Natural Ambience

Editors' ReviewDownload.com staffJanuary 28, 2005This nifty program provides a calming atmosphere by providing 10 soothing nature-based background sounds you can play on your PC. Since it doesn't do anything else beyond its main job, Natural Ambience's interface is simple to understand, offering four timer presets, a volume slider, an Options icon, and a list of sound effects. Sounds include a waterfall, a thunderstorm, gently rolling waves, rain, and a heartbeat. We found all sound effects to be both realistic and relaxing, although the indian-chant setting actually frayed our nerves instead of mellowing them. It would be nice if the application let you tweak the speed of the sound effects; for instance, we thought the water in the Tranquil Stream setting flowed too fast to be entirely calming. Clicking the Options button lets you enable the application's bundled background music or add your own music files. We suggest you avoid the former, which ruins the overall atmosphere with cheesy MIDI-based tunes. All told, Natural Ambience makes a good tool for the stressed-out and sleep deprived, although filmmakers and musicians looking for basic sound effects might find it handy as well.