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Peaceful Piano
Peaceful Piano is a handful of notes over near silence: played gently, left to ring, with long gaps between them. There is no hammer knock and no key noise in it, none of the clatter a close-miked piano puts in front of you, so each note arrives soft-edged and fades out. The recording is wide, wider than the guitar loop or either flute here.
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
Pianos recorded close carry the mechanism with them: hammer against string, damper falling back, a finger landing on a key. This one has almost none of that. Either it was played very gently, or the microphones were some way back, or both. What reaches you is the tone of the strings and the space around them.
The notes are sparse. Only about three across the loop arrive sharply enough to count as events, and between them the level drops a long way, further than it does in the guitar loop here. Soft-edged notes standing clear of quiet is the whole shape of it.
It will not mask anything
This matters more than it sounds. Masking works by raising the background level continuously, so that sudden changes stop standing out. Sparse piano notes do the opposite: between them the room is as quiet as it was before, and a door or a voice arrives into that silence and lands harder than it would over rain.
If the reason you are here is a noisy flat or an open-plan office, brown noise or gentle rain will serve you better. Play the piano when the room is already quiet and you want something in it.
How it compares, and what to layer
The other tonal material here divides the same way. Lullaby is a wide, dark chord pad with no tune in it at all, and Moonlight Lullaby a bright mono melodic figure that does move. This sits between them: real notes, played sparsely, with more weight underneath than either. The sound library index lists everything.
Filling the gaps is the obvious fix if the silences bother you. The Peaceful Piano and gentle rain blend in the free sound mixer puts a continuous layer between the notes without covering them.
Frequently asked questions
Why does this piano sound soft rather than percussive?
The hammer knock and key noise that makes a close-miked piano sound sharp is almost entirely absent, so what you hear is the strings and the space around them.
Is it good for masking noise?
No. The notes are sparse and the gaps between them are near silent, so interruptions arrive into quiet. Steady broadband sound masks far better.
Do headphones help?
Yes. The two channels differ more than they do in the guitar loop or either flute here, so the width of the recording is clearer on headphones.
Can I fall asleep to it?
Some people do. The notes stand out against near silence, which can hold light sleepers awake. Set the timer and keep the volume low.