How to make subliminals, step by step.

The full method

A subliminal is just a voice track of affirmations layered under a background sound. Making a good one is less about software tricks and more about writing affirmations you believe and listening consistently. Here is the whole process, step by step. If you are brand new to the idea, it helps to first read what are subliminals.

Step 1. Pick one focused goal

Start by choosing a single, clear intention for this track, such as calm confidence, steady focus, restful sleep, or feeling at home in your own skin. One goal per subliminal keeps every affirmation pointing the same way, which makes the track feel coherent and easier to write. You can always make a separate track for a different goal later.

Step 2. Write your affirmations

This is the part that matters most. A few simple habits make affirmations feel natural instead of forced.

First person. Write as "I", so the words feel like they belong to you. Present tense. Word things as already true, not as a distant hope, so "I am" rather than "I will one day". Positive wording. Say what you want, not what you are trying to avoid, because a line like "I am not anxious" still keeps the word anxious in your ear. A little feeling. Affirmations with some warmth or ease in them tend to be more pleasant to hear on repeat.

Here are a few before-and-after examples that show the difference:

Write a set of roughly ten to thirty affirmations. That is enough variety to stay interesting without becoming a wall of text. If you want a deeper look at wording, the section above covers the essentials, and you can keep refining your list as you listen.

Step 3. Choose a voice

The voice carries your affirmations, so pick one you are happy to hear often. Common choices are your own voice, which is familiar and free and can feel personal, a male or female voice for a particular tone, a text-to-speech or AI voice for a clean and consistent read, or a soft whisper style that many listeners find soothing and easy to have in the background. There is no single best choice here. Some people find their own voice the most convincing, while others prefer a neutral generated voice so they are not distracted by hearing themselves.

Step 4. Record or generate the voice

If you are recording yourself, find a quiet room, hold your phone or microphone a steady distance away, and read the affirmations at a calm, even pace. Recording each line once and then looping the whole set in your editor is usually easier than trying to read for many minutes straight. If you are generating the voice, paste your affirmations into a text-to-speech tool or an in-app voice, then export or loop the result. Either way, the aim is a clean voice track with no harsh background noise, since you will be layering a chosen sound underneath yourself.

Step 5. Choose a background sound

The background sits under the voice and sets the mood. Popular options include rain, brown, white, or pink noise, gentle nature sounds like waves or wind, and soft royalty-free music. Brown noise is deeper and warmer, white noise is brighter and more even, and pink noise sits between the two, so try a few and keep whichever feels most restful to you. You can also add a soft tone or pad underneath if you like a fuller sound. If you are curious about tones specifically, see binaural beats and frequencies. Whatever you use, make sure it is royalty-free, Creative Commons with the right permissions, or your own recording.

Step 6. Layer and set the relative volume

Now place the voice track and the background on separate layers and decide how loud the affirmations should be. This is where the two schools of thought come in, and it is honestly debated with no agreed standard. One approach keeps the affirmations faintly audible, so you can still make out the words if you listen closely. The other mixes the voice well below the background, so the words are barely audible and the track sounds mostly like the sound itself. Neither is proven better than the other. A practical starting point is to keep the affirmations audible at first, so you know exactly what is in your track, and then lower the voice later if you prefer a quieter, more ambient mix.

Step 7. Choose mono or stereo and add light compression

Mono keeps everything centered and simple, which is fine for a straightforward voice-and-sound track. Stereo gives the background a wider, more spacious feel, which can be pleasant for rain or music beds. A touch of gentle compression on the voice evens it out so no single word jumps forward or drops away, which keeps the affirmations steady under the background. Keep any compression light, and check that the overall level never clips or distorts on the loudest parts.

Step 8. Export settings

When the mix sounds right, export it. MP3 at around 192 to 320 kbps gives a small, phone-friendly file that is ideal for everyday listening and looping for long stretches. WAV is uncompressed and larger, which is worth it when you want the highest quality for further editing or for archiving a master copy. For most people who just want to press play and listen, an MP3 is the practical choice.

Best way to make subliminals

You do not need expensive tools. There are really two paths, depending on how much manual control you want.

A general audio editor, for full manual control

Any general-purpose audio editor will do the job. You record or import your voice, add a background sound on a separate layer, adjust the volume of each layer with an envelope, add light compression, and export to MP3 or WAV. Editors like this give you full manual control over every detail, and there are free ones for both desktop and phone. The trade-off is a bit of a learning curve, since you are assembling and balancing each layer yourself.

JustSubly's built-in Sub Maker, the simple guided way

JustSubly includes a Sub Maker made for exactly this. You write your own affirmations or let it AI-draft a set for your goal, pick a voice, layer it over a background sound and an optional tone, preview the result, and it renders the track privately into your library. Because JustSubly also tracks your listening, the subliminal you make lands right next to your playlists and streaks. It is the easiest option if you are on a phone and want the whole flow in one place, without assembling layers by hand. If you prefer hands-on manual mixing, a general audio editor is a fine choice too.

Keeping it healthy and lawful

Two things are worth holding onto as you make your own tracks. First, treat this as a craft and a practice rather than a promise. Making subliminals can be a calming, motivating part of a routine, and part of the appeal is writing words that feel good and listening consistently. It is not a medical treatment and it is not a guaranteed outcome, so keep your expectations kind and personal. If you are wondering how often to press play, see how many times to listen to subliminals.

Second, respect copyright. Use royalty-free or Creative Commons audio that you are allowed to use, sounds you record yourself, or plain noise like rain and brown noise. Please do not rip copyrighted songs from streaming services or online videos, even for a personal track, since that can breach copyright. There is a huge amount of free, license-friendly audio out there, which is more than enough to build something you love.