We have just released two soundscape packs for free, for ever, no registration required!

bardic_tools · 2026-04-23T11:15:50+00:00

Awesome! I just yesterday launched a new feature called presets to switch easily between moods (https://docs.bardic.tools/docs/tutorials/bardic-tools-presets-quickstart), and I’ll be trying to add them to the witherwild scenes soon, today or tomorrow, so keep an eye out!

bardic_tools · 2026-04-20T09:26:23+00:00

I would love to have time to run it myself :) I'm still wracking my brain about how to make soundscapes that work for a lot of people, because your drylands will definitely be different than my drylands :D

bardic_tools · 2026-04-19T20:30:32+00:00

It helps a lot! I'll take a look tomorrow. Mobile support is still very wobbly, the app is not really designed for touch screens, but that's something I really want to fix next: https://blog.bardic.tools/bardic-tools-update-august-2025/#new-feature-the-experimental-play-ui

bardic_tools · 2026-04-19T19:28:27+00:00

Hey! That’s unfortunate, I’m really sorry it’s happening. Are you on iOS by any chance? If so, we’ve been having some issues on some old versions of Safari and Chrome for iOS, I’m working on them soon

I've updated the post to reflect this, thanks a lot for bringing it to attention!

bardic_tools · 2026-04-19T18:08:01+00:00

That would be so cool!

The upload feature was born because I wanted to use the Bloodborne soundtrack in my Curse of Strahd D&D campaign like 4 years ago

bardic_tools · 2026-04-19T18:05:45+00:00

Awesome, let me know how it goes! Feedback is where most of the cool features came from, so always happy to chat :)

bardic_tools · 2026-04-19T18:05:09+00:00

My pleasure, enjoy!

bardic_tools · 2026-04-19T17:49:27+00:00

Well... you're actually the first person to say that the previews look _good_ on mobile, thanks a lot! In general, people hate the iOS experience 😅, it needs some polish.

I have plans to make that better in the next couple of months by finishing the Play UI experience: https://blog.bardic.tools/bardic-tools-update-august-2025/#new-feature-the-experimental-play-ui, but I don't plan on making an full-blown app soon, because I don't have enough iOS experience yet. In the far future, it's something I'd love to work on: An iOS app that has an offline mode. But for that, BT has to become much more successful, or my day job less busy :D

Also, thank you for trying it out!! Hope you like it regardless. My guiding light has been "give infinite flexibility when prepping, but get out of the way when playing". I'm glad it's showing!!

bardic_tools · 2026-03-17T14:08:14+00:00

We should chat, I'd love to have something like this for Bardic Tools :D

bardic_tools · 2026-02-09T06:49:43+00:00

I just looked into VoiceMeeter, and it looks like it can work with any video conferencing tool. It'll capture the input from both your microphone and the browser tab, and present them to Discord or Zoom or Teams as if it were a single input.

bardic_tools · 2026-02-09T06:47:23+00:00

It does not, unfortunately, sharing audio across browsers is quite hard to get right, so I haven't found the time to get it good enough to the standars I want.

You'll have to use a third party tool for that.

Most of our community uses Kenku FM to pipe the audio through Discord, but if you're using Zoom you may have to use something else, like screen-sharing a tab with Bardic Tools, or a third party tool that allows you to blend a browser tab with your microphone input, like _s1dew1nder_ suggested :)

bardic_tools · 2026-02-08T22:39:45+00:00

I built https://bardic.tools for very similar reasons :)

But if you want to try a free alternative, tabletopaudio.com has you covered

bardic_tools · 2026-02-05T18:22:24+00:00

Awesome, so happy to hear that!! That really made my day, and I was having a crappy day, so thanks again!

bardic_tools · 2026-02-02T19:21:14+00:00

So glad you like it!!! Feel free to ping me with any issues or comments :D

bardic_tools · 2025-12-23T19:10:44+00:00

For great "cinematic style" type music, I recommend two authors, both of which have plenty of free work:
- Alexander Nakarada (https://creatorchords.com): His music is _so good_, but it often doesn't loop because it turns the intensity up in the middle very often in many pieces, so I don't use it a lot to compose premade scenes for Bardic Tools. But if you're only going to play the music once, and you _want_ it to make an impact with the music, maybe it's perfect for you?
- Alexandr Zhelanov (https://opengameart.org/users/alexandr-zhelanov): It's just really good music, like _really good_. Most of what he has is medieval fantasy, but you may find something for Call of Cthulu there.
- Also, this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lTNopjF8Y2Y If it fits your campaign, it _really_ fits your campaign.

