Noise Generator
Play continuous white, pink or brown noise right in your browser. Great for focus, sleep, masking distractions or testing speakers and headphones.
Everything runs in your browser. Nothing is uploaded, nothing is stored on a server.
Sound fades in when you press Play and fades out when you stop.
Audio starts on your first tap on Play, as required by your browser.
What white and pink noise are
Noise is called white when it holds the same energy at every frequency. That puts a lot of power at the top of the range, where hearing is sharpest, so white noise comes out bright and hissy. Pink noise sheds 3 dB for every octave you climb, which gives each octave the same energy and lands closer to the way the ear weights a sound. That is why pink is usually called balanced or natural, like steady rain, while white is called static. Both are calculated here sample by sample from a random source, so the stream never repeats and there is no loop point to hear.
Why steady noise covers other sounds
Masking is acoustics, not psychology. A quiet sound is hard to pick out when a louder sound sits over the same frequencies, and broadband noise sits over all of them at once. A voice through a wall, a keyboard two desks away or a car outside stops standing out, because there is no quiet gap for it to stand out from. Steady noise does this better than music, since nothing in it changes and nothing in it asks to be listened to. It does not make a room quieter. It trades sounds that come and go for one that does not.
How to use it
Pick a color, press Play, and raise the volume only until the sound you want gone stops pulling at you. If the hiss itself is what you notice, drag the muffle control to the right: it rolls off the high end and moves any color toward the softer end of the range. Set the sleep timer if you want the sound to end without you, or leave it Off and stop it by hand. Headphones mask more than speakers do at the same setting, so they need less level, not more.
Volume and your hearing
Sound you leave on for hours deserves more care than sound you play for a minute. Steady noise never arrives suddenly, so the level creeps up without you noticing. Start quiet, look at the slider again after an hour, and turn the room down rather than the noise up. If a person speaking next to you is hard to hear, it is louder than a long session needs.
Deeper, and wider
Brown noise has a page of its own, with a summary of what the research does and does not show. Three more colors - blue, violet and gray - are on the colored noise page.
Frequently asked questions
What is white noise?
A sound that carries equal energy at every frequency, so no part of the range stands out on a meter. Because the way we hear packs far more frequencies into the top of the range than the bottom, that even spread reaches the ear as a bright hiss, like static or air from a vent. It is generated here from a random source rather than played from a file, so it never loops.
White or pink - which should I pick?
Try both and keep the one you stop noticing first. Pink holds less energy at the top, so most people find it easier to leave on for hours. White holds more, so it covers thin, bright sounds like a fan whine or a squeaky chair more completely. Neither one is better than the other, and the muffle control takes either toward the softer end if the top is too much.
How loud should white or pink noise be?
Low. The right level is the one that just covers what you came to cover, and no more. Two checks help: a person next to you should still be easy to hear, and the noise should stop being interesting within a minute. Nothing in it ever arrives suddenly, so the level creeps up over a long session - look at the slider again after an hour.
Can I use it without an internet connection?
Yes, once you have opened it. The sound is calculated on your device rather than streamed, and the page is cached after your first visit. Install the site from your browser menu and it opens without a connection.