Brown, pink and white noise
Noise colour describes how sound power is distributed across frequencies. It describes an audio signal, not a promise about concentration, sleep or a mental-health condition.
By Zehano · Original AI-assisted explanation and worked example · Updated 16 October 2026 · Editorial approach
A worked example
Imagine measuring two equally wide frequency bands: 100–200 Hz and 1,000–1,100 Hz. Ideal white noise has the same average power per unit of frequency, so equal-width bands have equal expected power. Pink noise instead has equal power per octave: a doubling band such as 100–200 Hz is compared with 1,000–2,000 Hz. Brown noise reduces higher-frequency power more steeply than pink noise. Real playback is limited by sample rate, filtering, speakers and headphones, so a colour label does not fully describe what you hear. In the studio, try a quiet texture, then compare it with silence during the same kind of short task. Note whether the sound is comfortable and whether it draws attention away from what you intended to do.
Try it in three steps
- Begin at a low output setting and check your device volume too. The website slider does not measure sound exposure at your ears, and a soft-sounding texture is not automatically harmless at high volume.
- Change one setting at a time. Switching the task, headphones and sound together makes it hard to identify which change affected your experience. Stop or choose silence whenever you prefer.
- Describe the result narrowly. “I preferred this background during today’s reading” is a useful observation. It does not establish that a particular noise colour improves learning or treats a condition.
What to watch for
Do not turn up continuous noise to overpower a loud environment or assume that a pleasant sound is safe indefinitely. Both sound level and duration matter. Zehano supplies optional synthesized textures; it does not measure hearing exposure or provide a prescribed audio treatment.
Apply it to your own material
Try one scene or sound with a short duration, then adjust or stop according to your preference. The controls work independently, so motion, audio and the timer can each fit the moment.
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