Recently I bought an add-on memory card for my mp3 player, upping the storage from 8 Gig to 24 Gig. I then buckled down and spent a weekend ripping the bulk of my CD collection to mp3 to load it up. I'd only had about 30 favorite discs and a bunch of singles from Napster (10 years ago) as mp3s. I rediscovered many good songs that were out of sight, out of mind, as it were. Many cuts that I'd forgotten were outtasight. A fair number of clunkers, too. Along the way I altered the folder structure, which rendered my main-faves playlist useless. I mostly use the mp3 player when driving, using a cassette adapter, or when riding my mountain bike. I like the random-play mode and a few times since have set it play randomly from the entire new collection instead of from a genre or artist folder. This leads to some odd sequences - The Eurythmics followed by a Chopin barcarolle, then a David Benoit track then Gang of Four, for instance. Probably too jarring for others but it's all stuff I like so it's OK.
I have a number of 'environments' discs with things like woodland sounds, seashore sounds, rainstorms, and the like. Used judiciously and at low volumes they can be great backgrounds for working or reading or falling asleep. I've had a few of them ripped to mp3 for a while now and they're great when I'm working at the computer, though I don't play them that often. They aid focus, somehow, imparting a snug, drawn-in feeling. I've had quite a few times where I've forgotten that it wasn't actually raining outside, but I've never actually thought there was a pack of howling wolves down the street. I put them all in a folder on the mp3 player for the heck of it.
The other night I was driving home and the player happened upon a half-hour track of rain and thunder. I moved my hand to switch tracks but decided to adjust the volume lower and see (hear?) what driving to the rain and thunder track was like. It was pretty cool! The rain sounds blended with the wind and road noise that's normal with the sound system off, masking the annoying rhythms or adding to them in the right way. The remaining twenty minutes of my drive passed in a flash as I drifted in a light reverie, the flow of my thoughts 'pure' in a way that can't happen with the associations that are inevitably triggered by lyrics and melodies. I only realized this as I pulled off the freeway, the road noise abating and the rainstorm recording coming back to the fore.
The track wasn't done when I shut the player off, so it started when I got in the truck the next morning and fired the player up. I let it go for a couple of minutes but in the harsh light of day the effect wasn't nearly the same. I don't think they'd work with earbud headphones either. While I don't have any road-trips scheduled, I will definitely try playing the various environments when driving at night from time to time. If I remember to break away from the chaotic mish-mash.