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Soft Singing
Soft Singing is one voice, close and unhurried, with no instrument behind it and no room around it. It stays in the middle of its range and does not go anywhere in particular. The loop is 16 seconds, so it comes round nearly four times a minute and you will hear it do so.
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 contains
The voice is dry and central, recorded near enough that you catch the breath between phrases but not so near that consonants bite. Nothing is struck or plucked anywhere in the loop and there is no bass under the singing, which leaves the voice carrying the whole file on its own. It rises and falls the way a sung line does, with no beat to it.
Both channels carry near enough the same thing, so the voice sits dead centre and close. Speakers and headphones give you the same recording; headphones only put it nearer.
A voice is not background noise
Speech and song recruit attention in a way that noise does not. Plenty of people who work happily through rain or brown noise find they cannot read or write with a voice in the room, and turning it down does not fix it, because the line is still there to follow.
Where it does work is in the gaps: sitting, stretching, cooking, winding down. Sixteen seconds is a short loop for melodic material, so test it for a few minutes before committing to an hour.
Other voices and what to pair it with
Gregorian Chant is the other vocal recording here: several voices in near-unison, moving stepwise in free rhythm, also effectively mono. It is a fuller and more distant sound than this one. If you want tonal material without anybody singing, Lullaby is a wide, dark chord pad and Moonlight Lullaby a bright melodic figure.
To soften the repeat, put something continuous underneath. The Soft Singing and gentle rain blend in the free sound mixer covers the loop point, and the sound library index lists everything else you could layer with it.
Frequently asked questions
What does Soft Singing sound like?
A close, quiet voice in the middle of its range, dry and central, with no instrument or room sound behind it.
Is there any accompaniment?
None. Nothing struck or plucked appears anywhere in the loop, and there is no bass under the voice.
Can I work to it?
Some people can and many cannot. A voice pulls attention differently from noise, so if you are reading or writing, steady broadband sound is usually the safer choice.
How long is the loop?
Sixteen seconds. That is short for melodic material, so you will hear it come round; layering something continuous underneath hides the seam.