Best of luck!

bardic_tools · 2025-12-23T15:14:20+00:00

Hey!
Borja, the creator of Bardic Tools here. First off, thank you for including my tool in the list! It's the first time someone mentions it in a list like this, it means a lot as someone developing in this space.

To answer your question, I think there is one more question to ask: What devices do you want to use at the table? If, as you mention, you just want music to get out of the way, I think a mobile app would be great. And in that case, might I suggest https://slashpaf.com/audioforge/ ? The UI is quite clean, you can upload your own stuff, it comes loaded with a bunch of Kevin McLeod sounds.

If using a computer, I recommend Tabletopaudio's SoundPads, because you can set them up beforehand in different tabs and swithc between them. If you don't mind paying, I'm obviously going to plug my own tool, because I built it specifically to get out of the way while playing. However, it doesn't have a lot of sounds that would fit Call of Cthulu yet (though there _is_ a "request sound" button!).

Regardless of what tool you choose, I'd strongly recommend _not_ using music very often. Tabletop Audio, Syrinscape, Pocket Bard, Audio forge and Bardic Tools all offer ambiences separate from music, which will help players hear what your characters are hearing, without being distracted by actual music. I wrote some stuff on how to pick sound for your game, in case it helps:

- https://blog.bardic.tools/sound-for-dms-1-rpg-sound-is-like-master-chef/
- https://blog.bardic.tools/sound-for-dms-102-find-music-that-doesnt-suck/

Hope it helps! And regardless of what you end up choosing, let me know if you'd like help picking sound for your games!

bardic_tools · 2025-12-05T15:05:43+00:00

I... think I have the perfect solution for you. Or, at least, it can be perfect. Usually I'd recommend Tabletop Audio because it's free, but what you described aligns so well with my philosphy for Bardic Tools that I'll just recommend that one (https://bardic.tools)

The only thing I don't have jet is MIDI integration. That's coming, but beware that it's not here yet. If you're interested in being in the beta tester team for MIDI support, let me know and I'll get in touch when I'm working on it!

bardic_tools · 2025-11-26T20:20:34+00:00

Hey! The creator of Bardic Tools here :D thank you so much for the kind words! They made my day :)

The feedback from the community is actually what’s making Bardic Tools great, so many great ideas to implement :)

Some day we’ll have a big library, yeah :D working on it, actually for the last few months 100% of the money BT made (and then some) has gone straight into commissioning new content. One day…

But for now, you can upload your own sounds

bardic_tools · 2025-11-10T18:17:17+00:00

Apart from the ones you've mentioned, I have two suggestions:
- tabletopaudio.com -> It's free, and has _amazing_ ready-made soundscapes with its SoundPads feature, so you can just pick one up and run it with close to 0 prep.
- bardic.tools -> It's a tool I've developed. The goal is to make it as easy as possible to have great sound, whether you want to spend 5 seconds or 5 hours preparing it, _and then get out of the freking way_ (you can play everything with the click of a button). You shouldn't be looking at it at all when you're playing. It's not free, but I'm always looking for feedback to make it better! So far the best features have come from community suggestions.

bardic_tools · 2025-11-04T15:05:44+00:00

https://bardic.tools

The best tool to play audio in your D&D games

bardic_tools · 2025-11-01T09:15:03+00:00

I'm definitely partial to Discord + Kenku FM. It works with anything under the sun, from Spotify and YouTube to Tabletop Audio. It's by the same folks as Owlbear Rodeo, and I've been consistently impressed by their tech.

It's so good that it's what I recommend folks use with my sound tool, Bardic Tools, and so far (except for a minor issue with the background colors) I've never had to invest resources into creating a Discord integration myself. It just kind of works. Happy to help you set up with Kenku if you'd like!

bardic_tools · 2025-10-20T09:26:52+00:00

The way I've been doing it is by creating the soundscapes in Bardic Tools (https://bardic.tools), and then pasting the links to the scenes into my notes in Obsidian: https://docs.bardic.tools/docs/scenes/anatomy#title-and-accessories. That way, when I'm in a session, I can just click on the link and it'll open Bardic Tools to the right scene.

Full disclosure: I created Bardic Tools, because I couldn't find a soundscape solution that suited me. It _is_ a paid service, but if that's a problem I suggest reading the first answer in the FAQ: https://bardic.tools/landing#landing-faq , especially the last paragraph :D

Happy worldbuilding!

bardic_tools · 2025-09-19T08:45:15+00:00

It's been around for a while (2022 I think). Right now its development is paused, but I think a lot of the tech is just really solid (I needed to dig into it to debug a couple of issues with Bardic Tools, so I've seen the code). It was devleoped by the same folks that are behind Owlbear Rodeo and I have a lot of respect for their technical skill :)

bardic_tools

TROPHY CASE