white noise generator

what does white noise sound like?

white noise is a flat, bright hiss: an untuned radio, air rushing from a vent, a hairdryer running in the next room. it has equal power at every frequency, the way white light mixes every color. each octave up the scale spans twice as many frequencies as the one below it, so most of that evenly spread energy lands in the highs. that is why it sounds sharper than the other two colors on this site.

how is white noise generated here?

it is the simplest sound the page makes. your browser's audio engine asks for a random number between minus one and one for every sample, usually 44,100 or 48,000 of them per second depending on your device, and sends them straight to your speakers. there is no filtering, no recording and no loop, so what you hear is brand new every second and never settles into a pattern you start to notice.

what volume is safe for white noise?

keep it in the background. the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says sounds at or below 70 decibels are unlikely to damage hearing even after long exposure. because white noise is heavy in the high frequencies, it can feel harsh at a setting that would be fine for brown noise. if it starts to feel tiring rather than calming, lower the slider or switch to pink, and if you can't hear someone talking to you at a normal volume, it is too loud.

when does white noise work better than brown or pink?

when the distraction is in the upper range. voices, keyboards and clinking dishes sit in the middle and higher frequencies, which white noise covers evenly, so it tends to cover them better than a low rumble. it is also the color most attention studies have used, including the ones pooled in a 2024 meta-analysis from Oregon Health & Science University, which found a small benefit on attention tasks for young people with ADHD. white noise for studying covers when it helps and when it doesn't.