Honestly, this is one of those things that I'm never going to use because it's Web 2.0 and doesn't need to be.
Your core functionality is cool: I definitely would like something that allows me to mix background noises.
But why am I signing up for your service? That has nothing to do with what I want from your app. That just gets in the way of using your app.
Why is there integration with Google Drive? That has nothing to do with background sounds and those permissions aren't happening.
Okay, so you're using the Google Drive integration for your integrated text editor. Why is there a text editor integrated? I have a workflow with a text editor and unless there's something I don't know here, my text editor is better and yours is just going to get in my way. And in fact I can probably name 10 text editors that are better than yours--unless your core product is a text editor, you're probably not going to beat out folks who are actually focused on making a text-editor.
I'd pay <= $10 for your app if I could download it without signing up for anything, without extraneous features, and use it from my taskbar without requiring an internet connection. Ideally I'd configure it once and never have to touch it again except to turn the sound on and off.
As is, this doesn't make it any easier to get good background noise than just keeping a collection of .mp3s on my hard drive, because the interface comes with so much unnecessary cruft. Tools like this don't encourage productivity, they encourage pointless tinkering.
Thank you for your feedback, appreciate your honesty.
Of course the text editor is not something for everybody. The users that do appreciate it want to write in a pleasant environment, without worrying to much on formatting.
Would love to understand more how Noisli could be more useful for you. Just write me at hello (at) noisli (dot) com
The page doesn't load for me at all because I have Facebook embeds blocked. You should probably not be assuming third party javascript will always work and be available.
Noisli could be more useful for me if it was just an app with different looping background noises that I could mix and balance with a nice interface (the one you have is nice). That is literally all you need to have a very good app.
Some features you could add after that:
1. Save mixes.
2. Sync saved mixes between app/phone/etc. (this would probably require a signup--but I might not use this feature, so don't force people to sign up to use the rest of your app).
3. Add your own sound loops.
Note that these features are all related to the core function of your app: mixing and balancing background noise.
I'm still really confused by why this includes a text editor. Notes, Stickies, TextEdit, pico, nano, and vim came preinstalled on my machine. I added OpenOffice, XCode and Emacs. I also use have used Google Docs, pastebin, txti.es, github gists, and probably more online text editors that I don't remember. There are dozens more text editors that I haven't mentioned, and there are probably hundreds I haven't even heard of. Why would anyone use one that's for no apparent reason bolted onto the side of a background noise app?
I agree partially with
>But why am I signing up for your service? That has nothing to do with what I want from your app. That just gets in the way of using your app.
It would be cool to have an explanation of what signing up does (for now, there is just a button that you can click without really knowing why).
I'll happily signup if I can save my sound configuration. The biz dev dude in the office down the hall has been shouting on his phone all day, and I found this just as I was about to go berserk.
Anyway, nice work - and if you can build in saving sounds, I'd definitely pay for this.
A contrary anecdote to yours would be mine. I love noisli so much, I actually bought the iPhone app! The app also lets you store combinations as named sets, a big plus for me.
That's not completely a contrary anecdote: I agree the core functionality is awesome. The only difference between our opinions is that the cruft and privacy concerns are not a dealbreaker for you.
If anyone uses this on a touchscreen device, I'm curious what you think about the slider that Noisli uses for volume control. Do you prefer the slider, or would you prefer to tap on the icon to toggle pre-defined volume states (off, 33%, 66%, 100%)?
I just tried this out. I love the simplicity of the homescreen and the simple volume toggle is great.
2 things:
1. The coffee shop has the Joe Walsh song The Joker in the background. It's a ridiculously catchy song and I found it very distracting.
2. I couldn't figure out how to turn this off. It went haywire and I ended up with lots of white noise. I had to turn off my bluetooth speaker, and going to applications to force stop. Nothing I did in the app would stop the sound.
A big play or pause button might help in this situation.
A huge issue I've had trying to find music/noise that I can use to drown out background noise is the human voice. I can't find a playlist that has sounds/music without human voice! I found a couple great trance songs that just let me put my head down and really tune everything out... and then there is either a sample of a lyric or even a "hey!" added in for no reason and it pulls me out. And if they don't have a human voice, often it will have some other repeating noise that pulls my brain away from the task. I put on headphones to keep my mind from procrastinating at a time when it really, really wants to. The hardest thing is finding music/noise that doesn't give it any excuse to wander.
