Pink Noise Generator
Pink noise loses 3 decibels of power every octave, so each octave carries the same energy. To the ear it sounds balanced, like steady rain or wind through trees.
Generated live in your browser, sample by sample, so it never loops. Keeps playing while you browse this site.
When pink noise helps
A good all-rounder when white noise feels too sharp but brown feels too muffled. It is also the test signal sound engineers use to tune rooms.
What the research says
Pink noise is the sound used in sleep-lab studies that time short bursts to slow waves (e.g. Papalambros et al., Frontiers in Human Neuroscience 2017), which reported better memory recall in older adults. A continuous pink-noise track does not reproduce that timed setup, but it is a pleasant masker.
Using it well
- Set it just loud enough to cover the sound that bothers you, no louder. For all-night use, aim for the level of a quiet conversation or below.
- Put a phone speaker across the room rather than by your head; the sound is more even and quieter at your ear.
- Want a tone too? Open the studio and add pink noise under a binaural beat.
Compare: white noise, brown noise.
Why the colours sound different
Energy in each octave band, in dB relative to the 1 kHz octave.
Power falls 3 dB per octave, which exactly cancels the doubling width. Every octave carries the same energy: flat bars, and the sound your ear hears as most even.
Questions people ask
What does pink noise do?
It masks background sound with a balanced, rain-like hiss. Timed pink-noise bursts in labs have been linked to deeper slow-wave sleep.
Pink noise vs white noise?
Pink rolls off the highs, so it sounds softer and less hissy than white.
Can pink noise help memory?
Lab studies with precisely timed bursts during deep sleep suggest small memory benefits. A normal continuous track has not been shown to do the same.