Pink noise.

[elfs]

Pink noise is the correct term for what most people call white noise, but "white noise generators" are mostly recordings of natural sounds. I like natural sounds for the most part: whind, rain, the sound of a rushing water. The one sound that drives me crazy, however, is trickling water. I've never understood why people want those little trickling fountains. There's a little Thai restaurant near my home that Omaha and I like to frequent, but it has two large vase-shaped fountains that drive me nuts.

Why is that?

Comments

[sirfox.livejournal.com]

Irregularity?

I like a constant noise when i sleep, (typically, i have a small fan running on my nighttable) but an irregular noise just kills me. In my previous domicile, the clothes dryer was not far from my bedroom. I had no problem with it running while i was sleeping... Unless there had been a nickel in somebody's pocket.

VwrmVwrmVwrmPING!VwrmVwrmPANG!VwrmVwrmP'TANG!

That keeps me up and drives me nuts.

[memegarden.livejournal.com]

I like trickling water just fine, but so does our cat, so he drinks out of our bedroom fountain. Since it isn't filtered and it's really really annoying to scrub all the rocks clean even every six months or so, never mind as often as cat drinking would necessitate, we've turned it off.

Alex has a sound generator in her crib, which she turns on sometimes. I don't mind the music settings, but the "trickling water" setting on that drives me crazy, because it is simulated and repetitive.

[amberite2112.livejournal.com]

if you use distilled water, the fountain will not grunge up anywhere near as fast. we have 3 cats that love fountains, and that one change has helped a lot.
its also better for them to drink - less minerals means fewer UTIs for boy cats.

[blaisepascal]

White noise is easier to generate digitally, but pink noise is easier to generate through analog noise generation circuits (since so many sources for natural noise are pink,not white... speaking of which, why on your comment page am I typing pink on white? that doesn't happen on other folk's comment pages).

My GF's noise maker (which she needed before her stroke to sleep through nighttime noises, like my snoring) has a "white noise" mode. It has just enough variation in it that I can hear it's on a loop. When I point out the loop to her, she hears the rhythm and can't get to sleep.

[acelightning.livejournal.com]

Trickling water == leak!!!

[pendorbound.livejournal.com]

Living in an old building, I can't *stand* the sound of dripping, trickling water anywhere inside. The first thing that comes to mind is, "Quick! What's leaking???? Get a bucket or something!"

Pink Noise

[(Anonymous)]

White noise is random, or equal energy per octave. Pink noise is weighted by the Fletcher-Munson curve, which is that EQ/weighting by which the human ear perceives sound - which is non-linear. Pink noise is used in acoustics to evaluate/fine-tune venues.

David
http://home.swbell.net/dknodel/

[valarltd.livejournal.com]

No idea why trickling water makes you crazy, but for me it means "Something is leaking, check the bathroom, check the kitchen!"

If it's purely decorative...I'm suggestible and end up spending a lot of time in the bathroom.

[whatthehay.livejournal.com]

Perhaps your mother potty trained you by leaving the bathroom sink water running....?

[acelightning.livejournal.com]