Mindfulness Meditation Bell,
Chime, Gong, Timer, Clock
I found online programs and other offerings for creating a meditation bell, chime, gong, timer, clock, or whatever, but none did what I needed. Whether meditating alone or in a group, no one should have to clock watch. I ended up just creating an .mp3 file that played what I wanted.
Needs vary: at home I wanted a two minute delay before the first bell to give my wife and I time to get to the meditation room and get in position. At end of period ending gong is clearly heard. The mp3 can be played on whatever, or burned to a CD. Of course any sounds can be used, with or without invites, and any pattern of sounds can be used, so what could be better?
The free audio editor, Audacity, was used. It's easy to drag and drop sound files into it, and grab and move so each clip will play when desired. A silent clip allows for an intro delay. Included in the free .zip provided here, are various bell sounds, the Audacity project file I used (which you can edit), and the mp3s I use that you probably will want to customize. But a few minutes of quality time spent with Audacity can do that.
You can have fun with this. Instead of a gong, how about a rooster crowing to start? Then a hen cackling contentedly to signal the end? Or a little Bach? If you wanted a small bell every five minutes durning meditation, no problem.
So here's the proceedure.
Download Audacity.
Great program, worth learning, but here's the minimum tips. To save .mp3 files it needs the
"lame_enc.dll" file which it will tell you how to get if you don't already have it. It just needs to be downloaded and moved to the subdirectory Audacity was installed in or tell Audacity where it is when it asks.
Open the .aup audacity project file in the following .zip file: Meditation_mp3s.zip. In Audacity you'll see how it works.
The first track is the first bell at 2 minutes. The second, in stereo, is the louder ending gong at 22 minutes. These were just drug and dropped in. The last track is a 5 minute silence that allows up to a 5 minute delay before the starting chime goes off. Note at the top of the partial screen shot above under the word "Analyse" is a button with a vertical bar. Click here to move the cursor. One down and to the right is a button with a double arrow on it. Click it to move the sound clips by left-clicking on the clip, holding the left mouse button down, and moving the sound. So if you wanted a 45 minute meditation mp3, you'd move the second gong out to 47 minutes. Then go to 'File' and 'Export' to save it as an mp3 or whatnot. To change a sound, just close a track and add a new one.
Also in the zip file are some sound clips of various bells, gongs, chimes—find more on the internet, so have fun.
If you are unable to achieve the effect you want/need, then you can:
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