Noise cancelling headphones still have a residual noise, that you will hear, because our hearing has an incredible dynamic range. Adding a faint background noise of your choice, to cover that residual noise, is a good idea.
Then, these crafted noises do exist because of the exact nature of the life around you. For many people, the "life around you" is what they want to escape, exactly.
Exactly. Plus, creating your own "audible" comfort zone, is very tricky. A given sound that some people like, e.g. frogs in a nature soundscape, can be the sound other dislike, or are even afraid of. Offering level control over every audible elements in a soundscape is very important, and not available on YouTube.
I am Stephane, the person behind that website/project. I see a lot of people having concerns about the title - Background Sound Canceller - and they are right. That title is not mine, but poster's own.
I describe my project as "Background Noise Generators", or sometimes as as "Non-Distracting Noises and Music".
They are not sound cancellers but sound maskers.
The idea is to create a noise you like, to mask a sound that you don't want to hear. Your colleagues, tinnitus, ... anything.
Because these noise generators are designed to be non-distracting, there is a big chance that your brain will not even hear them after a couple of minutes... but they will keep masking the nuisance you wanted to het rid of in the first place. That is the magic exploited by the project. Create these sonic "focus bubbles".
Stephane is AMAZING. Years ago (2014) I noticed a point in one of the rain noise platters that had too much of an obvious pitch component, so that it was too easy to identify it when it repeated. Stephane edited the platter within a couple days to fix the problem!
That's great! Reminds me of my own "random noise that isn't random" accidental fixation. There is a "water dripping" sound that I first noticed in Quake, no doubt sourced from a popular sound effects library, that I now hear television and movies all the time because of a pattern of pitches it uses.
Your app is also great to help get to sleep. I find if my thoughts are too active when I'm trying to sleep, then having some soothing sound like rain to focus on is a great help. It also has a stop timer so it won't go on all night.
Thank you for MyNoise! It's a must-have homescreen app on all my phones. Works perfectly for me on planes and trains, especially in combination with noise-cancelling headphones.
I did the same thing, a week-ago. The interface may be more spartan; all the efforts have been put in the sounds themselves. These sounds have been carefully designed to put the listener in the focus zone, for those who associate the noise of their office with focus (everyone is different; most people actually want to block open office sounds... but a minority is actually missing them, when their environment is too quiet).
I wish I had access to a CS-80! Tough I understand what you mean, the thinning is also due to EQing, as each slider must provide room for the others in the mix (so they each are equalized, similar to mastering). So, it was deliberate from me. The middle slider, for example, is anything but thin :
https://mynoise.net/NoiseMachines/november2019SoundscapeGene...
Iconic movie Blade Runner (1984) takes place in a dystopian future which was imagined to have happened by November 2019. So, I had the plan to come with a sonic tribute on that date. And here we are. You can play with the varied tracks - even animate the sliders. Among others, you will be able to recreate the mood of the opening scene in the original movie, and classic Vangelis moods. As the different stems loop with different timings, the whole creates ever changing variations. The iconic Yamaha CS-80 sounds have been recreated using the modern Moog One - an all-analog synthesiser too. This soundscape goes really low in frequency, good headphones or a subwoofer, are highly recommended. Enjoy!
Composite generators are web specials at the moment, but as soon as the mobile app developer - who reads us here on hacker news, I am sure - finished struggling with the Android app, he will probably implement these composite generators on the mobile apps too. It shouldn't be too difficult, it's more a data parsing issue, than actual programming.
The creator of the website here. Thanks for your kind comments! Just wanted to add that I am currently working on a tribute to the original Blade Runner soundtrack... as the action of that movie takes place in November 2019 (!) Now re-creating the sound of the legendary Yamaha CS-80 (played by Vangelis) by programming varied analog synthesizers (I do not own a CS-80). Stay tuned!
Well spotted! If you read the introductory text on that one, it is meant as a teaser for the upcoming one. The difference is that 'Electric Sheep' is made of sound sources taken from other myNoise generators, while the upcoming one will come with its own original sources.
As a subscriber, this is nice to hear about; I was actually thinking about creating my own (however that is done - I know it is possible in some manner as a subscriber) - but I'm not an audio expert so I would probably have screwed it up anyhow.
There used to be a site that allowed you to "mash up" multiple sources of audio and gifs to create ambient backgrounds. One that was my favorite consisted of a particular "rain and thunderstorm" audio track, an audio track of "bladerunner ambience" sound, plus a track (pick whatever) of "You are listening to {city}" - which was (is still?) a site that had recordings (or live streams - I don't recall) of police scanner recordings. You could take those, mix them up, then drop a background on screen of a "cyberpunk city" and add javascripted "rain drops" as if you were looking out a window onto the city...
It was a great effect, but like most things on the internet, the "pieces" either went away or changed in some fashion, and it was no longer available. But I've always wanted that same thing back - and what you describe might come really close to that.
I just want to say thank you. That classic CS-80 is probably my favorite instrument of all time. It makes me incredibly happy to see people still producing music with the same spirit.
You may know about this already, but there's a small batch / DIY synth called Deckard's Dream[0,1] aimed at recreating the Yamaha CS-80 sound.
Yes, there is that Deckard's Dream project that already exists; Yamaha is also considering making a modern re-issue of the CS-80, and so does Behringer. Any good analog synth with with two filters in series per voice - a high-pass and low-pass modulated by the same envelope - can come quite close to the CS-80 (though purists will say it won't). Here where I am at the moment : https://soundcloud.com/audiosampling-1/november-2019-is-comi...
That is terrific, I'm very much looking forward to your Blade Runner OST homage!
I didn't know about the behringer clone, that looks pretty awesome. I'm certainly no synth purist, just very happy to see that the CS-80 vibe is still alive and well.
Do you think you can update the app to 1. allow premium users of the site to receive premium benefits in the app and most importantly 2. allow us to listen to any sound generator rather than a very stripped down selection, most of which are not free?
Each platform is independent and tries to fund itself. If I was working/forcing subscriptions, it would be different; I would likely offer a universal access to subscribers. Currently, each platform is friendly priced. On the web, users donate what they want; on mobiles, price is fixed around USD 10 for a lifetime access to all sound generators, current and future (currently 200+). The difference is that I program the web myself and it is my responsibility to live from donations. Mobile apps are subcontracted to a professional coder, hence the difference in models. I know, it is not easy to understand, when you don't know where the project comes from. I can understand your frustration. Feel free to send an email to me if this answer leaves you unsatisfied.
Then, these crafted noises do exist because of the exact nature of the life around you. For many people, the "life around you" is what they want to escape, exactly.