The BBC Sound Effects Archive relaunches with 33,000+ recordings & a SFX mixer tool

We scroll, hours on end, sleepless and eagle-eyed, scavenging through the digital wasteland for a good tip on modern mindfulness. We forget that sometimes, the quickest way to calm the mind is to close the eye. Nothingness helps. Sometimes, bird sounds help too.

But not everyone has access to the great outdoors, especially in a year like 2020, or 2021, which feels like 2020 part 2. Luckily, the digital world — as if making reparations for its toxic consequences on human wellbeing — offers us infinite libraries of music and nature recordings. The BBC has launched a new website called Soundscapes for Wellbeing, which reintroduces the updated BBC Sound Effects Archive with their new accompanying Sound Effects Archive mixer tool, and includes an invitation for you to participate in the Virtual Nature Experiment. Also included on the website are ambient/soundscape playlists for your wellbeing, like Mary Anne Hobb’s 'Ambient Focus' mix and David Attenborough’s ‘Mindful Mix’.

The first nature recording ever made was the sound of a captive Indian shama at the Frankfurt Zoo, recorded by an eight-year-old Ludwig Koch in 1889 with a wax cylinder. Today, we have access to this recording. The BBC Sound Effects Archive provided the public with 16,000 sound effect recordings — for free — back in 2018. Their updated archive gives us access to over 33,000 recordings. If you’re hunting for nature sounds, footsteps, mechanical/electronic device sounds, toy sounds...you’re in luck. The Sound Effects Archive mixer tool allows you to create your own soundscapes.

Accompanying the expanded sound library is the Virtual Nature Experiment. The project, involving award-winning sound-recordist Chris Watson and composer Nainita Desai, aims to investigate the impact of digital scenes of nature on our wellbeing. It's part of a larger study that hopes to bring virtual experiences of nature to people that are unable to access the great outdoors. Recordist Chris Watson is known for his recordings of wildlife sounds of animals and habitats from around the world and has worked on David Attenborough ‘Life’ series. Composer Nainita Desai has worked on Oscar 2020-nominated For Sama, Netflix’s most-watched documentary feature to date American Murder, BBC drama series Unprecedented and more. The experiment takes 10 minutes; you can participate here.

If you’d like to submit ambient music/soundscape for an upcoming ambient series by Mixmag Asia, please email [email protected].

Nature-themed music and programming will run across BBC networks and programmes from January 25 through February. For more information on Soundscapes for Wellbeing, head here.