by a real person: Monkay published it on Freesound as SingingBowl.wav under Creative Commons 0, which puts it in the public domain. The licence asks for nothing, and the sound credits page lists it anyway, along with every other third-party recording in the app and on this site.
A single bowl is thin on its own for a long session. Open the Soft Bowl and gentle rain blend in the free sound mixer to give it a moving backdrop, or drop brown noise underneath if you want the low end filled rather than the top.
Frequently asked questions
Is Soft Bowl a real recording?
Yes. Monkay recorded it and published it on Freesound under Creative Commons 0. It is credited on the sound credits page along with the other third-party recordings.
Why can I not hear the strike?
The looped section holds the ring rather than the attack. Nothing in the file registers as a hit, and the level barely moves across the loop.
Do I need headphones?
No. The two channels are almost identical, so speakers give you the same recording.
How long is the loop?
Thirty-six seconds, repeating until you stop it or the sleep timer does.