Soundproofing / White Noise - advise
June 24, 2017 12:35 PM Subscribe
I have no experience with white noise machines, but things like street noise really bother me and for the next 2 months I'm going to be occupying a street facing room on a moderately busy street.
I've lived in back facing rooms for many years now and the quiet is really important to me. I need to find ways of soundproofing (although that goes only so far without a real overhaul - which is not possible) and so I'm looking to add ambient noise. More inside.
I just ended a long relationship and I'm moving apartments. I couldn't have gotten luckier with the location, I'm moving only two doors down, my commute and the familiarity of the neighborhood don't change, and I need some continuity. But for the first 2 months I have a street facing space, living room and bedroom both front a street that has cars and buses. After 2 months I will likely have a chance to move to a quieter part of the building.
So it's really cars, and some buses, (sometimes sirens) - what has worked against this sort of noise? I'm going to get a white noise machine and I like the sound of rain so something that does rain sounds well - any recommendations? There will be a window unit too for the summer, but I'm really worried it won't be enough to get the outside noise drowned to a level I can bear. Desperately seeking quiet!!
I just ended a long relationship and I'm moving apartments. I couldn't have gotten luckier with the location, I'm moving only two doors down, my commute and the familiarity of the neighborhood don't change, and I need some continuity. But for the first 2 months I have a street facing space, living room and bedroom both front a street that has cars and buses. After 2 months I will likely have a chance to move to a quieter part of the building.
So it's really cars, and some buses, (sometimes sirens) - what has worked against this sort of noise? I'm going to get a white noise machine and I like the sound of rain so something that does rain sounds well - any recommendations? There will be a window unit too for the summer, but I'm really worried it won't be enough to get the outside noise drowned to a level I can bear. Desperately seeking quiet!!
My wife uses a Marpac Dohm noise machine. It's an actual fan creating the noise, and you can adjust the sound too. We had one break, and the US company sent us another one to Canada no questions asked. We bought a second one for our kids.
posted by Amity at 1:32 PM on June 24, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by Amity at 1:32 PM on June 24, 2017 [1 favorite]
Earplugs? And good work with the white noise. I think that will really help you.
(Anectodal support evidence: I've always been a very poor sleeper and had to move for a year to a city where there is noise, and I mean all sorts of noise, all night; you could hear conversations next door, there were loud parties at the weekends, and lots of traffic all night, as well as the call to prayer in the small hours of the night from mosques near and far. I was worried about not being able to sleep but with a fan on all night to provide loud white noise I was able to fall asleep quite quickly. I slept really well there. The other occasional noises didn't bother me once I was asleep. Fans for the win.)
posted by Ziggy500 at 1:35 PM on June 24, 2017 [1 favorite]
(Anectodal support evidence: I've always been a very poor sleeper and had to move for a year to a city where there is noise, and I mean all sorts of noise, all night; you could hear conversations next door, there were loud parties at the weekends, and lots of traffic all night, as well as the call to prayer in the small hours of the night from mosques near and far. I was worried about not being able to sleep but with a fan on all night to provide loud white noise I was able to fall asleep quite quickly. I slept really well there. The other occasional noises didn't bother me once I was asleep. Fans for the win.)
posted by Ziggy500 at 1:35 PM on June 24, 2017 [1 favorite]
You might find some more answers here: What makes a good white noise/pink noise speaker?
My brother has had a version of the Marpac Dohm since he was an infant, and he's still using it or one very similar almost 38 years later. I've tried various sound machine type devices or apps that have rain or ocean noises, but my brain automatically starts listening for when the sound repeats which makes it difficult for me to sleep. So that might be something to consider if you go for a solution that is anything other than a non-stop whooshing noise.
posted by ralan at 2:01 PM on June 24, 2017
My brother has had a version of the Marpac Dohm since he was an infant, and he's still using it or one very similar almost 38 years later. I've tried various sound machine type devices or apps that have rain or ocean noises, but my brain automatically starts listening for when the sound repeats which makes it difficult for me to sleep. So that might be something to consider if you go for a solution that is anything other than a non-stop whooshing noise.
posted by ralan at 2:01 PM on June 24, 2017
I have a Marpac Rohm that I bought a couple of months ago after moving from a rear-facing bedroom to a front-facing one, and I like it a lot. It's smaller than the Dohm and USB-rechargeable and the small size and portability let me stick it on the windowsill easily when it gets noisy outside. It has several volume levels and I've used it to successfully mask everything from my housemate's teenagers to yard work to the loud guys the landlord hired to paint the house.
posted by camyram at 2:33 PM on June 24, 2017
posted by camyram at 2:33 PM on June 24, 2017
Marpac + window unit AC will get most of the noise muted. The AC will mask the lower frequencies of buses and diesel engines and the Marpac covers higher pitched sounds like cars and voices. This combo got me through a year of construction two doors down and traffic.