Well, one of the features is to be able to mix your own sound, by playing multiple sounds at different volume levels. So, what we're really doing is adjusting the volume of the app, relative to the system sound.
I hope that helps explain what I'm looking for feedback on, and why using the device's volume controls isn't a solution.
there are a couple guys at work who are into these types of background noise settings.. but they kept getting upset at what they found because after a while you can clearly tell the cutoff point. you'd hear a quarter drop at some point, then know exactly when it was coming later, and your mind would start focusing on that, and that defeats the point of the thing.
if you could make a mix of coffee shop sounds and then randomize them in a way that feels natural, that would be a hit ;)
This is great. I was using Coffitivity which has been featured oh HN before. Unfortunately they tried to launch a paid version and that didn't work out all that well. They wanted to tie it to a facebook account and I can't get on board with that strategy so I decided not to use it.
There's also the fact that they were charging either 4-5 bucks a month (can't recall exactly) for what amounted to 3 additional mp3 files. That's a tough sell.
I love, recommend, and use Noisli often in our open plan office.
The only tiny annoyance is that I really like the ambient cafeteria noise, and after a while I start to notice the looping! There's a very prominent bit where a lady shouts "Swwwwing!". There isn't much you can do about it though other than make the sample much longer, and it's hardly a problem. Just something I notice.
Thanks for the site. I actually registered noisebubble.com a while back with something similar in mind, but you beat me to the punch and I'm happy you did.
There's a way to make this harder to detect: create "loops" which are actually a multitude of loops that have prime number lengths. The individual components will repeat, but "beats" of simultaneous repeats won't exist, giving the illusion of a much longer sequence.
I've seen an example in graphics used to create very large tiling patterns from a small image space. See:
Since people are likely to play several loops at once, you might make a policy that _all_ loops are different lengths, in prime integer numbers of seconds. I haven't checked for how long your segments are, but that would allow users to mix-and-match.
Thank you so much for using Noisli and for recommending it!
Also thanks for the feedback!! It's something we will definitely keep it mind to keep improving the service ;)
I have had the same problem with 'ambient sound' apps, and they eventually render them useless for me. Perhaps it would be an idea to layer two tracks of different lengths on top of each other to at least make it 'random' for longer? Have you considered this?
(Other than that, great work. I might buy the iOS version soon!)
This is great. Why do you need an 8 character password? Are you planning on adding some kind of a payment feature later?
For things I don't care, I just use a simple password.
One problem that is exposed by low-quality / frequently reused passwords isn't so much poor password protocol among users (though there's that), but overauthentication on the part of sites and apps.
If your users are giving you poor passwords, maybe you shouldn't be using accounts.
With all 3 of my babies, there is a single magical track on iTunes that has done wonders - on the album "Sweet Dreams: Soothing Sounds for Babies", track #6, "Running Shower".
BUT, I had to edit it so that it stitches together when played on repeat. It fades out and then comes on loud again, startling the baby awake.
There are lots of apps that do this. I used to use them to help me sleep. There was a fantastic thunder storm one but it was quite expensive. The songs were incredible though.
I have always like the ambient sound stuff, but normally those sites are not well designed. This site is pretty darn good looking. Any plans on an Android app?
As a frequent Raining.fm and Coffitivity user, I find this awesome, and will definitely give it a try while working!
I'd strongly recommend finding an easier name to remember/spell though. If somebody told me "go to noisli.com", I'd spell it noisely.com. Ideally it should be something that's easy to remember and speaks to its function (noisey.fm, ambient.fm, and backdrop.fm are all available domains).
We just released the new version of Noisli (http://www.noisli.com), a tool I created out of a personal need to achieve more productivity having to work on loud co-working spaces or working in total silence from home. Hope you find it useful too :)
There's an app for Mac/iOS ($4.99) called WhiteNoise that does a similar thing. It also has a really extensive library of new sounds you can add: http://www.tmsoft.com/white-noise/
Color of this page hurts my eyes :(
Ability to change background color would be great, after sitting in front of terminal for hours this green background is too bright.
