How to use the white noise generator
- Pick a sound or a mix. Tap a mix such as Brown noise, Rainy night or Beach, or switch on the sounds you want one by one. It starts playing straight away.
- Balance it. Each sound has its own level, so you can put rain on top of a quiet bed of brown noise, or bring the crickets up under the ocean. All off clears the mix.
- Shape the tone. Turn Tone down to take the edge off hiss and make everything deeper and warmer. This helps most with white noise and rain.
- Set a sleep timer if you want the sound to stop by itself. It fades out gently over the last few minutes rather than cutting off.
Start at a low volume and turn it up slowly: steady noise sounds louder the longer you listen. Space plays and pauses, and full screen turns the page into a dim, moving picture of the sound.
White, pink and brown noise
- White noise has the same energy at every frequency. Our ears hear more of the high end, so it sounds bright and hissy, like a detuned radio or a hair dryer. It covers voices and sudden sounds well.
- Pink noise loses 3 dB of energy per octave, the same amount in every octave band, which sounds more even and gentler: steady rain or wind in trees.
- Brown noise (also called red or Brownian noise, after the random motion it is modelled on) loses 6 dB per octave. It is deep and rumbling, like a waterfall or the inside of a plane, and many people find it the most relaxing to leave on for hours.
All three are generated live from random numbers, so they never repeat. The visual at the top follows what you hear: the hills are the mix’s spectrum from low (left) to high (right), so brown noise leans left and white noise fills the whole width, and each sound in the mix adds its own touch: rain streaks, rising embers, fireflies, bubbles or wisps of wind.
Nature sounds
The nature sounds are real field recordings, released into the public domain by the people who made them: Rain is heavy rain on a roof, Ocean is surf breaking on a beach every few seconds, Stream is a small stream babbling through the Scottish Borders, Wind blows through trees, Campfire is a crackling wood fire, and Night is crickets and cicadas in a Mexican forest after dark. Each plays as a loop of 36 seconds to a minute and a half, its end blended into its start so there is no seam, and each is levelled so it mixes evenly with the others. A sound downloads the first time you switch it on (1 to 2 MB). Drone is a soft, shimmering hum, generated live like the noises.
Sleep timer and fade-out
Choose 15, 30, 45 or 90 minutes, 1, 2 or 8 hours, or leave it off to play until you stop it. With a fade of 1, 5 or 10 minutes, the whole mix dims smoothly to silence as the time runs out. The fade runs on your device’s audio clock, so it stays smooth even when the tab is in the background. Pausing keeps the time left, and the countdown carries on when you play again.
Share a mix or embed the player
Share result, next to the sleep timer, gives you a link to the mix on screen. It opens a card here that lists the sounds and their levels, with Play it to hear the mix at the page’s own volume and Open this mix to load it. The link holds which sounds are on and their levels, the tone, and the sleep timer with its fade. Your volume and colors are never included, so a shared mix can’t start loud.
Embed this on your site, under the sounds, puts the player on any website or blog for free, with a link back here.
More for a calm moment
Want bells and a countdown for a sit? The meditation timer plays the same soundscapes under singing bowl or gong bells. For a few minutes of paced breathing, follow the breathing exercise. Both have a background sound option too.