Free noise generator, for masking out distractions at the workplace

[Charles Balch]

Hello, I'm the author of SereneSound.

Thanks for the install fix Maxx. The problem that Matthew had with
the install is that I foolishly called my install program install and
was very conservative about what got overwritten on the install
system. Thus, if you have another install program named "install" you
get that program again instead of SereneSound.

My next version of SereneSound will not have this problem but will
still be free.
Charlie (my email is at the SereneSound.com site if you want to
reply.)

 

[Al Smith]

Hello, I'm the author of SereneSound.

Thanks for the install fix Maxx. The problem that Matthew had with
the install is that I foolishly called my install program install and
was very conservative about what got overwritten on the install
system. Thus, if you have another install program named "install" you
get that program again instead of SereneSound.

My next version of SereneSound will not have this problem but will
still be free.
Charlie (my email is at the SereneSound.com site if you want to
reply.)

Just curious. Can people have their hearing damaged by silence --
that is by "silence" generated by a noise blocking program that
produces sounds that cancel out the ambient sounds of the environment?

My guess is that such "silence" could, if loud enough, damage your
hearing. After all, it is still vibrations in the air, even if you
can't hear it. But I suppose that it would have to balance the
volume of the external sounds, so it would not be too "loud"
unless played in really noisy environments.

 

[Bob Adkins]

My guess is that such "silence" could, if loud enough, damage your
hearing. After all, it is still vibrations in the air, even if you

Not to worry AL.

Both the unwanted sound, and the out of phase sound cancel each other out.
The silence is really silence. Think of 2 rolling balls that weigh the same,
and they bump head on. Both balls will suddenly stop dead still, just as our
sound waves do. If the device does not work perfectly (and it probably
doesn't), you will get a little residual sound.

Perhaps there are products of the canceled sounds that actually reach the
ear, but the frequency is largely out of the hearing range, and the
amplitude is slight.

Bob

Remove "kins" from address to reply.

 

[Al Smith]

My guess is that such "silence" could, if loud enough, damage your

Not to worry AL.

Both the unwanted sound, and the out of phase sound cancel each other out.
The silence is really silence. Think of 2 rolling balls that weigh the same,
and they bump head on. Both balls will suddenly stop dead still, just as our
sound waves do. If the device does not work perfectly (and it probably
doesn't), you will get a little residual sound.

Perhaps there are products of the canceled sounds that actually reach the
ear, but the frequency is largely out of the hearing range, and the
amplitude is slight.

Bob

I see your point. I guess if it was still noise, the ears would
hear it. Unless some freaky high frequency tones got generated
during the cancellation process as artifacts. But that seems unlikely.

 

[Roger Johansson]

Both the unwanted sound, and the out of phase sound cancel each other out.
The silence is really silence. Think of 2 rolling balls that weigh the same,
and they bump head on. Both balls will suddenly stop dead still, just as our
sound waves do. If the device does not work perfectly (and it probably
doesn't), you will get a little residual sound.

To the person who asked about this:

High frequency sounds are easily dampened by a screen, of sound absorbing
material, like a thin wall with some heavy textiles on, like mats.

What is really hard to dampen are low frequency sounds
Electronic sound cancelling techniques work well for those low frequency
sounds though.

Put a screen around you which dampens the high frequency noise, and put a
big loudspeaker in that screen.
Put a microphone outside the screen and invert and amplify the bass and
send it to the big loudspeaker.

The bass sounds from the loudspeaker cancels out the low frequency noise
from outside the screen, because it moves the air at your ears in the
opposite direction from what the noise does.
When the sound level from the speaker is equal to the sound level of the
noise, and inverted in the amplifier, the two sounds cancel each other.

Look up the term "electronic noise cancelling" on the web and you will
learn more about the possibilities of this technology.
This technique is used in high quality ear protection gear, and can be used
for a small room too.

The big speaker can be used as a bass speaker for your own stereo
simultaneously as it is used for noise cancelling, just mix the noise with
your music in the speaker amplifier.

The "screen" can be any size, a small screen to cover your ear, or bigger
screen to cover your workplace. Whatever size it has the screen is
necessary to, to some degree, isolate a volume of air which the loudspeaker
can compress and expand to cancel the sound waves which are disturbing.

 

[Daniel Polansky]

I've tried all the other programs listed in this thread. THE program you

want is a terrific program called Aire Freshener created years ago by Peter
Hirschberg and available at:

http://www.peterhirschberg.com/mysoftware.html

That is the program I've been looking for. It is very good, thank you
for the tip.

 

[silentwoman]

Just try a a square floor fan...they make a nice, white noise sound. And you may already have one in your home!