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Women and men on “oh”, a full-voiced sung bass, and a woman’s full-voiced tune.
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Games · nasheeds
Where our nasheeds come from
Every nasheed and game sound on the Games tab is made from real human voices and the duff, nothing else. Here you can hear the original recordings, hear what was done to them step by step, and see which game uses what.
Voices and duff only
- No instruments: no strings, no flute, no piano, no keyboard.
- No synthesiser: every note was sung by a real person, and every breath is a real person breathing.
- No beatbox: every beat is a real duff (frame drum).
- No words, and no Quran: the nasheeds are hummed “oo”, “oh” and “ah”. The only words in the games are Esa saying the letter names, from his own recordings, unchanged.
The changes are the kind a sound engineer makes to any recording: cutting, moving a note higher or lower, holding it longer, softening it, layering several singers, placing duff strokes on a beat, and adding a room echo.
What they’re made of
110
Singers’ notes
From VocalSet, a free library of trained singers recorded for research: 20 singers (9 women, 11 men), each holding single notes on “oo”, “oh” and “ah”.
6
Duff strokes
A frame drum, shared free for anyone to use: the deep “doum”, the bright “tek”, a light “ka” and a slap.
3
Breaths
A woman and a man breathing, shared free for anyone to use. They make the soft whooshes and the rising breaths.
2
Crowd
Real people: a crowd humming, and a crowd cheering when a whole world is won.
How a sound is made
Press each step to hear the difference.
A sung note
Every voice part in every nasheed is made this way. Here is one singer’s note going through each step.
The original recording
A singer holding “oo” on one note, exactly as recorded.
Cut
The steadiest part of the note is kept; the breath in and the end are trimmed off.
Moved to a new note
The same voice moved up to the note the tune needs. The singer’s own voice colour is kept, so it still sounds like the same person.
Held longer
Steady stretches of the same note are joined so it can be held as long as the tune needs, with a gentle swell in and out.
Softened into a hum
The brightest top end is gently rolled off, so the open “oo” becomes a closed-mouth hum.
Short notes on a beat
Very short pieces of the note, placed on the beat and to the left and right. This is how the quick rhythm parts are made: still only a voice.
Layered into a chord
Three notes at once, each sung by two different singers, so it sounds like a small choir.
A room echo added
The same chord with an echo, as if sung in a large hall.
The duff
The duff strokes are never turned into anything else: they are only tuned a little, and placed on a beat.
The original stroke
One deep stroke (“doum”) on a frame drum, as recorded.
Tuned to the nasheed
The same stroke played a little faster so its pitch matches the nasheed’s key (here Dune Runners, in D).
Played as a beat
The deep stroke, the light edge strokes and the slap, placed in a pattern: the Dune Runners beat. Every game’s beat is made like this.
A breath
The “whoosh” sounds are a real person’s breath, nothing added.
The original breath
A man’s breath, exactly as recorded.
A whoosh
One breath, cut out and faded in and out. The games use breaths like this for their whooshes.
Played backwards
A woman’s breath played backwards, so it grows instead of fading: a rising breath.
Held a little longer
Stretched to last longer without changing its sound. Seven of the eight nasheeds (all but Lantern) end each loop with this rising breath, quietly, before they start again.
Each game’s nasheed
Each game has its own nasheed in its own style, key and speed. It is four layers played together, which the game brings in as you play well, and every layer is only voices or only duff. Press a layer to hear it on its own.
Dune Runners
Men on “ah” for the chords, a low held men’s “oo” with a crowd hum underneath, a sung bass on “oh”, and women on quick “ah” notes and the tune.
Lantern
Soft women’s “oo” only, sung quietly: the gentlest of the eight.
Letter Snake
Women and men on short “oh” chords, a sung bass, and quick high “oh” notes.
Super Marwan Bro
Short sung “oh” chords, a jumping sung bass, quick “ah” notes and a full-voiced fanfare.
Akhinator
Men humming “oo” low, a held men’s hum with a crowd hum, and plucked women’s “oh” notes.
