Rain sound effects
Rain always falls on something, and the surface decides most of the sound. Name it in the prompt.
Listen: 10 samples from the rain collection
Every clip shows the exact prompt that produced it. The render script reads its prompts from the same file as this page. Copy one, change a word and generate your own.
Full thunderstorm
via audiocpp-stable-audio-3-sfxheavy thunderstorm, driving rain with rolling thunder and wind gusting through trees, outdoor, seamless loop
Rain in a car
via audiocpp-stable-audio-3-sfxrain on a car roof and windscreen with wipers sweeping intermittently, muffled interior perspective
Forest canopy rain
via audiocpp-stable-audio-3-sfxrain falling through a dense forest canopy, drops striking leaves at varied distances, seamless loop
Gutter and downpipe
via audiocpp-stable-audio-3-sfxrainwater rushing through a metal gutter and gurgling down a drainpipe, close mic, outdoor
City drizzle
via audiocpp-stable-audio-3-sfxlight drizzle on a city street, wet tyres passing on tarmac and distant traffic, night ambience
Rain on a tent
via audiocpp-stable-audio-3-sfxsteady rain drumming on nylon tent fabric heard from inside, close and enclosed, seamless loop
Monsoon
via audiocpp-stable-audio-3-sfxtorrential tropical monsoon rain hammering onto broad leaves and standing water, dense and loud
Rain ending
via audiocpp-stable-audio-3-sfxrain tapering off to occasional drips falling from leaves onto wet ground, quiet and close
Hail
via audiocpp-stable-audio-3-sfxhailstones clattering onto a metal roof and pavement, hard erratic percussive strikes, outdoor
Walking in rain
via audiocpp-stable-audio-3-sfxfootsteps splashing through puddles on a wet pavement in steady rain, close mic, outdoor
Prompts that work
These models respond to physical description. Name the material, the action and the space.
Window rain
light rain falling on a glass window, steady soft patter, close mic, indoor perspective, no wind or thunder
"Indoor perspective" filters the sound the way a pane of glass would. It sounds very different from the same rain heard outdoors.
Downpour
heavy rain downpour, dense continuous patter on hard ground, outdoor open space, loud and full, no thunder
"Dense continuous patter" describes density as well as volume. A downpour is defined by how little space there is between drops.
Tin roof
rain falling on a corrugated tin roof, sharp metallic patter, steady rhythm, close mic, resonant metal surface
"Resonant metal surface" gets the ping of rain on metal. A generic "rain on roof" prompt gives a soft patter.
Umbrella rain
rain drumming on a nylon umbrella, close mic just below the canopy, tight rhythmic patter, muffled outdoor ambience behind it
Placing the mic "just below the canopy" sets the listening position, so the umbrella surface dominates the rain around it.
Puddle detail
rain falling into shallow puddles on pavement, individual droplet splashes audible over a steady patter bed, close mic
"Individual droplet splashes audible over" the bed separates foreground detail from background wash. A flat "rain on pavement" prompt does not.
Making rain sounds that fit
Name the surface
Rain is the sound of water hitting a particular material, and the material changes the texture more than the intensity does. Glass gives a soft patter, tin a sharp metallic ping, pavement a dense wash with occasional splashes. Always name the surface. "Rain" alone gives the model no material to render.
Set the listening position
The same rain sounds different from three positions: outdoors in the open, indoors behind glass, or under a shelter like an umbrella or eave. Say "indoor perspective", "through a closed window" or "close mic just below the canopy" to set the filtering and proximity. This changes the result more than intensity words do.
Keep thunder and wind out unless you want them
Rain, wind and thunder often appear together in training data, so a plain "rain" prompt can drift toward a full storm. For clean rain on its own, say "no wind or thunder". You can then layer a separate thunder clip in your edit and control its timing.
Why generate locally
The models run on your machine, which changes the cost, the privacy and what you can automate.
Offline after download
Weights are fetched once. After that, generation, the library and the API all work with the network off. Everything lives in one SQLite file and one folder of WAVs under ~/.soundbox, and nothing is uploaded.
Your agent can use it
Soundbox runs an MCP server in the same process, with tools for generating and listing sounds. Generated files come back as absolute paths, so an agent can copy them into a project.
Licences stated up front
Every model's terms are shown before you download it, and non-commercial weights need an explicit confirmation. Soundbox is MIT. The licence of the model that made a sound governs what you may do with it.
claude mcp add --transport http soundbox http://127.0.0.1:17494/mcpcurl -X POST http://127.0.0.1:17494/api/generate \
-H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
-d '{"model":"audiocpp-stable-audio-3-sfx","prompt":"8-bit coin pickup blip","duration_s":1}'Frequently asked questions
- Can I use these sounds in a commercial video or game?
- It depends on the model that made them. Soundbox shows each model's licence before you download its weights. The Stable Audio 3 models use the Stability AI Community License: commercial use is free below USD $1M annual revenue, and above that Stability requires an enterprise licence. ACE-Step 1.5 is MIT. MiniMax's models allow commercial use under a revenue cap and require an attribution notice. Some voice and stem-separation models are non-commercial only. Soundbox itself is MIT, but the audio is governed by the licence of the model that made it. Read that licence before you ship; this summary is not legal advice.
- Does this run offline?
- Yes, once the weights are downloaded. Soundbox runs the models locally and stores everything in one SQLite file and one folder of WAVs under ~/.soundbox. There is no account, API key or upload step. Only the initial model download needs the network.
- What hardware do I need?
- An NVIDIA GPU with 8 GB or more. CPU-only is supported, but each generation then takes minutes. That is fine for a few short clips and slow for a large batch.
- Can my coding agent generate these for me?
- Yes. While Soundbox is running it serves MCP at http://127.0.0.1:17494/mcp, with tools for generating and listing sounds. An agent can generate a sound as part of the task it is already doing and gets back an absolute file path to use in your project.
- How is this different from downloading a sample pack?
- A rain pack gives you a fixed surface and intensity recorded on someone else's roof or window, and looping it often reveals the seam. Generating lets you match the surface and perspective your scene needs (a window for an interior shot, a tin roof for a cabin) and adjust the intensity without searching a library. It costs time and a GPU.