Hello all, my partner and I will soon have a newborn baby in the house.To help the baby get to sleep, many people suggest white noise generators (or more particularly, pink noise (more bass, less highs), and also whooshy sounds).
Because I am the synth person in the house, it has become my job to find a noise generator. I have looked at many, but, to be honest, they all seem kind of boring. I wish I had the time and money to put together a small ambient/noise eurorack skiff that I could leave next to the bassinet, but, alas, I do not.
For now, Iāll have to buy a readymade noisemaker. But, before I do, does anybody here have any suggestions, ideas, comments?
(Iād really love to get something I could repurpose or hack later, after the baby is done with it, and incorporate it into my setup)
Everyone has their own experience, of courseā¦ our experience has been: Donāt get too clever. You probably wonāt have the patience for it later
Weāve settled on a mechanical white noise machine. It has a fan inside and an outer shell that you can twist to slightly change the volume/tone. Honestly, the two best things about it is 1. No loop points! and 2. Itās like a compressor for all the sounds of the house ā it just evens things out.
We originally used a loop player sort of like MyNoise.net. That wasā¦ fine. But then you start fiddling with it. It can always get optimized somehow. And then thereās a battery level to think about, speaker positionā¦ nah.
Nothing against rolling your own background noise generator if thatās the right choice for you!
Also would like to congratulate and you are in for a ride
Each baby is different so what worked for mine might not be best for yours, but best white noise generator to help my baby go to sleep was me personally making the white noise with my mouth. I tried to emulate sounds of the sea, wind rustling in leaves etc. while telling some short story and it worked 99% of the time - but be warned it is also a very good way to put yourself to sleep
Another thing that helped was just playing music in the house. We tried not to walk on toes around a baby and when he is sleeping we can often just proceed as usual. But we also have a dog which barks even at particle of dust falling outside so he might have just desensitized baby to noise
Itās cuddly, it emits different types of noise, and it also glows with a nice ambient light.
The other thing that helped us immensely with getting babies to sleep was a special cot mattress called a āSleepyheadā. Not cheap but it was worth its weight in gold for us.
I use a Lectro Fan to sleep (helps with tinnitus) and think itās a pretty good ready made option. Controls are simple, variety of tones, volume settings are sensible, itās small, donāt hear any loop points. I will say that Iāve found it best to put under a dresser to help it sound less like āthat speaker in that corner of my roomā to ānoise in the roomā - something that might be less of an issue with a mechanical option.
If you happen to have an old phone around, the cheapest solution might just be to use an app like Noisli (or even just play YouTube playlists of ocean sounds). With our firstborn I remember trying all kinds of things (mostly based on āthe happiest baby on the blockā) and did a mix of the mouth noises mentioned above and, um, the album āearth 2ā by earth. The basic idea that every baby is different seems very true! So, cheap and flexible solutions were the way for us.
Itās true, youtube videos of the ocean are probably a good ideaā¦ An interesting related anecdote ā The only thing that would put my niece to sleep was sounds of chainsaws from youtube videos. Then again my sister-in-law is a wood worker & furniture designer, so she had 9 months of saw noises in the womb!
iāve used versions of the dohm for years. my favorite feature is the āsound customizationā options. you rotate the chasis and it allows for different airflow which changes the timbre/volume/tone. you can really dial it in.
good stuff! definitely recommend an ocean waves/modulating one. we got a cheap, multi sound noise machine. the white noise is very strange. after sleepless nights and loooong nap attempts, white noise can play tricks with your ears. (hearing weird loops in the noise.) we immediately switched to the ocean sound, and itās literally been on in his room for 3 years, without stopping. itās like a soothing, forever noise in our upstairs. iāve looked at nicer ones as itās become such a fixture, but i never pull the trigger as it wonāt be the same! haha. if it aināt broke.
Yup, thatās what we used too. Set up a few nice presets in the app (our main patch was the Irish coast) and that was that. Iām sure we will be using it again in a few months when number 2 arrivesā¦
Hereās a circuit Iāve used before. Only a few dollars in parts on a small piece of stripboard, can power a small 8ohm speaker on itās own. Will run off a 9v battery for hours.
Congrats! Echoing the general sentiment of donāt be too precious with it. We literally just used some generic app on an old android tablet we had lying around. I would recommend SOME kind of dedicated device though, as I had the experience of using my phone once or twice when I forgot to turn the ringer offā¦ yeah, the baby didnāt appreciate my Frank Zappa ringtone lol.
For next to the bassinet and crib, we used the Hatch Rest ā touch the top to turn on/off, lots of different sounds, doubles as nightlight with customizeable colors, app to control remotely so you can turn it on from the other room and not wake the baby, etc.
For travel, we got YogaSleep Hushh ā pretty small, sufficiently loud, charges off of USB and lasts for hours and hours, a few different sounds
I was in the exact same boat as you 3 weeks agoā¦ congrats!
I have a small modular system at home and had a passing thought of patching up a noise generator, but in the end I just bought a portable bluetooth speaker and played the Wind Noise Generator website from my phone. I figured it was more portable and less hassle / easier to place wherever around the house. So far it seems to work great!
As much as I donāt like to recommend buying on Amazon, this is what we ended up with. Itās good, portable, and has been reliable for us. It has a rechargeable battery and fits into the baby monitor travel case when we have to be somewhere else overnight.