The only sounds that nothing will kill are sirens, gas powered leaf blowers and chain saws nearby.
posted by a humble nudibranch at 3:10 PM on June 24, 2017 [1 favorite]
The only sounds that nothing will kill are sirens, gas powered leaf blowers and chain saws nearby.
posted by a humble nudibranch at 3:10 PM on June 24, 2017 [1 favorite]
Seconding Noisli. Also SimplyNoise is nice. I use this at work.
posted by 4ster at 3:10 PM on June 24, 2017
posted by 4ster at 3:10 PM on June 24, 2017
https://mynoise.net/
I use MyNoise every day. It is awesome. App is free, site is free, but if you throw him a "pay what you want" amount you get a couple of extra goodies.
Has tons of noise options, AND you can calibrate to your speakers. I can't hear the loops, I think he's doing some trickery with multiple recordings to mask looping. I cannot recommend it highly enough.
posted by Doleful Creature at 3:16 PM on June 24, 2017 [1 favorite]
I use MyNoise every day. It is awesome. App is free, site is free, but if you throw him a "pay what you want" amount you get a couple of extra goodies.
Has tons of noise options, AND you can calibrate to your speakers. I can't hear the loops, I think he's doing some trickery with multiple recordings to mask looping. I cannot recommend it highly enough.
posted by Doleful Creature at 3:16 PM on June 24, 2017 [1 favorite]
Masking is simple: if they level of your noise machine exceeds the level of the noise outside for any (about) third octave band you'll hear the machine and not the street.
The buses and such are low frequency heavy so you'll probably do better with pink noise, which has equal energy in every octave band (as opposed to white, which has equal energy in each frequency) so the pink is low frequency weighted.
posted by Lutoslawski at 5:50 PM on June 24, 2017
The buses and such are low frequency heavy so you'll probably do better with pink noise, which has equal energy in every octave band (as opposed to white, which has equal energy in each frequency) so the pink is low frequency weighted.
posted by Lutoslawski at 5:50 PM on June 24, 2017
What kind of windows do these rooms have? You could make a window plug, either foam or magnetic.
posted by rhizome at 5:51 PM on June 24, 2017
posted by rhizome at 5:51 PM on June 24, 2017
There's tons of noise apps, but all of them are limited by the size and dimensionality of the speaker they're put through. I travel with half a dozen apps (mynoise is my favorite) but I still have to prop my iPad in a corner on the opposite side of the room hoping it'll bounce enough to actually fill the room with noise. This is why a Marpac or similar is more expensive and sufficient enough to be used in offices where privacy is required by regulations. If you have access to an actual stereo set of speakers, like for television or on a boombox or stereo, you can get some bounce on it.
A window unit is going to do a lot, especially if you'll be sleeping quite close to it. I have a tiny 5000btu one in my bedroom, right by my head, and pretty much all I can hear is the dogs' pacing the wood floor when they want me to wake up and let them out. I do have a foam plug above the window unit (it's a normal AC unit rigged into a side-sliding window, so I needed something to cover the gap), and part of a $30 piece of upholstery foam from Amazon (I'm using the rest for a dog bed) fills the 2x4' gap with a few shreds to pack around the unit. It not only stops me from hearing the pool filter or central AC unit right outside the window, but it also blocks out the 5am summer birds. Worth the investment, I'd say.
posted by Lyn Never at 9:58 PM on June 24, 2017
A window unit is going to do a lot, especially if you'll be sleeping quite close to it. I have a tiny 5000btu one in my bedroom, right by my head, and pretty much all I can hear is the dogs' pacing the wood floor when they want me to wake up and let them out. I do have a foam plug above the window unit (it's a normal AC unit rigged into a side-sliding window, so I needed something to cover the gap), and part of a $30 piece of upholstery foam from Amazon (I'm using the rest for a dog bed) fills the 2x4' gap with a few shreds to pack around the unit. It not only stops me from hearing the pool filter or central AC unit right outside the window, but it also blocks out the 5am summer birds. Worth the investment, I'd say.
posted by Lyn Never at 9:58 PM on June 24, 2017
For a free thing you can try before you go buy anything, if the room you'll be sleeping in has a computer and decent speakers, you can download the free & open-source program Audacity. It's a full-featured audio editor but it has a noise generation function that's pretty easy to use.
Assuming you get it installed on your platform of choice, to check it out:
This will let you see if this sort of thing works for you. If you like it enough, you can just keep using Audacity since it's free. There are also apps for smartphone platforms that work as noise generators you can check out. I have been using Audacity to drown out roommate and outside city noise for YEARS. After all this time I've conditioned myself so that Brownian noise = relaxation and it works pretty great for me, no regrets.
posted by glonous keming at 10:34 AM on June 25, 2017
Assuming you get it installed on your platform of choice, to check it out:
- From the menu click on Generate then click Noise...
- In the drop down box select Brownian (there are others but Brownian sounds the best without further processing imo)
- Leave the amplitude at the default of 0.8
- Put in the length of time of the sound you want. I do 15 minutes.
- Click OK
This will let you see if this sort of thing works for you. If you like it enough, you can just keep using Audacity since it's free. There are also apps for smartphone platforms that work as noise generators you can check out. I have been using Audacity to drown out roommate and outside city noise for YEARS. After all this time I've conditioned myself so that Brownian noise = relaxation and it works pretty great for me, no regrets.
posted by glonous keming at 10:34 AM on June 25, 2017
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I don't think there's much you can do about the sirens though.
posted by Leon at 1:09 PM on June 24, 2017 [1 favorite]