Crypt and tomb ambience
Every event layer in a crypt carries a large room. Five of them are on, two wait in reserve — including the one that sits up.
A crypt is five scheduled layers over a quiet bed, and every one of them carries a large room and two bounces of echo. Bones every twenty seconds, whispers every forty, stone every seventy. Two more ship switched off, and one of those is a skeleton stirring — kept back deliberately, because it is the sound that ends the scene.
What it sounds like
A crypt is not a dungeon. A dungeon has people in it somewhere; a crypt is sealed, and the sound design has to say so. Here that is done with reverb rather than distance — every single event layer is set to a large room with two bounces behind it, so nothing ever quite finishes. Each sound overstays, and so does the room.
The uncomfortable one is the whispers, every forty seconds and nearby. Everything else can be explained as settling stone. Whispering at arm's length cannot, and putting it close rather than far is the single decision that makes this environment work on a table.
Two layers ship off: drips, which would make it a cave, and “it stirs”, which would end the mystery. That second checkbox is the best thing on this page. Leave it off for as long as you can stand to.
The recipe, dial by dial
This is the environment as it ships. Every layer is the same kind of thing — one sound from the library and a set of dials — so there is nothing special about which slot a sound sits in. The names are only names.
| Layer | Sound | How often | Wander | Volume | Distance | Reverb | Echo |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Crypt | Crypt | loop | — | 55% | close | medium | off |
| Bones | Bone rattle | every ~20 s | 70% | 50% | nearby | large | 2 bounces |
| Something shifts | Bones clatter | every ~45 s | 70% | 50% | far | large | 2 bounces |
| Stone | Stone grinding | every ~70 s | 70% | 50% | far | large | 2 bounces |
| Whispers | Whispers | every ~40 s | 70% | 50% | nearby | large | 2 bounces |
| It stirs (off) | Skeleton stirs | every ~90 s | 70% | 50% | far | large | 2 bounces |
| Drips (off) | Cave drips (resonant) | every ~8.0 s | 70% | 50% | nearby | large | 2 bounces |
Master volume 80%. Every number above is read out of the environment that ships in the app, and printed in the words the app prints beside each slider.
- Crypt — The bed at 55%, with a medium room of its own. Closer to silence than to a drone.
Crypt - Bones — Every twenty seconds, nearby, large room. The fastest layer, and quiet enough to be mistaken for the building.
Bone rattle - Something shifts — Every forty-five seconds, far. Across the room, where nobody is standing.
Bones clatter - Stone — Every seventy seconds, far. The slowest layer on, and the one that suggests the place is still moving.
Stone grinding - Whispers — Every forty seconds, nearby. The layer that cannot be explained away, and the reason this is a crypt and not a cellar.
Whispers - It stirs — Off. Turn it on once, and the scene is over.
Skeleton stirs - Drips — Off, and it should stay off unless you want a cave. There is a page for caves.
Cave drips (resonant)
What each dial does is covered once, properly, in Environments & layers.
Boards to load with it
The environment is the place; boards are the things that happen in it. These three ship built in and suit this one:
Load them, then press + New scene and the environment and the boards come back together next week in one tap. Scenes covers that.
Make it yours
An ossuary
Ossuary and Bone Pit both ship built in and are progressively less tidy versions of the same place. Bone Pit is not somewhere anybody was buried on purpose.
A tomb in the desert
Ancient Tomb is built in: the same dead air, but dry and sand-blown rather than cold and damp.
A necromancer's crypt
Necromancer's Lab is built in. The tell is that it has busy layers again — somebody is working down here, and the silence is over.
None of this is destructive: the built-in environments cannot be overwritten. Change what you like, and press Save a copy as… when it sounds right.
The recordings
Every sound this environment uses, and who recorded it. Most of the library is public domain; the Creative Commons Attribution recordings are credited here because that is what the licence asks for. The full list is on Sounds & licensing.
- Crypt — ShadowMaker - Crypt by TheMovieMacher (CC0)
- Bone rattle — Rattling Bones.wav by spookymodem (CC0)
- Bone rattle — bones.mp3 by Kneeling (CC0)
- Bones clatter — TankDoorCrashBones.wav by T.42 (CC0)
- Bones clatter — Breaking Bones by Sheyvan (CC0)
- Bones clatter — Bones Cracking by Firestorm002 (CC0)
- Stone grinding — stone door close.wav by patchytherat (CC0)
- Whispers — Creepy Whispering by RaspberryTickle (CC0)
- Whispers — whisper.wav by IanStarGem (CC0)
- Whispers — whispers and screams by Fyodore (CC0)
- Whispers — "Behind you" whisper by pjhodson (CC0)
- Whispers — whispers.mp3 by saha213131 (CC0)
- Skeleton stirs — Skeleton bones (game).wav by cribbler (CC0)
- Skeleton stirs — step skeleton by RedRoxPeterPepper (CC0)
- Cave drips (resonant) — Water drips in the cave HQ.wav by tosha73 (CC-BY 4.0)
Related
Open Crypt in Thaumaturgy — it is free, there is nothing to install, and nothing to sign up for.
Updated 24 October 2026