Aspies & White Noise

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I was just wondering how most of you relate to white noise. I understand that many Aspies loathe loud settings. I'm no exception when it comes to loud vehicles (this rocket launchers for you extended cab truck with the glasspack muffler!) and lots of voices coming at me from several directions as once. Loud music of my liking is one of the few exceptions.

But what about white noise. The hiss of television static, the roar of water in a fast river....That sort of thing.

For me it's air conditioners. Window units to be precise, but I'll take what I can get. Ever since I was a little kid my favorite way to relax or cure one of my chronic headaches was to lay up in the air conditioner vent on full blast. Between the cold air whooshing across my face and the soothing drone of the compressor I was seperated from the rest of the world. I could hear nor feel anything but that air conditioner. The world vanished. Oh I love it to this day. Sadly we are renting an apartment where I don't just have to settle for sub-par central air vents. Oh the humanity, the vents are mounted next to the ceiling! Breaks the heart.

What about you guys? White noise copacetic in any form?

White Noise may be a little harsh if it is true white noise,
but peaceful like a waterfall or water rivulet if it is equalized
for less high pitch, resulting in what is called pink or brown
(brownian) noise. The noise from FM radio and TV is filtered
to be more like pink noise than white noise in a
"de-emphasis" filter. It can be very relaxing and maybe
almost as good as silence. Fan noise is usually OK also,
but I am curious: Is anyone mysteriously bothered by,
or afraid of the sound of one particular fan?

moi?

And what flavor would you assign to the drone of an a/c unit?

the only noise which i can't handle is harsh noise- i.e., noise with major transient spike components in the waveform, also laden with odd-harmonic distortion. other than that, i need the gentle yet dense aural texture of large fans in the background if i wish to get any sleep.

I was thinking of you as I wrote this topic Blabby. Not as inspiration or such. Rather, just thinking of you. Your posts never lack for color and that avatar is seared into my mind. A strange coincidence.

Yeah. Ceiling fans. They freak me the hell out.

They have a wobbly, uneven whirring sound that's not like a normal fan. I also get this fear that they're going to come crashing down like a helicopter blade gone AWOL. I hate them.

We had ceiling fans do that often after a time. Solution. Tighten the screws adhering the blades to the arms. For us, problem solved.

Yeah, thanks. I'm sure there are a lot of ceiling fans out there not tightened or installed correctly. I don't have a ceiling fan in my home and I never will. The wobbly one I can remember was at a family member's house. The rest of them, still even when there's nothing wrong with them, bother me. Personally, I think it's counter intuitive to have blades whirring around over your head. But, maybe that's just me Plus, I think they're butt ugly.

gosh thanx
the avatar doesn't look like me, but it FEELS like it does/i do. anyways it's like you read my mind or something. amazing.

See-sawing between whether that was sincere or sarcastic statment. If sincere, you're certainly most welcome. If not, well....big meanie!

Either way I gots disabilities and all. You understand. But you colorful characters tend to include the sort that can tell someone to burn in hell and have them thanking them for the sentiment.

I'm sorry if you were sincere and I offended you. Truly. Just had to ask.

I love the sound of my air conditioner. It soothes me.

Hurrah! That's 2 for A/C units. Thanks C.R. ...Makes me want to call you C.C.R. A band I am very fond of. You can call me Stupid.

I use white and pink noise (either from fans or recordings) to drown out noisy neighbours. I used to use music for that purpose, but it was almost as distracting as the neighbour noise, so its only real value was to help them to understand how it feels to have to tolerate somebody else's noise pollution. White/pink noise is much better because it doesn't distract me at all - once it's been on for a few minutes, I forget it's there.

My son used to be able to sleep better, when he was very small, when I left a hair drier switched on in his room (with a time switch so there'd be no fire risk). I didn't discover it by accident - I had an intuitive feeling that it would work. Strange, because I'm not consciously aware of any comforting effect of the sound of a fan or white noise.

i sometimes am not sufficiently precise in my choice of words, so i apologize to you if i seemed to be a big meanie, when i am always trying to be anything but. i am not one to piddle on somebody's leg and then tell them it's raining, either. i'm not that sharp. so please consider my goshthanx as sincere. if you consider my words clumsy, you should hear my actual speaking voice sometime, you would be reminded of chumley the dull walrus on the old "tennessee tuxedo" cartoon. [am showing my age here]
i was truly amazed at what you called a coincidence that seemed truly psychic to me. i was not offended and in fact am appreciative of the nice things you said to me.

take care, luv

Last edited by auntblabby on 19 Apr 2010, 5:45 am, edited 1 time in total.

I have been obsessed with white noise since I was very young. I used to be obsessed with the radio white noises in between stations.
It's an odd coincidence that this question was posted as my wife pointed out two nights ago that when I edit my films I always insert white noise into the background of most scenes and she could not understand it. I explained to her that I do focus on all white noise around and that it's translating directly into my film work.

I hadn't realised this before as I have only been diagnosed with AS in the last 6 months out of 36 years of my life so lots of new things keep revealing themselves.

Glad I'm not alone - anyone like pylons?

what are pylons? enquiring minds want to know
i'd really like to hear why you put white noise in the backgrounds? isn't that like adding hiss or broadband noise? i only ask this because i spend waayy too much time removing said noises from old recordings. i hate noise in my old-timey music. also am curious if you ever tried to discern spirit voices or spectral communications in white noise from any source? i tried that for a bit then i chickened-out. scary. i might as well have used a ouija board.