Conventional
Relaxation and Nature Sounds vs. Us
Recently I had the opportunity to mix
Koi Pond in Summer. It is a
relaxing mental/audio journey to a small pond with a trickling
waterfall during a windy day. I received an email the next day
asking me to reconsider this more conventional approach as
Virtual Dreamer's uniqueness is what they liked about
the site. The implied question was 'am I getting more conventional?'
(AKA becoming like any other relaxation and/or nature sounds site) and my answer
is this: no.
There are visualization sequences in Koi Pond
just like almost all the other dreamscapes, just fewer of them.
Further still, other people have emailed and asked me why I don't
make more conventional nature sounds. You know. Things that have
soothing names like 'Morning Mountain Mist' and 'The Tidal Pool'.
My answer is this: while I might venture into more conventional
nature sounds in the future my passion is visualization and
sleep onset. Having a sixty minute recording of a static
atmosphere has its place but does very little to stimulate
visualization or relaxation.
Anyhoo, I guess you can't please everyone.
But such is life.
On a side note, my biggest issue right now is
redesigning the homepage. Counting the sounds on the homepage,
the sounds in the Specialty Vault,
and the free tinnitus masking sounds
we are well on our way to 35 relaxing dreamscapes. This has caused a bit
of sprawl on the homepage and has increased the initial
download time of that single page. Not being a whiz-kid webpage
designer I can use all the help I can get.
Lastly, I want to wish everyone a happy
Halloween. I don't know about where you live but where I reside
kids do not come trick or treating anymore. Is this is a sad
statement about the fear based society we as Americans live in?
I don't want to get off on a rant but when your/my country's
chief export is war what do you expect? The government
does its best to scare the people with terrorism, deadly flues,
terrorism, molesters, evil drug doers, and did I mention
terrorism? A fear based economy needs a fear based society.
Without one how can such a massive military industrial complex
exist? Meanwhile our schools are going down the drain,
there is no national health insurance, wars drag on,
corporations rewrite laws with the assistance of their puppet
congressmen and America ever so slowly loses it's identity. Just
remember when the news media pulls out those staggering death
statistics for the H1N1 virus during sweeps week that 100,000
unfortunate people in America die of influenza... year in and
year out. I feel for the twenty-somethings out there who
don't have collective memories of the good old days. I am old
enough to I remember how it was... and it was good.
Postscript: So what does this all have to do
with relaxing sleep sounds? Having just reread this entry I
realize it's 'all over the place'. I further
realize I need another cup of coffee. I guess I am a little
sleepy myself. Anyhoo, Happy
Halloween!
Brad McBride
Return
to Sleep
Thoughts
