Brown Noise

Has anyone here heard of brown noise?

It's sort of like white noise, but:

1. More random
2. More low frequency sound
3. Less high frequency sound

I came across an article on it today. It's supposed to be more mind-clearing than white noise, which merely masks other ambient noises. It is names after 19th century Scottish botanist Robert Brown, who noticed that grains of pollen viewed under a microscope seemed to move around as though they were alive. Apparently, low frequency inaudible sound waves were the cause of the motion.

Here is a Guardian article on it.

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I love where I currently live. When I was outside of DC, I was about 1 mile from I-66. Traffic there never let up. At night it was like the far-away sound of an ocean, but in an irritating kind of way. One neighbor used to fire up his gas-powered leaf blower in the early AM to blow the leaves off of his asphalt driveway. Of course, there was always this one wet, stuck leaf that required the blower to be revved over and over and over and over. I'm still angry at myself for not having walked over in my underwear, picked the damn thing up and just handed it to him. Jerk.

Where I am now is obviously way quieter, although I'll occasionally hear the sounds of I-64 (traffic is always light and it ends at 10PM.) The noisiest things here are the hawks screeching first thing in the morning. But I'm fine with them doing their thing.

As remote as I am, there is still a noticeable silence on Christmas.

 

I'm not aware of any noise that's supposed to cover up the neighborhood annoyances, other than "STOP IT!!!". White noise will not get you through a night of gunfire.

I have used blindfolds and ear plugs, especially after living here and going back to the DC area for overnight work stays. I actually got up at 1AM and drove to the 24 hour CVS to get those things on one such trip because I wasn't gonna be able to sleep without them.

Has anyone used any recorded noises to either mask the back stuff or to meditate? I've not. I prefer dead silence (which I just discovered is "black noise"), even if it's gained by having foam shoved inside my ears.

 

Masking tinnitus was actually one application referenced in that article for brown noise because it is lower frequencies. Maybe you could try playing the "video"I linked and see if it helps, since the noise is consistent, unlike a radio.

 

From another article: The rumble of a waterfall, thunder, or heavy rain is very close to brown noise, and many people find the sound soothing and comforting.

I adapted real fast to living with few people around me. I hated going back north for work meetings. But I, too, always have the TV or radio on.

 

We have been having a strange noise here for about the last week. I do not think that it fits the definition of brown noise, but it does not fit any kind of definition actually.
It is kind of a high pitched (but not loud) noise that goes on continuously. We thought it was the arsenal testing something, but our neighbor said he heard it when visiting family on the other side of town.
I asked my DIL if she could hear it in Madison (about 5 miles west of here), and she said she can hear it , too.

You only hear it when you are outside, so it is not real loud, and Bobby said it reminds him of those old movies where they showed a UFO landing and making the same kind of sound.

 

I wonder if there are new cell towers or 5g being turned on or something along those lines. Call your local news station (from a pay phone under a false name) and ask them to look into it.

 

It turns out that it actually IS the cicadas, and because there are so many of them this year, they sound different than they usually sound. Even our neighbor, who has lived here all his life, did not recognize that this was just the cicadas.

Since we live next to the arsenal, and they are always testing rocket engines, or blowing stuff up, or doing something that makes noise, at first we just assumed that it was the arsenal doing it.
After Jerry said he heard it clear across town when he was visiting his family, and Laura said she heard it clear in Madison, we decided it might not be the arsenal.

Then Jerry noticed all of the pile of cicadas underneath his trees and all over the leaves and branches, and we started realizing that this was what was making the constant noise. It sounds more like a background noise than the chirping of a cicada, like it usually sounds.
Before , it has always sounded like the cicada was in our yard, and making noise. This sounds like it is up in the air somewhere and not close to us, and just loud enough to be always heard .

I looked on the city-data forum, and someone there had started a thread about the “UFO Noise”; so we were not the only ones confused by the sound.

 

That's pretty funny. I was gonna post about the UFO sounds that they make. Makes one wonder how the homeless people with mental issues make it through cicada season, both the noise as well as the swarms.