brown noise generator
a deep, steady rumble generated live on your device. no signup, no audio ads, nothing to download.
tap play for brown noise
what does brown noise sound like?
brown noise is the deepest of the common noise colors. most of its energy sits in the low frequencies, so it comes across as a rumble rather than a hiss: a strong waterfall heard from a distance, or the inside of an airplane cabin. the name has nothing to do with the color. it comes from Brownian motion, the random jiggling of particles described by the botanist Robert Brown, and it is sometimes called red noise.
how is this brown noise made?
there is no recording behind the button. when you press play, your browser draws a fresh random number for every sample, tens of thousands of times a second, and adds each one to a running total that wanders with every step and slowly leaks back toward zero. that wandering total is what reaches your ears. its power falls by about 6 decibels per octave, and since it is generated as it plays, there is no loop point to catch.
how loud should brown noise be?
lower than you might expect. the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says sounds at or below 70 decibels are unlikely to cause hearing loss even after long exposure, and a normal conversation is around 60. a practical check: if you can no longer comfortably hear someone speaking at a normal volume, turn it down. headphones need a lower setting than speakers across the room. our look at whether brown noise is safe goes into exposure time.
does brown noise help with focus or sleep?
some people find it does, and the research is thinner than the hype. the best supported idea is masking: a steady sound makes a slammed door or a voice down the hall stand out less. most attention studies used white or pink noise, so treat brown as a week-long experiment, not a fix. what brown noise actually does to your brain and whether it helps you sleep cover the evidence. at night, pick a stop time above so it switches itself off.
the research, honestly
the two studies people cite most did not test brown noise. a 2007 study by Söderlund and Sikström found that white noise helped children with ADHD on memory tasks, while children without ADHD did worse with the same noise. a 2024 meta-analysis from Oregon Health & Science University pooled 13 studies of white and pink noise and found a small benefit on attention tasks for young people with ADHD, with no brown noise studies to include. so brown noise borrows its reputation from its brighter cousins. it is free and quick to try, but the evidence for brown noise itself is not there yet.
brown vs pink vs white noise
| noise | how it sounds | frequency balance | common uses |
|---|---|---|---|
| brown | a deep rumble, like a distant waterfall or an airplane cabin | most of the energy sits in the low end, dropping about 6 decibels per octave | covering traffic or building hum, background for reading, winding down at night |
| pink | soft and even, like steady rain or wind in trees | equal energy in every octave, dropping about 3 decibels per octave | a middle option when white feels sharp and brown feels muddy |
| white | a bright hiss, like an untuned radio or an air vent | equal power at every frequency, so it leans toward the highs | covering voices, keyboards and office chatter |
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