I recorded nature sounds for a year, then released an ambient sound app
There are lots of ambient sound apps on the App Store, but they all seem to be paywalled. I thought I should make one where all the content was free. I bought a secondhand professional audio recorder, then took it to national parks in Australia and Germany, in case I heard anything interesting. It was a bit of a learning experience, but I now have a library of half a dozen passable recordings. The biggest problem was noise pollution: humans are noisy and everywhere; I never noticed until I started listening carefully for background noise. Traffic and building noise carries for huge…
I recorded nature sounds for a year, then released an ambient sound app launched on September 26, 2023 with 11 votes, #1,483 of 4,228 launches that month and more than 75% of that year's launches. The site was still online in September 2026, 3 years on.
In plain words
This ambient sound app provides free nature recordings collected from national parks in Australia and Germany. The creator spent a year recording with professional audio equipment to build a library of six soundscapes, avoiding noise pollution where possible. The app features a curved video carousel interface built with SwiftUI and includes full VoiceOver support with additional accessibility options for vision-impaired users. All content is free to access on the App Store.
written from the facts on this page · September 2026
From the sources
Download Chill Soundscapes by James Hudson on the App Store. See screenshots, ratings and reviews, user tips, and more apps like Chill Soundscapes.
Free · In‑App Purchases · Designed for iPad. Not verified for macOS. - new "waves" track with ocean waves. A bit more energetic than the existing "beach" track. - remastered sunset lake track. - fixed some navigation issues with latest iOS. - New "lake sunset" soundscape! An orchestra of Australian native birds and frogs. - Credits section, for upcoming contributions from others! Something different! Every year, tens of thousands of huge cranes make their migration from Scandinavia to Africa. They are currently filling the sky outside of Berlin, so we have a special limited-time soundscape for you to experience in the app! Regular improvements: - timer now goes down to 5 minutes: no time is…from apps.apple.com
In the maker’s words, at launch
There are lots of ambient sound apps on the App Store, but they all seem to be paywalled. I thought I should make one where all the content was free. I bought a secondhand professional audio recorder, then took it to national parks in Australia and Germany, in case I heard anything interesting. It was a bit of a…
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wallhop is a free paywall bypass. Paste any article link to read it without paywall popups, ads or clutter. No signup, no extension. A simple 12ft.io alternative.
Growth · 13d ago · wallhop.io
Source: Show HN post ↗ · launch text quoted in part
