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Path: utzoo!censor!geac!torsqnt!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!usc!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!unix.cis.pitt.edu!mpmst1
From: mpmst1@unix.cis.pitt.edu (metlay)
Newsgroups: rec.music.synth,comp.music,rec.music.makers
Subject: Re: White Noise???????
Summary: Colored noises, oh yummy
Message-ID: <71303@unix.cis.pitt.edu>
Date: 17 Dec 90 15:04:34 GMT
References: <12263@bsu-cs.bsu.edu>
Reply-To: mpmst1@unix.cis.pitt.edu (metlay)
Organization: Atomic City Records, Pittsburgh, PA
Lines: 32

In article <12263@bsu-cs.bsu.edu> travis@bsu-cs.bsu.edu (Travis Michael Banks) writes:
>
>Can someone please tell me what WHITE NOISE is?
>I've seen it referred to on several occasions and have no idea what it is???

White noise is a kind of audio signal where each frequency is represented
with an equal amount of power.... it's "white" in the same way that light
from the Sun, containing all frequencies of the EM spectrum, is perceived
as white by our eyes. (I know sunlight isn't an equal-power source. shut up)

Alternatives are types of noise where power output is weighted with respect
to frequency: the best known example in our field, used for testing rooms
for mic placement as well as on the better analog synths, is pink noise,
which follows a frequency dependence considered more interesting to the
human ear. Its dependence is a very simple math formula involving one over
the frequency, but I don't dare try to quote it from memory or the zillions
of net.nit.pickers out there will leap on me like hyenas. Other types of
noise include blue, red, and green (blue noise is weighted toward the high
end, red toward the low, and green noise is that far-off sound of lawn
mowers that wakes you up when you're trying to take an afternoon nap in 
the summertime).

Hope that helps. Someone else can show off their library by quoting you the
math; on a practical level, what matters is that white noise is what you
normally get on a synth that provides noise at all-- which is a pity, as
pink noise is much more interesting to the ear. *sigh*

Have a good holiday season, everyone.

-- 
metlay			             | "There's more to life than marriage,
             metlay@vms.cis.pitt.edu |  synths, and Traveller...but so what?"