Here is my take on dithering, with online demos : http://www.audiocheck.net/audiotests_dithering.php (still 8-bit though, because at 16-bit, it is barely noticeable, and it won't serve educational purposes very well)
I agree with you, it doesn't sound as real as I wished it to be. Cat Purr was a request of many early myNoise users. At beginning, I kept explaining all the reasons why the myNoise sound player was not designed for playing a cat purr (it was initially designed to play random-phase and flat spectrum noises such as white noise and rain) and why I wouldn't implement a cat purr. Then, I gave up and programmed it, just to stop people asking :D It is not the myNoise sound I am the most proud of, but it seems that people like it (or the concept).
While it might not sound 100%, my cats reacted as soon as it started playing and they normally ignore speaker sounds so there's that. I think they were much happier with the purr than when I try to get a reaction from them by playing kitten cries on YouTube. Very cool project and, like others have said, very relaxing sound. Nice work!
our office has been listening to jungle life and absolute rain all week at work. we love your site. if/when an android app comes out i'll definitely buy it.
Cat Purr is one of my favorites. I blend it with one of the water sounds, which effectively blocks out most office noise and creates a calm, soothing space.
Also, my cat freaked out a little when I played it for her.
Dev here. So surprised to hear my cat purring a lot this morning, and then realised it was featured on HN today! :) To celebrate this, the Cat Purr IAP on myNoise's iOS App has been set to Tier 0, so you can all enjoy the same sound on your iOS device for free as well! (https://itunes.apple.com/be/app/mynoise/id813099896?mt=8)
Is there somewhere I can subscribe to find out when the Android app is released, as I'll buy it day one, your stuff has been a life saver working in noisy environments.
Hi, if you could change the jquery Google CDN(which is blocked in China) to fallback to locally hosted, guys in China could access your website without a vpn. Try something like fallback.io
OP here. I'm so glad I found your lovely app and site. And even gladder it's so well received.
I was looking into the therapeutic uses of cat purr for a while. Sure, there's nine hours of cat purr loops on youtube, but I thought someone might have tackled synthesis of it. Blam!
I have just reduced the level of the underlying white noise that plays along the rain samples. Please try again. Hit the television icon to increase the level of that white noise.
But please understand this is a white noise machine too. The rain sounds that have been selected - especially the heavier rain sounds - do include a high level of white noise, naturally.
Dev here! What a surprise - and honour - to find my website featured here, this morning.
I just want to add a comment: because the sounds are drawn randomly, everyone hears something different! So, comments like "it does sounds more like a brook" may be right, but just for one particular user, and particular occurence.
Today, the average visit duration time is about 30s... and it takes my engine about that same time to evolve from one sound to another. If you think that you are not hearing something that does sound like rain to you, either reload the page (it will start all over again with a new draw) or give the generator a longer listen, like two minutes (I know, this is a lot of time, on the Internet). Then, you will understand why this rain noise generator is different from others. It really shines over longer listening sessions.
How it works? Basically, I have sounds in four categories: Light Rain, Heavy Rain, Thunder, and Water sounds (like those occurring once the rain has stopped). The generator starts by choosing one of these categories (with higher probabilities for the rain, but sometimes, it can start with the water sounds - hence that user comment). For each category, there are dozens of different recordings. So, even if you keep playing rain from the same category, it will keep changing. Staying in the same category or switching to another is governed by a very simple transition probabilities matrix.
Also, you can change the spectrum of the rain (white/pink/brown) by means of the pencil (this setting affects the next draws, so its effect is not instantaneous). Being able to change the color of a natural noise, is an interesting feature, IMHO.
Big fan of your work, as it's currently hammering it down with rain here (I'm in the North of England, it's the default state) rain.today is particularly ironic.
