White Noise Lounge

White Noise Lounge http://whitenoiselounge.com Found white noise, ambient continuous sounds, black and white photography, static Sat, 24 Oct 2009 08:04:18 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.1 en hourly 1 DJ Justin Somnia & MC Soleil White noise and other found sounds A podcast of white noise and other found sounds white noise,pink noise,brown noise,ambient,sound,found,static,sleep,concentration,focus,meditation no Morning campfire http://whitenoiselounge.com/2008/09/morning-campfire/ http://whitenoiselounge.com/2008/09/morning-campfire/#comments Sun, 14 Sep 2008 20:39:54 +0000 DJ Justin Somnia http://whitenoiselounge.com/?p=42 It was below freezing on the last morning of our trip to Lassen Volcanic National Park, so I immediately started building a fire after emerging from the tent. The embers from the previous night were still hot underneath the ash, so I was able to get things going with only a few balls of newspaper and some fresh logs. The dry logs, donated to us by our next-door neighbors, immediately began snapping and popping. In the background you can hear the woodland birds and the nearby campers getting up.

]]> http://whitenoiselounge.com/2008/09/morning-campfire/feed/ 1 Sound check http://whitenoiselounge.com/2008/08/sound-check/ http://whitenoiselounge.com/2008/08/sound-check/#comments Thu, 21 Aug 2008 16:13:38 +0000 DJ Justin Somnia http://whitenoiselounge.com/?p=38 Ok, this is not exactly white noise, nor is it really “noise” at all. Yesterday afternoon I had the opportunity to catch one of my favorite bands, Two Gallants, do a sound check over at the Independent in San Francisco. I was there to assist my friend (and now co-worker) Leona Laurie interview them for Crowdfire, an interactive media event Federated Media (our employer) is putting on at the Outside Lands Festival this weekend.

Now I wish I’d recorded more of their ambient sound check goodness, but I was concerned with conserving battery life for the interview to follow. I eventually turned on the microphone to catch them playing one song. What I got was a nice combination of 3 minutes of sound check, followed by 3 minutes of Adam and Tyson playing an apparently unreleased song.

mp3 or ogg

]]> http://whitenoiselounge.com/2008/08/sound-check/feed/ 2 A/C gone wild http://whitenoiselounge.com/2008/08/ac-gone-wild/ http://whitenoiselounge.com/2008/08/ac-gone-wild/#comments Tue, 19 Aug 2008 04:52:37 +0000 DJ Justin Somnia http://whitenoiselounge.com/?p=33 Today was my first day working in a “real” office in the “big” city. Which means the internet was slow and the air conditioning was always on. I spent half the day sitting in this white noise cone of silence before it grew into the infernal screeching you’re about to experience. After which I moved to a new desk and the HVAC guys came around and got the situation under control. But I couldn’t help myself from recording the aural experience of my first day in the new office.

]]> http://whitenoiselounge.com/2008/08/ac-gone-wild/feed/ 1 Gurgling mountain stream http://whitenoiselounge.com/2008/07/gurgling-mountain-stream/ http://whitenoiselounge.com/2008/07/gurgling-mountain-stream/#comments Tue, 29 Jul 2008 07:24:19 +0000 DJ Justin Somnia http://whitenoiselounge.com/?p=25 Somewhere around Avalanche Lake in Desolation Wilderness, MC Soleil and I stopped to record a stream running over some rocks. Unlike the pure white noise of Glacial melt, this sound has a pleasant depth to it. Like a constantly flushing toilet or an impossibly full bladder. Do not press play if you don’t have easy access to a restroom.

]]> http://whitenoiselounge.com/2008/07/gurgling-mountain-stream/feed/ 1 Hair dryer http://whitenoiselounge.com/2008/07/hair-dryer/ http://whitenoiselounge.com/2008/07/hair-dryer/#comments Tue, 22 Jul 2008 04:57:37 +0000 MC Soleil http://whitenoiselounge.com/?p=21 Everyone has their own technique to dry their hair. Whether it’s towel dry, natural dry or hair dryer dry, to each our own. I like to par-dry my hair with the dryer and then let it finish naturally. I flip my head down and kind of wiggle the dryer to separate the hair strands, which creates an uneven sound that wakes me up. Then I progressively tilt my head upright, letting the hair fall back bit by bit guiding the whole process with my other hand’s shaping fingers. The final touch are the bangs, making sure they are blown in both directions.

