5 Amazing Free Ambiance Tools for Dungeons & Dragons
One thing that really amps up a Dungeons & Dragons campaign and gets everyone in the mood to really sit down and role play is sound. Sound can bring a game to life by setting the mood of what is going on in the story. Today we are going to look at 5 of the best free options out there for audio in your game.
RPG Master Sound Mixer Midevil Edition
This is a sound mixer tool that you can get for free from the google play store that contains several ambiance and music tracks as well as a variety of different fantasy based sounds such as sward clanks and arrow shots.
One thing that sets this out from the rest is that it makes for a good sound effect machine more so than an ambiance maker. The quality of the tracks that are free are ok but nothing fantastic. I would consider using this app much more for sound effects and pairing it with some of the others below which is why it has made this list.
For a free fantasy soundboard, give this app try!
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.appingtown.rpgmsmme&hl=en_US
Ambient Mixer
Ambient Mixer was the first system that I ever encountered when first looking outside of Youtube for some ambient soundscapes to add to my Dungeons & Dragons campaign.
This site has a massive library of soundscapes to choose from. This is the thing I love the most about this site. It’s basically a sound cloud of ambient soundscapes.
You are able to control the sound levels of the audio in each one you find. For instance, I used a tavern soundscape and was able to turn down the sound of a broom and the rain outside, while turing up the chatter and walking noise to give the feeling of a bustling tavern.
If you don’t want a sound you can turn it off entirely by turning it down.
Speaking of the variability to these soundscapes, you can also adjust the frequency that a sound appears in the ambience which I love to have in my control.
Not happy with a particular sound in the setup you are using, that’s ok, you are able to swap it out with other sound effects in their library.
The search functionality can be hit and miss but I tend to find what I am looking for pretty easily when searching and prefixing everything with fantasy.
Ambient Mixer is a fantastic choice to choose from and I highly recommend that you give it a try for yourself!
Mynoise.net
MyNoise.net may not have an extreme amount of customization, but it the quality of the ambient options on it are superb. There are several fantasy specific soundscapes to choose from. The dungeon version is my favorite of them all from MyNoise.net.
You can adjust the speed as well as the level of audio coming from each of the track types. For instance, on their RPG elements I can ramp up the sound of owls and the sound of campfire.
Other options are adjusting the volume of all the levels at once or set a time that the soundscape will run for.
This is a very simple ambient generator to use. The downside in my opinion to this setup is the navigation. There is a lot of scrolling to see options that you would like to use on this site. But once you find the ones you want, it's good to book mark them.
Give MyNoise.net a try and see if it’s right for your gaming group.
YouTube
This one seems like a no brainer to most people out there, but it’s truly amazing the amount of different themed ambient videos that you can find out there. The nice thing about YouTube is that it’s a good set it and forget it option that everyone knows how to use. You can have a list of your favorite videos to play during battle or tavern noises.
Obviously, the downside to this is that it does not contain controls on the audio of the video to bring up certain aspects and bring others down.
On top of that, if you don’t have any form of ad blocking capabilities working either on your phone or your desktop browser, this can interrupt the soundscape in a very jarring and unpleasant way.
YouTube will always be around if you need it, but it does not even come close to what comes next on this list.
TabletopAudio.com
Tabletop Audio is a pretty popular site when looking for audio. Because the site is specific to tabletop games, it becomes much easier to look for a theme that might be exactly what you are looking for.
There are many ambient tracks that can be used on this site, but if you want to go the extra mile with your gaming group, take some time to fiddle with their soundpad. This gives the the gamemaster a really strong ability to create the perfect sound for the scenario in their campaigns.
One thing that is very cool about this is that you are able to save the scene that you created. This is handy cause if you come prepared to the session, you can change on the fly the scenes that the players will be going through.
There are multiple sets that can be used in the soundpad such as dungeon, forest, tavern. Even scifi options like a starship.
TabletopAudio gives many of these systems a run for their money in their both ease of use and number of features.
Give TabletopAudio.com a try but be sure to browse around before the session starts to really take your game to the next level.
Bonus: Battlebards
Many of us have heard of this one. Battle Bards is a paid service, so we are mentioning it as a bonus for todays list. The quality is second to none with this system and it contains both a soundboard and a mixer to really get the kind of sound that you want out of it.
So if you are looking for the premium feature that contains both ambient as well as amazing sound effects, consider adding this to your monthly D&D budget. If you don’t feel like paying monthly, you can also buy pieces of content that you want individually.
Conclusion
So those are some of some of the best sound mixers for that are out there. Be sure to give them all a try and see what ones work best for you and your table. Comment below and let us know your experiences with these products!
Want to check out other lists that might be useful as a Game Master? Check out our list for the top 5 fantasy map makers here! https://www.dickwizardry.com/articles/5-amazing-free-fantasy-map-builders