Ocean sounds
Waves that arrive, break and drain away on a slow cycle. Built from a low swell and a bright break running a third of a cycle apart, which is the difference between the sea and noise going up and down.
A wave is two sounds, and the gap between them matters
Take any recording of surf and listen for the structure. There is a low, broad build as water piles up, and then a bright hiss as it breaks and drains across sand or shingle. The two are not simultaneous. The hiss arrives after the body of the wave, and the delay between them is most of what tells you how big the wave was and how far away.
That is exactly how this is built. One slow oscillator runs at one cycle per wave and drives both bands — the low swell directly, and the bright break a third of a cycle later. Underneath sits a quiet steady bed of distant surf that never fully goes away, because a real shoreline is never actually silent between waves. Get the phase offset wrong and you hear a single pulsing noise; get it right and the ear reconstructs a coastline.
Choosing a wave period
Real ocean swell periods run from about six seconds for local wind chop to fourteen or more for long ground swell that has travelled a thousand miles. The generator sits at ten seconds by default, which is a moderate beach day, and accepts anything from three to thirty.
Short periods feel busier and more energetic — closer to a lake shore or a choppy day, and rather less restful. Long periods feel enormous and slow, and are the ones that pair best with the fireplace or with rain, since there is time between waves for the other layer to be heard. Anything under about four seconds stops sounding like the sea and starts sounding like a machine, which is the honest limit of this approach.
One thing worth saying plainly: this is a synthesised approximation, not a recording of a specific beach. It has no gulls, no wind in dune grass, no pebbles rolling. Those details are what make field recordings lovely and what make them megabytes long and identically repeated every forty seconds. The trade here is deliberate — less specific, and it never loops.
Wave period and what it sounds like
One oscillator at one cycle per wave drives the whole profile, so the period is the only number that matters. These rates are computed by the generator, not estimated.
| Period | LFO rate | Character |
|---|---|---|
| 4 s | 0.25 Hz | Choppy — closer to a lake shore than to surf |
| 6 s | 0.167 Hz | Local wind chop, busy and energetic |
| 10 s | 0.1 Hz | A moderate beach day — the default here |
| 14 s | 0.071 Hz | Long ground swell, slow and heavy |
| 20 s | 0.05 Hz | Very long — there is real silence between waves |
Common questions
How long is one wave cycle?
About ten seconds by default, which is a moderate ocean swell. The build accepts periods from three to thirty seconds, and the whole profile — swell, break and bed — is derived from that single number.
Why can I not hear individual pebbles or gulls?
Because those are recorded details, and this is synthesis. What you get instead is a wave pattern that never repeats. Layering a little wind and fire on top adds back some of the texture a field recording would have.
Does it sound better on headphones?
A little, mainly because most of the swell is below 300 Hz and small speakers cannot reproduce it. Any speaker with a woofer is fine, and headphone volume should stay low if it is running all night.