Customer Reviews

ECHOES OF NATURE: The Natural Sounds Of The Wilderness, Part 1 (5 CDs)

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

No, that price is not a typo. Yes, this is a five-CD box set of nature sounds, no music included. And, unlike many other "budget" CDs, where you definitely get what you pay for in terms of sound quality, the recordings on these discs are clear and beautiful. If you like nature sounds but don't have a lot of cash, you can pick this box up for the price you would normally pay for ONE disc!

The five discs in the box are called "Tropical Rainforest," "Bayou," "Jungle Talk," "Wilderness River," and the sampler. Each features sounds from the particular place described; the sampler includes a short piece from each of the discs plus some others in the "Echoes of Nature" series. It's hard to pick a favorite, but "Bayou," with its bird songs, rumbling alligators, and memorable finale (a frog chorus set against a distant evening thunderstorm) is especially evocative. "Jungle Talk" is great too, but be aware that it is not for relaxing, especially when the howler monkeys start roaring!

If you want more listener comments on this series, I suggest you do a search for each of the five CD titles listed above; you will thus find more reviews with specific information on each. Suffice it for me to say that of the bargain nature discs out there, I have not found any that represent a greater value than these. Listen and enjoy!

One of the best things that I liked about this set is that it is all nature. No soft music in the back ground like so many others. You hear the river and the frogs and the thunder and .... I think you get the image. After a lousey day at work and its in the middle of winter I will put the jungle cd in and let it take me and my stress away. If you want just the natural sounds of the wild to help sooth out your day this set is one to get.

These nature CDs are a must for those who love them. They lack the usual background music that's so annoyingly prevalent in most nature CDs. The sounds are clear and crisp. There are no "breaks" between the tracks, as one flows easily into the other. This set contains no pops or crackles that are so common in cheaply-produced CDs.

Jungle Talk contains piercing monkey shrieks that aren't very relaxing at bedtime. Play it at the office or while puttering around at home. If you close your eyes you can easily "see" Tarzan, Jane and Cheetah walking hand-in-hand down a jungle path.

The Ocean Waves on the sampler has the best surf sounds I've ever heard on any CD. It sounds more like the night-surf of a lake rather than an ocean. The intensity changes from a giant swell to a distinct and delicate pitter of water on the sand. I'm asleep before the second track begins.

The Bayou is fabulous. If you have the desire, but not the guts to paddle a small boat through a swamp, then this CD is for you. You'll be tempted to dose yourself with mosquito repellant before starting your CD player.

This is a new purchase for me, so I've only briefly listened to the other CDs in this set. So far I'm content to switch between the ones I've mentioned, thus saving the others for another time. From what I've listened to, they are of the same high quality.

This is truly one of those purchases you'll feel good about making.

I've owned this and the first "Echoes of Nature" boxed set for almost 10 years now, primarily as "white noise" to drown out distractions. This second boxed set is a lot more fun than the first, especially if you've never been to the jungle -- pardon the pun, but listening to monkey calls is a real hoot. Unfortunately, that reduces their value as white noise. "Wilderness River" is still great for that purpose, almost as good as "Ocean Waves" from the first set.

The other bummer is that the 5th CD is redundant if you already own the first set. But, at this price, you still can't go wrong -- just give it to someone as a gift!

Finally. Nature sounds alone. Generally, nature is drowned out by boring "elevator music". Not in this case. The CD's contain actual nature sounds. I find these CD's great to listen to while at work. Very relaxing!

I was looking for some nice background nature sounds to have playing while I work throughout the day. This collection hits the spot. Great sounds, great variety, great price!

I work a full time job during the day and I go to school at night. I am a very busy person and I get a lot of headaches. This is the perfect sound collection to drown out all of the construction and lawn mower sounds during those short periods of time when I get to lay down and relax. I thought about purchasing an electronic sound maker but the selections are not as good and they run between $... and $... This was a great deal! I highly recommend it!

This is a great buy. The CDs cost under $6.00 apiece in this collection. I play them in a loop in the main living area of my house, and I play them all night for my bird and to mute outside noises that alarm my dogs and set them to barking.

