We live in an era where productivity, mental well-being, and improving sleep quality have become central themes in our daily lives. Long working hours, digital hyperconnection, and continuous sources of distraction put our concentration to the test.

In this context, music and ambient sounds play a key role in restoring balance.

Index

• Premise
• Endel
• Starting point
• Manifesto
• Technology
• Beginning
  • Interface
  • Experience
• Considerations

Premise

Before diving into the exploration of Endel, I want to clarify that this post doesn’t represent a review. Rather, it’s an initial sharing of my personal experience with this application, a way to keep track online of my impressions and reflections on a service that I found interesting and that may, in the future, prove useful.

In recent months, I have had the opportunity to experiment with Endel in various situations and contexts, which I have decided to start writing and sharing. My goal is to offer a complete and objective overview. I want to analyze various aspects, trying to understand if this application really represents a breakthrough in the world of sound wellness or if it is just another passing fad.

If you have had the chance to try it, I would love to know your impressions and comments.

Endel

From how it presents itself, Endel emerges as a sonic oasis, an innovative application that harnesses the power of sound to create personalized environments capable of improving our overall well-being.

Endel, therefore, is not a simple generative music app but a sort of sound ecosystem designed to support the user in various activities, from deep work to meditation, up to regenerating sleep.

Honestly, I’m very skeptical about these things.

I’m a listener of specific music such as lo-fi, chillout, and ambient but I have never actually found such a great improvement that makes me think that music can affect my mental well-being. However, I continue to listen to these types of music.

It almost seems like a contradiction, but like everything, music is subjective and everyone perceives it differently.

The first major problem with these types of musical genres is the placebo effect.

Listening to music to relax or concentrate is a habit that has consolidated over time, but it does not always translate into an effective improvement in our well-being. Moreover, generative music, however pleasant it may be to listen to, is not always able to adapt to our specific needs.

For example, if we go looking for relaxing music, the search itself induces our brain to the fact that we are entering a relaxation phase and that therefore we must relax.

Is it possible to get out of this problem?

Many would think that it is enough to try that type of music for a long period of time, but it is not said that it is so. Maybe repetition only leads to the development of a habit, but not to an actual improvement.

Precisely for this reason I decided to structure this post from the beginning and not waiting for the right moment. I want to keep my thoughts on these ideologies updated and update them over time.

Starting point

Founded in 2018, Endel is the result of an ambitious vision, to offer a unique and personalized sound experience, based on scientific principles that study the impact of sound on the body and mind. Founded by a team of passionate developers, the company has quickly distinguished itself for its innovative approach and its ability to create dynamic soundscapes adaptable to individual needs.

The project is based on neuroscientific studies that show how certain sounds affect the human mind and body. Specific frequencies can induce states of calm, improve concentration or facilitate sleep. Endel’s sound generation engine processes real-time data such as:

• Time of day
• Local weather conditions
• Heart rate
• Geographical location
  
  

So the idea behind Endel is as simple as it is powerful, recognizing that sound is a fundamental element of our environment and that it can profoundly influence our mood, our concentration and our overall well-being.

Starting from this awareness, Endel has developed a sort of audio engine capable of generating melodies and ambient sounds in real time, taking into account a series of crucial factors.

Manifesto

Endel’s manifesto addresses modern challenges related to information overload, increased rates of anxiety and depression, and sleep deprivation, highlighting how our natural circadian rhythms are no longer in sync with the demands of today’s society. While mindfulness practices offer benefits, Endel argues that they alone are not enough to bridge the gap between our biological needs and the demands of the modern world.

Citing Marshall McLuhan, the manifesto emphasizes the tendency to use new technologies with obsolete mentalities and sensory responses, creating a conflict between old and new media. Endel, therefore, proposes the adoption of innovative technologies that, through modern devices such as wearables and sensors, can provide dynamic and adaptive content, rather than static solutions of the past.

Endel presents itself as a “technology-assisted bodily function”, designed to enhance our natural abilities, create private environments that reduce stress, and promote greater presence and engagement without the need for traditional meditative practices.

In summary, Endel’s manifesto proposes a fusion of science, art, and technology to create experiences that improve quality of life, making technology an invisible ally that works in the background for our well-being.

Technology

The technological heart of Endel is represented by what they called Endel Pacific. This represents a sort of engine that generates real-time personalized soundscapes to promote concentration, relaxation or sleep. This system collects data from various sensors and devices, such as time, weather conditions, heart rate and location, to create an optimal and adaptive sound experience.

The engine is designed to integrate with both software and hardware, offering sound experiences on different platforms.

The idea is to combine technology with science, art and innovation to offer personalized sound experiences that adapt in real time to the user’s needs and context, promoting mental and physical well-being through the intelligent use of sound.

Beginning

On paper, therefore, Endel seems like a very interesting and promising service. This is the essential point that prompted me to try such a service. The underlying idea is not to create a simple musical background, but to offer a personalized sound experience that is adaptable to our specific needs.

Interface

The interface proposed by Endel is simple and intuitive. But it hides too many discrepancies between the various platforms. The basic idea is to have an application that presents itself with a minimalist and clean design, putting the sound experience at the center.

Among the advantages certainly the access through the web interface, so you can use the service regardless of the underlying platform.

But there are too many differences.

For example, what should be all the information that should make Endel a unique service, we find them if we move to the application on macOS. The Your real-time input section is much more curated and interesting compared to other versions.

If we move to Windows we are faced with a trivial wrapper of the web application.

On the mobile side, instead, the application is more curated allowing the user to set routines and access simple weekly summary information on their use.

In essence, changing the device, changes the user experience.

This is a serious defect that should not be present in a service that aims to be cross-platform. All the features should be present in each version maintaining the user experience consistent. In part for many it may be right that most of the efforts are on mobile applications as it is there that you spend most of the time and allows you to access the service anywhere, but it should not be so.

If the basic idea is to create a personalized sound experience adaptable to our specific needs, then it should be possible to access all the features regardless of the device used.

Experience

Personally, I have been using Endel for a few months, both in the workplace and during some daily activities.

The first strong point I found, unlike other background music, Endel’s soundscapes can be listened to for hours without causing problems such as possible headaches or other disturbances.

This is a very important point for me, spending a lot of time in front of a screen, having continuous but equally diversified and never heavy background music is definitely a point in favor.

However, despite this, I have noticed that some sound representations are repetitive. Regardless of the type of experience chosen, you always start to notice the same structure and the same basic sounds.

This is the serious problem I encountered. If the basic idea is to create a personalized sound experience adaptable to our specific needs, then the repetitiveness of the experiences should be avoided. This is a point that, in my opinion, should necessarily be improved. Otherwise, on the one hand, there is a risk of transforming an innovative and promising service into a boring and unengaging experience, on the other hand, the promise of offering a unique sound experience is not respected.

Leaving aside this aspect, have improvements actually been noticed?

I think it’s too early to say. As I said at the beginning, I’m very skeptical about these issues and I would not want to fall into the placebo effect. However, I can say that listening to generative music and soundscapes during work, in fact, has helped me to concentrate and maintain a constant level of attention.

Considerations

The idea behind Endel is very interesting and promising, but at the moment it does not seem fully respected. Little consistency with the proposed interfaces and repetitiveness of experiences are certainly two points that should be improved, especially for a service that aims to be unique and personalized.

For now, however, I remain curious about how this service can evolve and improve over time. I am convinced that Endel’s potential is enormous and that, with the right development and the implementation of the right and consistent features, it can become a truly useful tool to improve our well-being.