The Chronicle

of a ColdFusion Expatriate

New Focus Sounds on MyNoise

June 10, 2023

Loyal readers of the blog know that I’m a really big fan of MyNoise, the ultimate immersive soundscape tool created and maintained by the one and only Dr. Ir. Stéphane Pigeon. I use it when music gets too “demanding” or is creating a mood that distracts me from what I’m doing.

There have been some changes on MyNoise, and I created a few new unique soundscapes, and I want to share it all with you!

The main thing that happened was that MyNoise deprecated their so-called “super generator” system, which was basically a way to combine multiple full-page players onto a single player window. Each player has ten tracks, so you could be looking at 40 or 50 tracks playing in one “super generator” window.

I’m not sure exactly why “super generators” had to go away, but I had used that feature to create a couple of my own soundscapes and they stopped working, so I had to look at whether I could recreate them with the “standard” custom generator feature (what is called the “custom composite generator”).

A custom composite generator is a single ten-track player that combines tracks from other generators. This is the classic way to create new soundscapes, which I’d used for a few of mine. What’s nice about it is it results in a single player that you can toggle animation on, which gives you that predictably random “movement” to the environment that I love.

My New Soundscapes

I submit, for your approval, these several new soundscapes! These are completely free of course, as is MyNoise, but if you like them I would ask just two things of you:

  1. Register as a user of MyNoise and click the “favorite” star. This adds the generator to your list of favorites and keeps it from eventually getting “archived” and destroyed.

  2. Donate to MyNoise! As little as a couple of dollars helps to keep the site running (and offset its carbon footprint!)

On to the sounds! With all of my generators here, you’ll be missing out if you don’t employ the “animation” feature, and I usually like to run my animations on the highest range (look for the “Animation Parameters” section on the left of the page and select “High” for the “range” parameter).

OK, let’s do it.

Cyber Sleep

This one was inspired by one of those multi-hour YouTube ambient streams. A combination of rain and synth pads is utterly enveloping.


Digital City

Definitely going for a “Cyberpunk 2077” vibe here, and this isn’t the only generator of this kind on the site, but I like the simplicity of mine.


Eye of the Storm

My intent was to create a more persistent and “full” sound, to counter my tinnitus. What better for that than the sounds of wind and rain? I added in some haunting vocal tracks to create an oddly calm atmosphere in spite of the raging weather noise.


To Oz

Very similar to Eye of the Storm, but instead of the vocals there is a soft percussive melody that is meant to sound like the wind chime on the porch of your Kansas home as the tornado threatens to lift it away.

Did I achieve that feeling? You tell me.


Pirate Ship

This one was a “super generator” and it also used at least one generator that was also archived, so I had to go back to the drawing board.

This one is probably no good at all without animation, so make sure you toggle animation on and set the range to “high” and give it a chance to take you on a voyage.


Stranded

I was going for a Lost vibe on this one, mixing “numbers stations” and a “shortwave” sound with some pulsing, driving electronic beats. This is a little tense to keep on all the time, but it is a nice way to dig into some new work and feel a sense of curiosity and challenge.

There Are More

Would you like to hear more? I have a few that are still in the deprecated super generator form that I think I can rescue, if you are interested. Let me know what you think in the comments, or write to me, or DM me somewhere, or something!

I hope these help you get into the flow!

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