I have been sampling nature sounds and CD's for several years now, looking for a soothing backdrop that will help me to relax and sleep that won't irritate my sound sensitive husband. His complaint about the others is that they are electronically created, not true nature sounds. Echoes of Nature is actual recordings from nature and you can hear the difference. It is very sensitively edited and produced so that you feel that you are in nature. There is lots of space between sounds, it is not crowded and over stimulating. Even my husband asks me to put it on. I use it also in the waiting room of my office and people enjoy the tranquil ambience it creates. I highly recommend this.

Just downloaded these cd tracks and I found some extremely well done tracks and some that doesn't really suite my interests or sounds more annoying then comforting. Now the handful (or at least half) of tracks that I found good were EXTREMELY good. some tracks immediately with in seconds of listening to them brought back a hoard of my best memories growing up in the Pennsylvania Wilds and spending a lot of time outdoors, fishing, camping, hiking, bonfires, and sitting on the back porch...

The tracks that immediately stuck out as favorites were "track name(cd it came from)" - including some of the memories
bobwhite, dover, cardinal (morning songbirds)= home, home and more home comfort!, deep woods track(american wild)= camping and fishing memories, frog chorus(american wild)= my mom's backporch and lake fishing and oh so bittersweet, midnight serenade (american wild)= summertime sleeping with the windows open, predawn(morning songbirds)= morning after camping, rain with pygmy owl (morning songbirds)=cabin and backporch after rainstorm, Jamoboree (thunderstorm) this was very nice and soothing sounds of a distancing end of a thunderstorm, frog chorus (Frogs), Jungle River (Rainforest) - great soft water sounds with nighttime noises, birdsong (rainforest) - pretty, but not sleeping sounds for me, crickets and wolves (american wild) - good cricket sounds, no wolves though??, big river (wilderness river) - great water sounds that were distinct and not overpowering such as lapping at the shore along with it flowing past you and over rocks, crickets and water (wilderness river) - wow nighttime and twilight fishing memories! :)

What I did not like or could be better -
The wilderness Rainshower (american wilds) would have been a beautiful and perfectly soothing track that I would have enjoyed immensely but ended up being so-so due to a VERY strange sounding screeching creature in it, that I wondered if it was supposed to represent Sasquatch or something. I dunno maybe its some animal I'm not familiar with in my neck of the woods, but it was just kinda creepy and startling and could have done without.(would still use this track due to how well the rest of it was done) I didn't care for the Cicadas (american wilds) as much as I would have expected, this is a very familiar sound to me and at first I loved it, but after listening to it more thoroughly I found there didn't seem to be enough variable change to it, and was slightly droning..almost like the sound of the cicada rattle didn't quite reach its full potential for the whole first half. It did however have other lovely sounds along with it and the second half was perfect and that kind of made up for it.(would still use this track as well, even though the first few minutes weren't the best) the thunderstorm tracks didn't reach the full potential I really wanted, it was almost entirely rain that sounded a bit like white noise and almost no thunder at all, very disappointing and not quite the thunderstorm sounds I was looking for sleep time (jamboree was nice, but too much daytime bird noises to use for sleep) :(
Hoots and Howls (jungle) - really did not like the strange monkey noises, skip. Twilight and pig frogs (bayou) - very interesting, nice and mostly sounding like home to me minus the sound of alligators grunting i think, or pig frogs? no idea...small rapid (wilderness river) - just sounded a bit too much like a water fountain than nature, Oceanwaves, well I can't really say too much about this because I never lived near the ocean and didn't visit it very often, so the sounds are unfamiliar and not particularly soothing to me..it all sounds like white noise to me and very annoying

Overall LOVED many of the tracks that make this collection very worth while, I did not notice any repeats or looping and it's completely natural sounding, and the best part?? I can pick out all my favorite tracks and add it to one play list on my ipod and skip the ones I don't care for....All I need now that I have been looking for is some good thunderstorm and wind noises tracks...I heart me a good thunderstorm with howling winds <3