And no, I'm not talking about synesthesia.... Yes, fellow reader... Evidently noise has colors.
I was inspired by a comment to my 2/27/13 post on noise generators as coping tools to write a post on the "colors" of noise. (Thanks Sarah!) Up until the day when the doctor who diagnosed my misophonia suggested that I use noise generators to help mask my surrounding sound triggers, I only knew of "white noise," probably from my days as a kid where there were many channels on TV that played static. (Long before cable was around. LOL!) The doctor mentioned "pink" and "brown" noise too, but I still didn't quite understand the differences between the sound variations. When I did an online search to better understand how they differ, I discovered even more color variations. Who knew static could be so diverse?
If you go to the Wikipedia page on the colors of noise, it not only includes sound bytes where you can listen to a variety of sound "colors," but it also illustrates the the different noise variations as pictoral wave diagrams. If I were to over-simplify what I perceive to be the differences between the different sound colors when I listened to them, the "warm" red/brown/pink noises have a much softer quality to the sound than the harsher "cool" white/blue/violet noises. On top of those variations, there's also the unofficial "black noise" which Wikipedia refers to as "silent noise." Now how's THAT for an oxymoron? (By the way, if you have trouble listening to the Wikipedia sound clips, try installing the free VLC sound application download. It can play any sound or video clip. In fact, a former I/T colleague once said to me, "If VLC can't play it, then nothing can.")
If you'd like to download an mp3 file of pink noise to play on Windows Media (or other) Player on a continuous loop, I found this website: http://www.pinknoisemp3.com/ You can even play a ten minute clip of the pink noise directly on their website too. I also found this other website, called SimplyNoise, that not only has sound files of white, pink, and brown noise, they also have apps: http://simplynoise.com/ that not only play white/pink/brown noise, but have a timer to automatically shut the sound off. (Looks like it's not a free app though.)
Another white noise sound generator that might be of interest is something I saw on Dr. Oz's 13 Miracles for 2013 episode. You'll have to sit through a plum advertisement and the description for miracle #3, but miracle #4 is another free app that you can download from Google Play called White Noise Lite. It has 40 looped sounds ranging from rain and waves to white noise and a fan blowing. It even allows you to set a sleep timer.
Regardless of whether the sounds are white/pink/brown noise or melodious music played through noise cancelling earbuds., if they help to cope with misophonia triggers, I'm all for them!
I was inspired by a comment to my 2/27/13 post on noise generators as coping tools to write a post on the "colors" of noise. (Thanks Sarah!) Up until the day when the doctor who diagnosed my misophonia suggested that I use noise generators to help mask my surrounding sound triggers, I only knew of "white noise," probably from my days as a kid where there were many channels on TV that played static. (Long before cable was around. LOL!) The doctor mentioned "pink" and "brown" noise too, but I still didn't quite understand the differences between the sound variations. When I did an online search to better understand how they differ, I discovered even more color variations. Who knew static could be so diverse?
If you go to the Wikipedia page on the colors of noise, it not only includes sound bytes where you can listen to a variety of sound "colors," but it also illustrates the the different noise variations as pictoral wave diagrams. If I were to over-simplify what I perceive to be the differences between the different sound colors when I listened to them, the "warm" red/brown/pink noises have a much softer quality to the sound than the harsher "cool" white/blue/violet noises. On top of those variations, there's also the unofficial "black noise" which Wikipedia refers to as "silent noise." Now how's THAT for an oxymoron? (By the way, if you have trouble listening to the Wikipedia sound clips, try installing the free VLC sound application download. It can play any sound or video clip. In fact, a former I/T colleague once said to me, "If VLC can't play it, then nothing can.")
If you'd like to download an mp3 file of pink noise to play on Windows Media (or other) Player on a continuous loop, I found this website: http://www.pinknoisemp3.com/ You can even play a ten minute clip of the pink noise directly on their website too. I also found this other website, called SimplyNoise, that not only has sound files of white, pink, and brown noise, they also have apps: http://simplynoise.com/ that not only play white/pink/brown noise, but have a timer to automatically shut the sound off. (Looks like it's not a free app though.)
Another white noise sound generator that might be of interest is something I saw on Dr. Oz's 13 Miracles for 2013 episode. You'll have to sit through a plum advertisement and the description for miracle #3, but miracle #4 is another free app that you can download from Google Play called White Noise Lite. It has 40 looped sounds ranging from rain and waves to white noise and a fan blowing. It even allows you to set a sleep timer.
Regardless of whether the sounds are white/pink/brown noise or melodious music played through noise cancelling earbuds., if they help to cope with misophonia triggers, I'm all for them!
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