Gentle Musical Lakeshore Waves
Gentle Lakeshore Waves. 10 October 2025, Robert G. Wehle State Park near Henderson Harbor, NY. © Lang Elliott. Please wear headphones. Ai-gen photo.
Note: The recording featured here is a "3D binaural soundscape". Please wear headphones for a profound listening experience that will make you think you're actually out there, immersed in the natural world!
During an autumn trip to Lake Ontario in 2025, I was fortunate to encounter an evening of very calm wave action. Small swells rolled in, lapping gently against round stones and producing an astounding variety of delicate, musical plinks, plops and splashes. Crickets trilled softly in the background. It was as if the sea was having a good time making its water music and delighting at every turn. I sat quietly on a large rock nearby, fully immersed in the concert and quite taken by the relaxing yet engaging mix of sound.
The Backstory:
While this soundscape appears calm, pristine, and free of human-created noise, the situation was actually more complicated and I had to work hard during the editing phase to produce an acceptable listening experience. I made the recording at dusk and there was a 30-minute "magical window of time" during which the wave action was delicate and mesmerizing. After that, a light breeze appeared out of nowhere and the wave action greatly intensified. To my ear, the magic simply evaporated.
To make matters worse, several boats passed by during the prime interval. They were not close but their motor sounds were loud enough that I had to delete those portions of the recording. Also to my dismay, there was a small group of people somewhere in the distance and they would, on a number of occasions, talk loudly or break out laughing. So, I had to remove those sections as well. In the end, after eliminating these annoying segments, I ended up with a little over 12 minutes that I feel (as an artist) captures the natural beauty of the moment.
Such is the case with nature. As perceived by the human eyes and ears and minds, what we experience and call "beauty" is often ephemeral. It is there one second and gone the next. Landscape photographers know this well. They strive to be present to capture the most powerful instant when changeable light is just right and all other conditions are in perfect alignment. Nature recording is often much the same, but involves being present to special intervals of time that have enough duration to move us deeply, before dissolving into more mundane, ordinary reality.
An Appeal to Listeners:
Please let me know if you hear any obvious glitches (bad edits) or anything else annoying about this recording. I was forced to make so many edits that I'm not entirely trusting I did a good job. It's important to get this one right because I consider it one of my best "gentle" wavescapes.
Naturally Yours,
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Comment Section
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I was going to comment that it was a blessing that you found such a quiet place where the music of the waves reigned supreme…. but then I read the backstory. Still, you were able to record a wonderful symphony. Thanks for sharing this
I grew up in Pultneyville, on Lake Ontario, and have spent a lot of time on the lake shore. Hearing this takes me back to peaceful times in my life.
Hello,Lang. beautiful gentle waves. It is better listening with ear buds on. Full effect. Thank you
Actual headphones are even better for most of my recordings! Earbuds generally do not have good low frequency response. This doesn’t matter so much with this particular recording because it has very little low frequency energy. But many of my recordings do have significant LF content. My recommended headphones for truly appreciating my soundscapes, even in noisy surroundings, are of the “noise cancelling” variety. I still use my Bose Quiet Comfort 35, an old model. These days, there are excellent options available from Bose, Sony, Focal, and Sennheser. Here’s an old discussion about headphones on my website; I should probably… Read more »
I don’t want to imply that earphone listening is bad. You definitely will be able to appreciate the immersive binaural aspect of my soundscapes, but you will have a noticeably better listening experience when noise-cancelling headphones are used. One thing I forgot to mention is that audiophiles prefer well-designed “open-backed” headphones for the best result, but since there is no noise-cancelling involved, such headphones must be used in quiet environments where there is little or no background sound. This is hard to come by. Even here in my rurally-located sound studio, I hear some road noise, the whirr of my… Read more »
so lovely – meditative and calming…thanks! Love the evening sunset photo, whether it was actually recorded there or not!
The photo is indeed ai-generated. But I love it because it fortifies the magic inherent in the recording and provides the eye with an aesthetically-pleasing scene that draws one in. I actually snapped a few photos on location using my iPhone, but it was cloudy and the photos don’t look good at all. In fact, you can barely tell that you are on the shoreline of a huge lake. My strategy in using ai-gen photos is to provide a pleasing, realistic scene that “sets the stage” by helping settle one’s mind while increasing one’s receptivity to the audio experience. The… Read more »
Lovely! Very relaxing and mesmerizing. I did not hear any glitches.
Great, and thank you Wil. So do you still have “golden” ears, referring primarily to your exceptional high frequency response?
Regarding my hearing, so far so good. I am so thankful that my high-frequency range is still there.
I can scarcely imagine what your listening experience is actually like, given my severe HF loss.
I have noticed that I cannot hear the virtuoso katydids as well as I used to. Short-winged Meadow Katydids are gone now. However, most of the others and high-pitched birds are still there.
A wave lullaby. I felt transported to times when we used to lay down and relax in a small anchored boat at Deep Creek Lake with a gentle lapping of the waves against the sides. Zzzzzzzz…
Thanks, Lang, for your alert thoughtful recording. My conception is the wind as the
musician playing her/his instrument of surface water movement stroking the stones
of various sizes/shapes/resistance masses/droplet sizes together creating an orchestrated symphony steadied by the underlying wave rhythmicity—all an expression of nature’s celebration of “what is” or “self,” yes? Appreciate how “tuned in” are you. Sitting back
and listening to this would be good “medicine” for us all,.
I commend your editorial skills. The only ‘anomaly’ that I perceived, around 6 minutes, was a slightly dramatic dip in wave action/sound. Perhaps the ocean was responding to the gently inevitable pull of the setting sun, rising moon? I enjoy this recording and am grateful that you worked it into the purity that nature intended. Must admit, my eyelids grew heavy toward the end, having been peacefully lulled into rest … zzzzzzz.
Thank you Sharon. That was a natural drop in intensity, but nonetheless, I think I will move that quiet section to somewhere near the end, where the wave action got quieter overall. While that involves messing with nature’s own flow, I feel I need some leeway to “smooth things out” when necessary, for the sake of boosting human appreciation. My primary goal here is not to document exactly what nature did but to include some degree of interpretation, “poetic license” if you will. I consider myself a purist on most counts, but allow myself to mess with things a bit… Read more »
Music always comes with some degree of interpretation, so I agree, your edits are well designed, well placed, and much appreciated. Thank you for your efforts!
I love to know that you’re editing like that. Being a birder and hypervigilant to birdsong, I find myself unable to fall asleep listening to daytime tracks because I’m snapped to alertness whenever I hear the slightest birdsong. My brain sets to trying to figure out where the track was recorded and what the bird might be. So I often turn to the nighttime tracks–I can take a muted great horned owl or two. 🙂 This is an absolutely gorgeous piece.
Thank you Julie. I’m working on a Sleep-themed album to add to my Pure Nature 3D Soundscapes app. It will feature gentle nighttime tracks from a variety of locations. While many will include the sounds of owls, nightjars, frogs and etc., in all cases those sounds will be distant and somewhat muted, hopefully facilitating sleep (in other words… nothing jarring that would cause one to wake). Crickets, gentle waves, soothing gurgle of brooks, distant frogs, night winds, youn name it. All tracks loopable and album loopable.