White Noise

About White Noise

This free white noise player gives you a steady background sound that covers up the noises you cannot control — a talkative office, traffic, a neighbour's television, a snoring partner. Pick a sound, press Play, and it runs until you stop it.

Nothing is downloaded. Every sound is built as you listen, using the browser's own audio engine. That has two useful side effects: the page is tiny, and the sound never loops. Recorded noise tracks repeat every few minutes, and once you notice the join you cannot un-notice it. This one has no join to notice.

The six sounds

• White noise — every frequency at equal strength. The brightest and most "hissy". Best at covering speech.
• Pink noise — quieter towards the high end, so it sounds softer and more natural than white. The usual choice for long sessions.
• Brown noise — deeper still, closer to a distant waterfall or heavy rain on a roof. Popular with people who find white noise sharp or tiring.
• Rain — filtered noise that rises and falls slightly, the way real rain does.
• Ocean waves — a slow swell of about eleven seconds, brightening as each wave breaks.
• Fan — low noise with a faint hum and blade flutter, for people who sleep with a fan and cannot take one to the office.

If you are not sure, start with brown noise at a low volume. It is the one most people settle on.

White, pink and brown — what the colours mean

The names are not marketing. They describe how the energy is spread across the frequencies:

• White is flat — the same energy at 200 Hz and at 8,000 Hz. Bright, close to the hiss of an untuned radio.
• Pink drops by about 3 decibels each octave, so the high end is softer. Many natural sounds (rain, wind, a river) are roughly pink, which is why it feels easier to sit with.
• Brown drops about twice as fast again, leaving mostly low rumble.

Going white → pink → brown is simply turning the treble down. Which one works best is personal: pick by ear, not by what you read.

Volume matters more than the sound

The point of background noise is to make other noises less noticeable, not to drown them. If you can still hear a conversation but can no longer follow the words, the volume is right.

Keep it as quiet as you can while it still does the job — you will be listening for hours, and loud sound over long periods is not good for your hearing.

Features

• Six sounds — white, pink, brown, rain, waves and fan
• Runs as long as you like with no loop and no repeat
• A stop-after timer — 15, 30, 60 or 120 minutes
• Volume slider with a smooth fade in and out, so nothing jolts you
• Your sound and volume are remembered for next time
• No download, no account, no advert breaks in the audio

What people use it for

• Open-plan offices — covering nearby conversation so you can read
• Studying and deep work — a steady sound with nothing to listen to
• Noisy neighbours — masking a television or footsteps through a wall
• Babies and small children — a familiar sound at nap time
• Tinnitus — many people find a quiet background sound easier than silence
• Video calls — running it in a headset between meetings

Good to know

• The tab must stay open for the sound to continue. You can switch to another tab, but closing the page stops it.
• On a phone, some browsers pause audio when the screen locks. Keep the screen on, or use the stop-after timer and let it end on its own.
• Nothing is recorded and nothing is sent anywhere — the sound is created on your device.

How to use it

• Pick a sound — brown noise is a good first try
• Press Play
• Set the volume so other noises stop pulling your attention, and no louder
• Set Stop after if you want it to end on its own
• Press Stop whenever you are done