Move your sound icons around to make them more or less prominent in your mix.
Distracted at work? Stressed? Sleepless? Maybe you should try firing up the TaoMix app and going to your customized happy place. Sitting by a crackling fire in the woods with wind blowing through the trees? Campfire on the beach with the sound of ocean waves? Sitting in a coffee shop with a crackling fire and the sound of rain on the roof?
For years, I used the free version of the app TaoMix (from inookta studio inc.) to give me a relaxing backdrop of ocean breezes, rain or other nature sounds. In the free version, you only have access to some of the sounds in the app’s library, and for a long time, I was satisfied with those and just ignored the other options listed.
But in trying to get into a better sleep groove, I began looking at all the sounds in the library and decided it was time to get the paid version.
Creating your own sound prescription
With the full library to play with, I figured out for the first time the true beauty of the app – the ability to layer sounds to create an atmosphere that lulls you, stimulates you, comforts you, or simply takes you to a favorite place when you can’t go there yourself.
I’m just sorry I didn’t commit to the paid version earlier.
I work from a home office, and sometimes the solitude and/or the neighborhood sounds (currently: a house being built across the street) make me wish I could snap my fingers and be somewhere else. Sound mixes help, whether they conjure up nature or other environments that are more appealing than the buzzing, growling and clanking of construction equipment. (TaoMix includes non-nature ambient options, too, such as the sound of a train, a fan blowing or a coffee shop's murmurs and clinking.)
A few examples of the mixes I’ve created so far and the sounds that go into them:
- A hike in the woods: Walk in the forest (footsteps on leaves) + wind in trees + birds in the forest
- Three Pines bistro from author Louise Penny’s Inspector Gamache novels on a cold rainy day (friends finally convinced me to start reading this mystery series set in an idyllic Canadian village, and this mix made me think of the inviting bistro where many scenes in the book take place): Busy coffee shop + fireplace + medium rain + distant thunder
- Beach campfire: Fire camp + medium waves + sea breeze
- Campfire in the woods with storm coming: Fire camp + wind in trees + distant thunder
- Lying in bed in an old oceanfront beach cottage on a stormy night: Sea breeze + light rain on a roof + medium thunder + agitated ocean
The app's creators also paid great attention to detail, giving you the ability to choose how prominent or subtle each sound in your mix should be. If you move a sound icon closer to the circle in the center of your phone screen (as pictured in the screen shot above), it will be amplified; far from the circle, it will be far more muted.
This feature is the icing on the cake for me; there are certain sounds that I like but can easily dominate a mix or be too distracting from the overall effect if they're too loud.
Work hack or personal hack
If sounds are powerful for you, I’ve found that there are plenty of situations where the app works well.
As mentioned, I use it during the work day in my home office when I need (good) sounds in the background but am not in the mood to listen to music. Had I thought about it at the time, it would have been an ideal antidote to the distraction and oddness of working in an “open office” environment a couple of years ago. For many reasons, the open office trend has never appealed to me, and one of the drawbacks was the fact that I could no longer create a workspace with any personal stamp on it (in a true open office scenario, your belongings stay in a drawer, and you have to find your seat every day).
I think the TaoMix app would have made open office work easier on two fronts: Blocking out distraction, of course, and possibly helping me feel – on a subconscious level anyway – that I could create a space of my own each day, even if it was a virtual space.
And on a personal level, it’s been a great addition to my night-time routine; when winding down or falling asleep, I usually go for a mix of rain, wind, ocean waves and the like (with the occasional frog or cricket sounds thrown in).
Want to try it?
TaoMix is available in the iTunes app store and for Android. When I was searching for these links, I discovered that a new version, TaoMix 2, has been released, so you may want to check out that version, too.