Snowmen vs. Mummies
Men on loud “ah” hits and a galloping sung bass, with a woman’s long “ah” above.
Kartoona
Plain voices only: a driving sung bass on “oh”, held “oh” chords, a short punchy men’s tune and women’s quick “oo” answers.
Sky Path
Each level’s nasheed is written on that level’s path, so every jump and turn falls on the beat. The same singers hum the chords and the tune, the crowd breathes in before each beat drop, and the duff can be switched off in the game. Here is the first level of Wudu Springs:
Game sounds
The little sounds in the games are made the same way, from the same singers, breaths and duff. Each game has its own set, sung in the key of its nasheed so they always fit together. These are Dune Runners’.
- Right answer Two hummed notes going up.
- Wrong answer A soft falling “hm-mm” and a quiet duff stroke.
- Pick-up Two bright hummed “oh” notes and a tiny tek on the duff.
- Jump A short hum that slides up as it plays.
- Bump A duff slap and a low hummed “oof”.
- Level done A choir chord that opens from the lowest singer to the highest.
- Level done with the nasheed on A quick sung run, then the choir sings a loud “ah” on a big doum.
- A world won A rising breath, the choir and duff, and the crowd cheering.
- Out of lives Four hummed notes going down.
For their small clicks and ticks, the games play single hummed notes: one singer humming every note from low to high, on “oo” and on “oh”. Each game picks the five notes that fit its nasheed.
What the computer does
To be completely open, these are the only parts that are not a recording of a voice, a breath or a duff:
The room echo
The echo that makes the singers sound as if they are in a large hall is worked out by the computer. It is not a sound of its own: it only repeats and fades what the singers sang, the way a real room would.
Kartoona’s car engine
The engine you hear while driving in Kartoona is a recording of a real car. It is a game sound, not part of the nasheed, and it plays even with the nasheed switched off.
Very old phones
If a phone can’t play the sung sounds at all, the games fall back to simple electronic beeps for their small sounds, so the game still works. The nasheeds are never replaced by beeps.
Every original recording
The recordings exactly as they came, before any change (the duff, breath and crowd ones trimmed of silence and evened out in loudness).
Duff (6 strokes, in every game’s beat)
- Doum: the deep centre stroke Recorded by cabled_mess. Source
- Doum, a second take Recorded by cabled_mess. Source
- Tek: the bright edge stroke Recorded by cabled_mess. Source
- Tek, a second take Recorded by cabled_mess. Source
- Ka: a light finger stroke Recorded by cabled_mess. Source
- Slap: an open slap on a rebana (a frame drum) Recorded by rivv3t. Source
Breaths (3 recordings, the whooshes and rising breaths)
Crowd (2 recordings)
Singers (110 notes from 20 singers)
Each recording is one singer holding one note. The “oo” notes are mostly in Lantern, Akhinator and the soft held chords; the “oh” notes in the Games page, Letter Snake, Super Marwan Bro and Kartoona; the “ah” notes in Dune Runners, Snowmen vs. Mummies and the “level done” chords.
