Ambient Sounds

Music Assistant has support for Ambient Sounds. This component is contributed and maintained by the Music Assistant core team.

This source gives Music Assistant users a small catalog of ambient sound loops, white, pink and brown noise plus ocean waves, that are generated locally on the server. They can be played directly like any other item, or used as the source for the queue audio overlay feature to mix a bed of ambient sound underneath the music.

Features

Subscription FREE	Yes
Self-Hosted Local Media	No
Media Types Supported	Sound Effects
Recommendations Supported	No
Lyrics Supported	No
Endless Mix	No
Artist Top Tracks Support	No
Similar Artists Support	No
Similar Tracks Support	No
Maximum Stream Quality	FLAC 44.1kHz 16 bit
Login Method	None

Included sounds

Sound	Description
White noise	Bright, steady hiss with equal energy across all frequencies
Pink noise	Softer noise with reduced high frequencies, similar to steady rainfall
Brown noise	Deep, low rumble similar to a distant waterfall or heavy surf
Ocean waves	Deep rolling noise with a slow, wave-like swell

Other

• Every sound is a 30 second loop that is built to repeat seamlessly, so it can play indefinitely without audible seams
• All sounds are calibrated to the same loudness (-14 LUFS), so switching between them does not change the perceived volume
• Can be used as the audio overlay source for a queue, mixing ambient sound underneath the music

Configuration:

• The provider is set up automatically and there is nothing to configure.
• The provider can be disabled or removed from Settings → Music Sources.

Usage

The ambient sounds are not added to the library and do not show up in search. They can be found by browsing:

1. Go to Browse in the main menu
2. Open Ambient Sounds

From there a sound can be played directly on any player, just like a track.

Using ambient sounds as audio overlay

The audio overlay mixes a looping sound effect into the audio of a queue while the music keeps playing. It is enabled by an option in the settings of the Now Playing view. Pick one of the ambient sounds as the overlay source for a queue and set the overlay volume (relative to the music) to taste. Changes take effect immediately. When the queue is playing, playback restarts from the current position so the change is heard right away instead of after the player’s buffer has drained.

Note that enabling the overlay forces the queue into flow mode, because the overlay has to keep playing across track boundaries.

Known Issues / Notes

• These are synthesized sounds, not real field recordings. For naturalistic content such as real rain recordings, use a dedicated provider
• The first time a sound is played it is rendered with ffmpeg, which can take a few seconds. The result is stored in Music Assistant’s cache directory (a few MB per sound) and reused from then on, so subsequent plays start immediately
• Removing the cache directory is harmless — the sounds are simply rendered again on next use
• Ambient sounds cannot be favourited or added to a playlist
• While the audio overlay is active, the queue always plays in flow mode. Players that rely on per-item playback features will behave accordingly
• If the overlay source cannot be resolved or its stream fails, playback continues without the overlay rather than stopping the music