Isolationism

You may well have just clicked a link wondering, “What the hell is a Boodler?” If that’s the case, let me explain it for you:

Boodler is the name of a free, open-source application written by Andrew Plotkin to create soundscape simulations. We’ve all heard CDs of thunderstorms or seen clock-radios that have built-in sound effects to let you go to sleep to the sound of crashing waves or birdsong; this is like those, only:

• You run the software on your computer—Linux, Mac and Windows are all supported
• You don’t pay anything for the software, or get to download for free but are then nagged/guilted/limited into paying for it
• The software also comes with bundled soundscapes which are free for you to use
• Unlike CDs or even radios and other software audio generators, Boodler’s soundscapes can contain a level of complexity as deep as you can imagine with sound quality as good as high as your hardware can support. This means you can design soundscapes to never play the same thing twice, for example—a common problem to those who would use such tools as sleep or meditation aides, for example

By now you’re thinking, yeah, whatever, why would I bother? Why, indeed. If the notion of soundscapes doesn’t appeal to you at all, you’ve probably already stopped reading. The big highlight with Boodler as compared to all the other options out there, though, should be obvious: You can design your own soundscapes. Indeed, this is primarily what the software was designed with in mind.

Before you get too excited, let me pull in the reins a bit: Boodler—and indeed, any soundscapes for it—are written in Python (with a little C for some optimised operations, but you’ll never have to write any). There is in fact an excellent reason for this choice, and one I couldn’t agree with more: Using a programming language (as opposed to a pretty GUI with menus and sliders) means you can leverage Python’s manifold abilities to manipulate the sounds Boodler produces in ways that even the most sophisticated GUI couldn’t hope to achieve. Python is the perfect language for this effect: It’s free, available for most platforms, easy to learn, efficient to write, object-oriented, easily extensible (with thousands of free modules out there extending its already-extensive native capabilities), powerful and fast (as many operations are executed natively in C despite Python being an interpreted language), and easy to experiment with (no messy compilation phase required).
If the thought of programming anything sounds intimidating, it need not be: Python is in fact one of the easier programming languages to learn: its syntax is predominantly written in plain English and reads almost like pseudocode, and its use in the context of Boodler is rather well-documented—meaning you can be up and designing in no time. If you’re like me and learn by example, Boodler comes with more than enough variety of examples to get you well on your way.

If you’re still reading and Boodler sounds interesting enough to go further, I recommend downloading a copy! The built-in soundscapes should provide you with enough to gain a bit more practical understanding of Boodler’s capabilities; I also recommend a glance through the documentation as it references some examples you can execute (as the variety of features and how to execute them may not be immediately obvious until you become familiar with the program).

I hope to expand this page with examples of my own code, and create a small repository of my own sound samples and Boodler soundscapes for sharing with others. I’m hoping to connect with similar-minded people who fit under any of the following:

• Have recorded—or are able to record—their own high-quality audio samples for use in soundscapes;
• Have experience in sound design and are interested in the project;
• Have experience in audio software development/programming;
• Have developed their own soundscapes in Boodler, or are interested in doing so

If you fall under any of the points above, please leave me a message; I’d love to get in touch with you for sharing and potentially pooling our resources.