Woman 1 (4)
- “ah” sung with full voice
- “ah” sung plainly, with no wobble
- “oh” sung plainly, with no wobble
- “oo” sung plainly, with no wobble
Woman 2 (5)
- “oh” sung with full voice
- “oo” sung with full voice
- “ah” sung plainly, with no wobble
- “oh” sung plainly, with no wobble
- “oo” sung plainly, with no wobble
Woman 3 (4)
- “oh” sung with full voice
- “ah” sung plainly, with no wobble
- “oh” sung plainly, with no wobble
- “oo” sung plainly, with no wobble
Woman 4 (4)
- “oh” sung with full voice
- “ah” sung plainly, with no wobble
- “oh” sung plainly, with no wobble
- “oo” sung plainly, with no wobble
Woman 5 (6)
- “ah” sung softly
- “oh” sung softly
- “oo” sung softly
- “ah” sung plainly, with no wobble
- “oh” sung plainly, with no wobble
- “oo” sung plainly, with no wobble
Woman 6 (6)
- “ah” sung with full voice
- “oh” sung with full voice
- “oo” sung with full voice
- “ah” sung plainly, with no wobble
- “oh” sung plainly, with no wobble
- “oo” sung plainly, with no wobble
Woman 7 (5)
- “ah” sung with full voice
- “oo” sung with full voice
- “ah” sung plainly, with no wobble
- “oh” sung plainly, with no wobble
- “oo” sung plainly, with no wobble
Woman 8 (5)
- “ah” sung with full voice
- “oh” sung with full voice
- “ah” sung plainly, with no wobble
- “oh” sung plainly, with no wobble
- “oo” sung plainly, with no wobble
Woman 9 (3)
- “ah” sung plainly, with no wobble
- “oh” sung plainly, with no wobble
- “oo” sung plainly, with no wobble
Man 1 (5)
- “ah” sung with full voice
- “oh” sung with full voice
- “ah” sung plainly, with no wobble
- “oh” sung plainly, with no wobble
- “oo” sung plainly, with no wobble
Man 2 (6)
- “oh” sung with full voice
- “oo” sung with full voice
- “ah” sung softly
- “ah” sung plainly, with no wobble
- “oh” sung plainly, with no wobble
- “oo” sung plainly, with no wobble
Man 3 (9)
- “ah” sung with full voice
- “oh” sung with full voice
- “oo” sung with full voice
- “ah” sung softly
- “oh” sung softly
- “oo” sung softly
- “ah” sung plainly, with no wobble
- “oh” sung plainly, with no wobble
- “oo” sung plainly, with no wobble
Man 4 (4)
- “oo” sung with full voice
- “ah” sung plainly, with no wobble
- “oh” sung plainly, with no wobble
- “oo” sung plainly, with no wobble
Man 5 (7)
- “ah” sung with full voice
- “oh” sung with full voice
- “oo” sung with full voice
- “ah” sung softly
- “ah” sung plainly, with no wobble
- “oh” sung plainly, with no wobble
- “oo” sung plainly, with no wobble
Man 6 (8)
- “ah” sung with full voice
- “oh” sung with full voice
- “oo” sung with full voice
- “ah” sung softly
- “oh” sung softly
- “oo” sung softly
- “oh” sung plainly, with no wobble
- “oo” sung plainly, with no wobble
Man 7 (6)
- “ah” sung with full voice
- “oh” sung with full voice
- “oo” sung with full voice
- “ah” sung plainly, with no wobble
- “oh” sung plainly, with no wobble
- “oo” sung plainly, with no wobble
Man 8 (8)
- “ah” sung with full voice
- “oh” sung with full voice
- “oo” sung with full voice
- “oh” sung softly
- “oo” sung softly
- “ah” sung plainly, with no wobble
- “oh” sung plainly, with no wobble
- “oo” sung plainly, with no wobble
Man 9 (6)
- “ah” sung with full voice
- “oh” sung with full voice
- “oo” sung with full voice
- “ah” sung plainly, with no wobble
- “oh” sung plainly, with no wobble
- “oo” sung plainly, with no wobble
Man 10 (3)
- “ah” sung plainly, with no wobble
- “oh” sung plainly, with no wobble
- “oo” sung plainly, with no wobble
Man 11 (6)
- “ah” sung with full voice
- “oh” sung with full voice
- “oo” sung with full voice
- “ah” sung plainly, with no wobble
- “oh” sung plainly, with no wobble
- “oo” sung plainly, with no wobble
Credits
- Singers: VocalSet: A Singing Voice Dataset, by Julia Wilkins, Prem Seetharaman, Alison Wahl and Bryan Pardo (zenodo.org/records/1442513), shared under the Creative Commons Attribution licence (CC BY 4.0). Changed as shown above.
- Duff: cabled_mess and rivv3t on Freesound, given away free (public domain, CC0).
- Breaths: Owlish Media’s Sound Effects Pack on OpenGameArt, public domain (CC0).
- Crowd: Shane Vincent (GameSoundCon 2024) on Freesound, public domain (CC0).
- Letter names: Esa’s own recordings.