How it works
no files · no loops · just rules and weather
rainrainsound doesn’t play recordings. It builds the storm while you listen: filtered noise becomes rain and wind, scheduled impulses become drops and thunder, modelled partials become bells. Because nothing is a file, nothing can repeat.
Rain, built drop by drop
The bed of the rain is shaped noise — pink-weighted, like real rain — with a slow swell so it breathes. Over it, individual drops are scheduled randomly, each with its own pitch, pan and decay, plus a soft mid “patter” of drops striking surfaces. Turn the slider up and the scheduler simply runs hotter.
Thunder with physics
Each strike is given a distance. The flash renders first; the sound arrives up to a couple of seconds later, exactly as light outruns sound outdoors. Close strikes get a sharp crack and a sub-bass thump; far ones are long, muffled rolls. A slow “living weather” engine drifts the whole storm nearer and farther over tens of minutes.
Bells that behave like metal
The singing bowl, temple bell, koto and bamboo are modelled as sets of partials — the hum, prime and tierce of real struck metal — each partial with its own decay, slight detuning for shimmer, and a genuine strike transient. No two strikes are identical because none of them are samples.
The whole scene runs on real time
The sky follows your clock; the moon shows tonight’s true phase from the synodic cycle; meteor showers fall on the real Perseid and Geminid dates. The fourth dimension isn’t a metaphor here — the world simply runs.
Questions
- Is any of it recorded?
- No. There are no audio files at all — every drop, rumble, wave and bell is synthesized in your browser the moment you hear it.
- Why does that matter?
- Recordings must eventually repeat, and once you notice the loop it becomes a distraction. Synthesis has no seam: the tenth hour is as new as the first.
- Does it use a lot of data or battery?
- Very little data — nothing streams after the page loads, and it works offline. Synthesis uses modest CPU; Vantablack mode keeps OLED battery use low at night.
- What technology is it built on?
- The Web Audio API: oscillators, filtered noise, convolution reverb and hundreds of scheduled events per minute, all orchestrated live in JavaScript.
rainrainsound.com — a quiet place to listen.