The Other Side (series) by Joe Frank www.joefrank.com
A cassette on one of those small kid stereos, later it was my mom reading me stuff. I don’t know if I could listen to music falling asleep but nowadays I have YT videos on and lots of white noise to drown out the crackhead neighbours upstairs.
When I was a kid I had a record player and usually played a particular record that had various artists on it Like Johnny Horton (Battle of New Orleans) and Elvis Presley (Blue Suede Shoes).
Now 40+ years later, it’s usually stuff like Frog Leap Studios (Leo Morrachelli https://www.youtube.com/user/leolego/videos) mainly so I don’t have to hear my cats screaming around the house in their nightly turbo mode.
I still like Johnny Horton, but anything from Elvis makes my eye twitch.
I never played sleepy music until I was a teen, and every night I played Cake - Prolonging the Magic. Great, mellow tunes, and I learned ALL the lyrics subliminally!
Ok, I did listen to it awake, so maybe it wasn’t completely subliminal, but it’s been a while and I bet I could still sing 80% of the album from memory.
Nowadays, it’s just the fan or AC running.
That’s how I am with the bat out of hell album… Get off my lawn.
Robot chicken. Now, I usually have on some kind of space documentary, creepypasta or some long gameplay videos.
Beatles albums then, rain sounds now
The never ending story!
I barely remember it.
As a kid? Nothing. Just silence.
Today? My tinnitus, quietly humming away.
Now,.if I’m in a very weird mental spot and just can’t spin down to rest, I put on The Might Jingles’ World of Warships gameplay videos. His English voice just puts me out in moments.
Have you thought about doing that more often. I feel like its actually heathier lol. Everytime i wake up to pure silence is troublesome to me. I like things playing even if impossibly quiet cuz I still pick up on it
No, the goal is to sleep in silence. When I’m able to put aside my worries and truly rest I don’t need any noise or background hum to be completely out.
I only use a short video (under my pillow at mom volume so I can barely hear it) to get to sleep and then I’m usually out for a long time.
I’ve always felt that much of getting to sleep and what makes it easy to rest is training to some extent. Changing the ambient noise (especially if you move homes) can really screw things up until you get used to the normal noises of the new location. While that happens I’ll use something to fuzz the ambient sounds, but I’ll actively remove the white nose or background video over time so I acclimate to the new normal.
I consider it a worthwhile goal to be able to sleep without aids, if possible. Most of the real trouble is in my head (or a neighbor with fucking loud music at 2am to be dealt with), so when I have control I seek silence and a mental even keel when possible.
The barely hear it point is a good one I’ve picked up on. I would even go as far as making it so quiet you almost need to delicately strain to hear it but you’ll mostly be inclined to drift in and out and soon, away
Nothing, mostly. And nothing. Unless there was hard wind or rain or an occasional bird. Loud birds can be a bit annoying to me these days.
This makes me sad for some reason. Like someone who left their baby to deal with pure silence for extended periods
As a kid in Detroit? Distant gunfire, most summer nights.
Now as an adult in the suburbs? Usually a fan, because my wife prefers that and I don’t mind.
Recording of waves or white noise from a fan.
As a kid, CD documentaries about constellations and astronomy
Modern day, video essays about the lore of soulslikes and random media I’ve gotten sucked into
That sounds like such a neat childhood! I wish I had those documentaries growing up.
I was lucky and my parents were able to get me one of those ceiling projection globes that makes the shadows in your room look like a night sky in a forest clearing, been thinking a lot about inspirations from growing up because I was able to find one of those rare actual starter homes we’ve all been told of in myth and legend and have started to hype myself on all the ways I get to make it mine
As a kid? My drunk dad fucking shit up downstairs. Falling down the stairs. Throwing plates at the tv.
As an adult? “Hey it’s Josh from Lets Game it out! Today we’re checking out Satisfactory! So NEW GAME!”
Haha, I love how Josh finds ways to break games that are still in early access. Like, he’s not actually playing the game, he’s looking for an exploit or a way to break the framerate.
Sorry to hear about the way your house sounded at night growing up.
Nothing as a kid. Now I listen to a detuned playlist of fascinating, but dry science/history/tech videos.
My current rotation is Anton Petrov, Sean Wilsey, Red Wrench Films, and Curious Droid, all played at 85% speed, 90% pitch.
Very intriguing answer ;) If you’ll indulge me for a momen, can you tell me more about how you came to decide on those tweaks
Been working on some psychoacoustics stuff recently so this is very appropos
I slowed it down because it’s more sedate sounding. Even though these videos have relatively even tonal qualities, they sometimes speak fairly quickly. I adjusted the pitch only enough to reduce the distortion from the speed shift I just checked and the numbers are actually 85/95, not 85/90. 90% pitch is too unnatural sounding.
What do you use to change the pitch and speed?
NewPipe
Hundreds of bullfrogs croaking the night away around a nearby pond. Now if I hear a bunch of frogs I get nostalgic.
Reeeeee! Haha
