The other day I received an email containing a “running in the rain” story called Need Washing? from a friend. Although it has nothing to do with rain sounds per se, Need Washing? provides another perspective on why rain can be so calming to the soul.

This small story struck quite a responsive chord with me, so I’d like to share it with you:

A little girl had been shopping with her Mom in Target. She must have been 6 years old, this beautiful red haired, freckle faced image of innocence. It was pouring outside. The kind of rain that gushes over the top of rain gutters, so much in a hurry to hit the earth it has no time to flow down the spout. We all stood there under the awning and just inside the door of the Target.

We waited, some patiently, others irritated because nature messed up their hurried day. I am always mesmerized by rainfall. I got lost in the sound and sight of the heavens washing away the dirt and dust of the world. Memories of running, splashing so carefree as a child came pouring in as a welcome reprieve from the worries of my day.

The little voice was so sweet as it broke the hypnotic trance we were all caught in “Mom let’s run through the rain,” she said.

“What?” Mom asked.

“Let’s run through the rain!” she repeated

“No, honey. We’ll wait until it slows down a bit,” Mom replied.

This young child waited about another minute and repeated: “Mom, let’s run through the rain.”

“We’ll get soaked if we do,” Mom said.

“No, we won’t, Mom. That’s not what you said this morning,” the young girl said as she tugged at her Mom’s arm.

“This morning? When did I say we could run through the rain and not get wet?”

“Don’t you remember? When you were talking to Daddy about his cancer, you said , ‘If God can get us through this, he can get us through anything!’”

The entire crowd stopped dead silent. I swear you couldn’t hear anything but the rain. We all stood silently. No one came or left in the next few minutes.

Mom paused and thought for a moment about what she would say. Now some would laugh it off and scold her for being silly. Some might even ignore what was said. But this was a moment of affirmation in a young child’s life. A time when innocent trust can be nurtured so that it will bloom into faith.

“Honey, you are absolutely right. Let’s run through the rain. If God lets us get wet, well maybe we just needed washing,” Mom said.

Then off they ran. We all stood watching, smiling and laughing as they darted past the cars and yes, through the puddles. They held their shopping bags over their heads just in case. They got soaked. But they were followed by a few who screamed and laughed like children all the way to their cars.

And yes, I did. I ran. I got wet. I needed washing.

Circumstances or people can take away your material possessions, they can take away your money, and they can take away your health. But no one can ever take away your precious memories…

So, don’t forget to make time and take the opportunities to make memories everyday. To everything there is a season and a time to every purpose under heaven.

I HOPE YOU STILL TAKE THE TIME TO RUN THROUGH THE RAIN.

But no-o-o-o. It did sprinkle a few times, but nothing that would be meaningful. I constantly checked the weather radar and there was rain all around me, but where I was never got a good hit. However, as I was finishing packing things into the car yesterday to leave, it began a light rain. As I got outside of Gainesville, violent thunderstorms and torrential rain followed me all the way back home. Once I got home, the rain stopped!

Thus, I’ll have to wait for another day and another rain for another rain sound recording opportunity.

Most importantly, I wanted a rain music CD that was quite mellow and very potent for falling and staying asleep. Who knew that a hurricane would provide the ideal rain sound?

The rain in Rain Song was taken from the rain bands generated by Hurricane Dennis. I recorded about 10 hours of rain and then culled through the recording and found the 74 minute “sweet spot.” I then added music pieces that I composed to complement the fluctuating intensity of the rain sounds appearing in the album.

I knew I had a winner when I was mixing the master and kept nodding off. As a further testament to Rain Song’s effectiveness as a soothing sound conducive to sleep, it even knocked out my little studio dog!

Discover this extraordinary rain music for yourself:

Listen to gentle rain with music: Rain Song (available in CD and mp3 formats)

Truly a remarkable “symphony” of rain:

As I got older, I was constantly buying recordings of rain to play at night to help me sleep.  One of the first recordings I bought as a teenager was in the 70’s and was on the old eight track tape format I found in the “sound effects” section of a record store. It was a really bad recording and had annoying wildlife sounds all through it. But it fueled the fire in my quest to find a great rain recording.

I think this fascination with sounds and how they affected people helped push me towards pursuing a career in music and sound production. And later as I became fascinated with white noise and all its sources, properties and benefits.

In the early 80’s while working for numerous recording studios as a composer and audio producer, I discovered white noise and realized the sound of the rain is really a white noise sound made by nature.

In 1990 I opened my own recording studio and one of my first personal projects was to record the “perfect” rain album.  Nothing but pure blissful rich full stereo rain with no animal, traffic or other distracting sounds to degrade the recording. This was not a “commercial” client project, this was me. Finally after all the years, I was making the rain album I had always wanted and dreamed of.  The perfect rain album for my own personal use – made just to help me go to sleep.

So one humid June afternoon as the afternoon Florida rains rolled in, I set my plan into action.  I gathered my best microphones together, put them on mic stands, attached their cables to my recording console and took them out the back door of the studio onto a little covered patio area that faced out to the woods. (Luckily, my studio was way out in the boonies so I didn’t have to worry about traffic and “people” noises getting on my recording.) I set the mics apart as far as the cables would allow and pointed the mics in opposite directions to get good stereo separation. I was set! And just in time as a light sprinkling on rain was now beginning to fall.  I was giddy with excitement!

I went back into the studio and hit the record button and begin to record my long awaited album. Two hours later the storm had finally rolled through and I brought in and dried off the recording equipment. Then I rewound my recording tape, sat behind the recording console and was ready to hear my masterpiece.  I played the tape and thought to myself “I have finally done it! I have captured the perfect rain recording.”

Then it happened, what I heard shattered my dream. About 5 minutes into the recording a little rain frog had decided to get as close to the mic as he could and began to audition for American Idol in the loudest and longest song you have ever heard!  He croaked all the way through the rest of my recording … for two hours. And about 30 minutes into the taping he was joined by some rude little bird who decided to chime in with his own vocal audition from a big crepe myrtle tree next to the studio.  My perfect rain recording was ruined.  I was devastated. But decided not to let a little rain frog get the best of me. The next rain to roll in would find me setting up the mics again to try all over again.

Long story even longer, I continued to record as many rain events as I could. And by the end of the summer, after probably 60 hours of recordings, I finally had my first version of Restful Rain. It was analog, only 30 minutes long (to fit on one side of an hour long cassette), and mixed down and mastered to a cassette, but it was perfect!

Now there have been many upgraded versions of this Restful Rain album since its humble analog beginnings in the early 90’s. The latest version is pure digital and almost 74 minutes of glorious rain sound and incorporates my 25 years experience with recording white noise nature sounds.

Listen to the soothing rain sound of Restful Rain

I have learned much about nature recording since those early days 25 years ago. I look back and now remember fondly the little frog that helped teach me a great lesson. To get a great nature recording you must have patience, patience and more patience…

I still have trouble falling to sleep sometimes. And  I still use my “perfect” Restful Rain album.  But instead of an old clunky eight track tape or noisy cassette tape, it is now on my digital iPod.  Who could have dreamed!?