Quick Tip: Eliminate the Noise Around You by Using... Noise

As Mac users, we like to think of ourselves as hard working individuals who (no surprise here) have gone with the best computing solution out there. The Mac is intuitive, which makes it a pleasure to use in any circumstances... except for when your roommates are noisy. There's a way to "even things out" though.

Noisy, as its name implies, is an application for Mac OS X that deals with noise. It does so by actually producing more noise (white or pink) to fill the noise gaps occurring when your roommates take a breath to reply to one another, or to cover the noise entirely.

Often are the times when the noise around you is so annoying not even ambient music can get rid of it, since musical pieces also have moments of silence, or higher and lower pitched sounds. At times, this makes it even more difficult to concentrate on your work. Noise, however, is constant and flat. In fact, white noise is the direct correspondent (in sound) of white light, which contains all frequencies.

Using Noisy couldn't be easier. Simply download the free application HERE, double click the zip archive to extract its contents, and double click the application icon to launch it.

Just like the three screens below reveal, Noisy can produce white and pink noise (whose power rolls off at higher frequencies). Just press "White" or "Pink" to tell the software to produce the respective noise nuance, and then control by volume. The noise can be stopped and started at any time, of course.



Typically, white noise is used by some emergency vehicle sirens, thanks to its ability to cut through background noise. This makes the vehicle easier to locate. The same kind of noise is also used in the production of electronic music. It is used either directly or as an input for a filter to create other types of noise signal. Audio synthesis makes good use of white noise to recreate percussive instruments such as cymbals, which have high noise content in their frequency domain.

Some electronics manufacturers even sell white noise machines, which act as privacy enhancers and sleep aids. It has been proven that CDs containing white noise used with headphones can help one concentrate by blocking out irritating or distracting noises in an environment. No need for that anymore, since Noisy will occupy a mere 757 KB on your Mac's hard drive and will do the job even better.

Noisy is based on Noise by Blackhole Media.