titlebar - soundArt
Sound Art

Download Galleries

Each sound gallery was originally conceived as an album of audio tracks, in the old black vinyl sense of the word. However, they have morphed into more of a chronological grouping, each collection representing a period of a few years. Galleries contain roughly one or two hours of material.

The current set of galleries includes:

Disconscionance (2009-2010)

Uncharted Waters (2006-2008)

City of Nine Gates (2001-2005)

Out of the Silent Planet (1980-1985)

The years not represented produced work that was transient, or isn't sufficiently compatible with downloading. You can find an ever-expanding dithyramb concerning sound, hearing, spatial perception, creation, and Vedanta in the commentary section of this site.

Our personal recommendation is to close your eyes, and just let the brain give up. This is probably the best course of action in most situations anyway.

About the Downloads

Each track is available for download on the sound gallery pages in MP3 form. Some pieces were composed for special 8-channel gallery installations, and are not available here in their original form. However, we have made special binaural conversions of these pieces so that with headphones much of the original spatial experience can stiill be enjoyed. (More on binaural in this section of the site.)

To download the files, usually all you need to do is click the links on the album pages. If this doesn't seem to work (or if you get annoying popups from your browser add-ins), just do this:

Microsoft Internet Explorer

Right-click the link.
Choose "Save target as..."

FireFox Browser

Right-click the link.
Choose "Save link as..."


Sound Quality

These Timbre compositions are not designed for tiny computer speakers, especially those without subwoofers. Although we provide fairly decent MP3 download versions for minimum transfer time, listeners who prefer a full-frequency experience may download the much larger, losslessly-compressed files available for selected tracks. The recommended listening environment for these recordings is a pair of Magnepan MG-IIIa panels with dual subwoofer reinforcement, active crossovers, Krell bi-amping, and a very large comfortable and sound-absorbent room without any neighbors. In lieu of that, we recommend headphones like the Sennheiser HD-580 or better. Finally, if for some reason you don't feel like getting special audio equipment and remodeling your livingroom to listen to these tracks, then just crank up the volume and enjoy.

FLAC - Lossless Tracks

Most Timbre recordings rely on better-than-average fidelity of reproduction; squashed MP3 simply can't capture the full subtlety of the work. This is especially true of the binaural tracks -- binaural recordings are significantly more effective in recreating realistic acoustic space when heard without any compression or phase damage at all (and of course they must be played back on headphones). To accommodate this, lossless versions of a few selected tracks are available encoded in FLAC format, currently the best-supported open-source lossless format. Decoder plugins for FLAC lossless audio files can be found for most music player apps. Check out these links:

Lossless Audio Comparison (new)

WinAmp player (Windows)

xiph DirectShow Filters for Windows 7

Shark Codec Pack for Windows 7

iPod Linux Project (in development)

Some of these links change fairly frequently, so my apologies if some have gone dead since this page was last checked.

Compact Discs

Any of the tracks found on this site can be prepared for you as full-quality music CD's if you ask me in a nice way (please write to info, at timbreproductions, dot com). Permission is, of course, required for use in any commercial context imaginable. All tracks and performances are copyrighted by Allen Cobb, and all rights are reserved.