Yes, but it does not save it's state between page reloads and not attached to my account. Also not sure what is the point of account. I would like to stop background and be able to stay anonymous.
Is there a limit on the amount of sounds I Can activate? it seems as if after playing with combinations for a while, something gets stuck so I can activate/deactivate one of the sounds and nothing happens until I deactivate a previous one.
Is this normal?
Also, is there a way to cache the files locally? if I deactivate a sound and activate it 3 seconds later, it seems to have to load it again (there's a delay) instead f being instant-on.
This is great! Being able to save my favorite combos and set an "off" timer is nice, now would it be possible to set a timer to automatically switch to another (random or specific) combo? I'd light to define day/night cycles or sun/rain cycles :)
Also, once you saved a combo, how do you edit it? It seems there is no way to get back to the home page once a fav combo is started.
Yeah, unfortunately there's a persistent problem with the One where playing more than a few audio streams simultaneously results in stuttering or crashes. I've looked into it but never found a reliable workaround. Every few months I take another look, but no luck so far. It's the only modern device that I've had to list as incompatible, but it's a real shame because it's a great phone.
This is like anti-noise-reduction. Which to me is weird. It's the fan white(?) noise which makes my blood pressure go up not down. So I wonder if it isn't just a myth that this should be calming at all.
That said, I still think the page is very well made and the sounds sound great! Well done!
Great job, I'll be trying this out during my next sprint. So far Soundrown is my favourite.
Both seem very similar in functionality but I prefer the visual style of Soundrown more.
http://soundrown.com/
Open the browser console, go to the resources tab, and delete all the soundcloud api local storage/cookies/etc. Perhaps at soundcloud.com too. I had that problem, mine works now.
I've noticed on the propeller and nighttime sounds that there's a gap in their playback as the loop starts again that's honestly quite jarring. Especially when the propeller is the primary background sound.
Can you consider sharing your Mnemosyne deck about Ruby and other technology? I am currently making something identical and it would be pointless energy on duplicating something already done.
On Noisli we offer different features to support your productivity. Besides the sounds, we also have a Timer (useful especially for time management techniques) and the built in distraction-free Text Editor with Markdown support (Very much appreciated by blogger, students and writers)
>"Upload, download, update, and delete files in your Google Drive. Create, access, update, and delete native Google documents in your Google Drive. Manage files and documents in your Google Drive (e.g., search, organize, and modify permissions and other metadata, such as title)"
to give you context to that permission: If someone stores business information there, then they're giving your free reign to view/change/delete their taxes, invoices, payroll etc.
Or maybe they store something personal there: Selfies and private cat photos... I basically do not give this permission to anything because there is too much at stake. I wish there was a way to give that permission to a single folder or file.
I can't access the site so I'm not sure what scope you use on the API, but it sounds like you're requesting full scope on drive. You might be able to get by with only requesting access for just the app files you create for the user:
Is that how permissions work? I was under the impression if you gave the app permissions to read write and delete files in your storage, it could (in theory) read/write/delete anything it wanted?
Your core functionality is cool: I definitely would like something that allows me to mix background noises.
But why am I signing up for your service? That has nothing to do with what I want from your app. That just gets in the way of using your app.
Why is there integration with Google Drive? That has nothing to do with background sounds and those permissions aren't happening.
Okay, so you're using the Google Drive integration for your integrated text editor. Why is there a text editor integrated? I have a workflow with a text editor and unless there's something I don't know here, my text editor is better and yours is just going to get in my way. And in fact I can probably name 10 text editors that are better than yours--unless your core product is a text editor, you're probably not going to beat out folks who are actually focused on making a text-editor.
I'd pay <= $10 for your app if I could download it without signing up for anything, without extraneous features, and use it from my taskbar without requiring an internet connection. Ideally I'd configure it once and never have to touch it again except to turn the sound on and off.
As is, this doesn't make it any easier to get good background noise than just keeping a collection of .mp3s on my hard drive, because the interface comes with so much unnecessary cruft. Tools like this don't encourage productivity, they encourage pointless tinkering.