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geekhack Community => Off Topic => Topic started by: SpAmRaY on Thu, 15 January 2015, 12:33:16

Title: Benefit of White Noise
Post by: SpAmRaY on Thu, 15 January 2015, 12:33:16
So I'm curious.

I know I've seen a few people post about having white noise generators in their offices does anyone find it hard to function without some sort of noise?

Does anyone use white noise generators at home?

Any recommended phone apps for white noise?
Title: Re: Benefit of White Noise
Post by: Computer-Lab in Basement on Thu, 15 January 2015, 12:40:42
inb4 black noise racism jokes
Title: Re: Benefit of White Noise
Post by: byker on Thu, 15 January 2015, 12:41:59
I will sometimes use rainymood when I am studying at home. It can help relax me or drown out background noises (I have 3 roommates).
Title: Re: Benefit of White Noise
Post by: FrostyToast on Thu, 15 January 2015, 12:44:21
I use this archaic thing called music and headphones...
Title: Re: Benefit of White Noise
Post by: byker on Thu, 15 January 2015, 12:47:53
I use this archaic thing called music and headphones...

This is what I use 99% of the time :)
Title: Re: Benefit of White Noise
Post by: jwaz on Thu, 15 January 2015, 12:47:56
inb4 black noise racism jokes

Black noise matters.
Title: Re: Benefit of White Noise
Post by: intelli78 on Thu, 15 January 2015, 12:51:41
The brown note (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brown_note)
Title: Re: Benefit of White Noise
Post by: SpAmRaY on Thu, 15 January 2015, 12:59:27
The brown note (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brown_note)

Wow I learned something today. :eek:
Title: Re: Benefit of White Noise
Post by: ice31000 on Thu, 15 January 2015, 13:35:32
I use Brown Noise if its not raining when I'm trying to sleep.
Title: Re: Benefit of White Noise
Post by: Computer-Lab in Basement on Thu, 15 January 2015, 13:37:42
The brown note (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brown_note)

Wow I learned something today. :eek:

drug-free laxative
Title: Re: Benefit of White Noise
Post by: tp4tissue on Thu, 15 January 2015, 13:57:01
The concept is designed to Drown out "Other-Noise"

When you hear a loud enough consistent White-noise..  It raises the sound-level threshold of your ear.   So everything "Not" as loud as the white-noise you're using will in effect "feel muted/ or at least dimmer"..

Sudden noises, like car horns or a woman shrieking, would instantly distract you, because your brain thinks you might come under attack from that direction..

The consistent/ predictive nature of the white-noise itself will be filtered out by your auditory cortex as non-essential information.. and so you will not be distracted by white noise..
Title: Re: Benefit of White Noise
Post by: tp4tissue on Thu, 15 January 2015, 13:59:51
However,  Silence is still superior to using a white noise generator, because though it's effective at drowning out other noises,  it still places a mild processing load on your brain greater than silence

Title: Re: Benefit of White Noise
Post by: derezzed on Thu, 15 January 2015, 17:39:06
When I went back to college after a long hiatus, I used brown noise to drown out the sound of television and conversations in my house while I studied.   After the first semester, I had developed the ability to tune most of that stuff out and I found I functioned better without it.  Pink noise was similar to brown noise, IIRC, but a little bit harsher to my ears.  I got my wav files from these two web sites.  That was years ago.  The sites have changed since then.


Still free?
http://whitenoisemp3s.com/ (http://whitenoisemp3s.com/)

It looks like this costs money now.
http://simplynoise.com/ (http://simplynoise.com/)
Title: Re: Benefit of White Noise
Post by: sidel on Sat, 17 January 2015, 16:03:21
I will sometimes use rainymood when I am studying at home. It can help relax me or drown out background noises (I have 3 roommates).
Same here.  I find it accompanies music nicely as well, at least some of the time.
Title: Re: Benefit of White Noise
Post by: noisyturtle on Sat, 17 January 2015, 16:56:10
The brown note (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brown_note)

Wow I learned something today. :eek:

it's been proven to not be real, although there are certain sound waves that can induce a mild feeling of sickness when played at very low and loud frequencies. The US Navy uses such technology to battle pirates along with fun things like microwave beam guns that make your skin burn.
Title: Re: Benefit of White Noise
Post by: iri on Sun, 18 January 2015, 05:29:31
hope it works more effectively than the us navy's fire (http://www.military.com/video/operations-and-strategy/battles/somali-pirates-attack-us-cruiser/1730791758001/).
Title: Re: Benefit of White Noise
Post by: godly_music on Sun, 18 January 2015, 19:56:43
White noise is great at hiding digital artifacts in audio and video. This process is called dithering and it's most easily reproduced by adding some gaussian noise before you resize a digital picture. It's also pretty groovy to add a bit of noise into your binaural brainsex patterns so they're not quite so harsh on the ears. It doesn't sound like ocean waves for nothing.