]]> http://whitenoiselounge.com/2008/07/hair-dryer/feed/ 2 Sizzling bacon http://whitenoiselounge.com/2008/07/sizzling-bacon/ http://whitenoiselounge.com/2008/07/sizzling-bacon/#comments Tue, 15 Jul 2008 08:32:51 +0000 DJ Justin Somnia http://whitenoiselounge.com/?p=20 Bacon is tasty, but it is not photogenic. Least of all bacon sputtering in a pan of fat. But it sounds good! This recording was inspired by a link Andy sent me earlier this week to Sleep Phones—soft head-band-phones you can plug into your mp3 player and wear as you drift off to sleep. On their site they have some specially engineered sound samples to download, one of which, Breakfast Sizzle, caught my eye. In that vein, here’s a little taste of the BLT+Avocado I cooked up for dinner tonight.

]]> http://whitenoiselounge.com/2008/07/sizzling-bacon/feed/ 1 Glacial melt http://whitenoiselounge.com/2008/07/glacial-melt/ http://whitenoiselounge.com/2008/07/glacial-melt/#comments Mon, 07 Jul 2008 06:45:22 +0000 MC Soleil http://whitenoiselounge.com/?p=19 Over our 4th of July Seattle escapade, we had the privilege to approach the majestic Mt Rainier. We entered the park’s north-eastern corner and parked at the White River campground. Our plan was to hike up the trail for a mile and take the left fork to see Emmons Glacier, the largest glacier in the lower 48 states. It turned out the trail was “obliterated by floods last fall” which made it adventurous and diverse, but impossible to cross the river. Instead of taking the fork (which we never found), we continued the glacier basin trail to it’s official end (in the snow). All along our trek, we were accompanied by the rushing and sometime intimidating sounds of White River. Memorable.

]]> http://whitenoiselounge.com/2008/07/glacial-melt/feed/ 1 City street http://whitenoiselounge.com/2008/07/city-street/ http://whitenoiselounge.com/2008/07/city-street/#comments Tue, 01 Jul 2008 16:24:15 +0000 DJ Justin Somnia http://whitenoiselounge.com/?p=18 I enjoy living in the city. I enjoy having two big bay windows that look out over Pine Street and let in copious amounts of light. But there is a downside: street noise. We’re lucky. We live on the downhill slope of a one-way street in a fairly residential neighborhood. There’s not much people noise, but when the light turns green at the crest of the hill before our block, a peloton of cars whooshes by, intermingled with the occasional squeal of a cab’s brakes. There’s also the twice weekly garbage collection that sounds like a wrecking crew and the hospital deliveries next door that block off a lane of traffic, creating a chain reaction of sudden lane changes and honking cars. It’s a symphony really. It’s also why I wear earplugs to sleep.

]]> http://whitenoiselounge.com/2008/07/city-street/feed/ 3 Mt. Tamalpais grass http://whitenoiselounge.com/2008/06/mt-tamalpais-grass/ http://whitenoiselounge.com/2008/06/mt-tamalpais-grass/#comments Mon, 23 Jun 2008 04:31:23 +0000 MC Soleil http://whitenoiselounge.com/?p=17 During the summer months, the North Bay turns golden which accentuates the contrast between the dry grass, the sky and the dispersed trees. Mount Tamalpais is a recurring example of this beauty, in addition to the spectacular elevated ocean views.

Today, hiking the coastal trail, we enjoyed summery temperatures, beautiful sunshine and a mild breeze which ran through the dry grass creating a special hiss.

]]> http://whitenoiselounge.com/2008/06/mt-tamalpais-grass/feed/ 2 Les grenouilles http://whitenoiselounge.com/2008/06/les-grenouilles/ http://whitenoiselounge.com/2008/06/les-grenouilles/#comments Mon, 16 Jun 2008 05:05:59 +0000 DJ Justin Somnia http://whitenoiselounge.com/?p=16 The title of this post is in French because these are French frogs croaking—and because grenouille is such a fun word to say: gren-OO-ee. Unfortunately it’s a really hard sound to photograph without stumbling upon an actual frog in the dark. So I’ve taken the liberty of pairing it with a lathyrus latifolius flower, also known as a perennial pea (or a gesse à larges feuilles in French).

The frogs were recorded at night in Le Cannet. The photo was taken in the hills above Èze-sur-Mer. I think they complement each other nicely.

]]> http://whitenoiselounge.com/2008/06/les-grenouilles/feed/ 2 Waves in Nice http://whitenoiselounge.com/2008/06/waves-in-nice/ http://whitenoiselounge.com/2008/06/waves-in-nice/#comments Sun, 08 Jun 2008 23:03:05 +0000 MC Soleil http://whitenoiselounge.com/?p=15 This is a very familiar sound to me. The beach along the Promenade des Anglais in Nice was a soothing and invigorating place during my college years. The entire beach is made up of small polished stones, which are not only hard to walk on, but also sound like a rainstick when the wave washes back.

Bonus sound: With the airport pretty close to the beach, about halfway through the track, you’ll hear an airplane fly by. Typique!

]]> http://whitenoiselounge.com/2008/06/waves-in-nice/feed/ 2 Riding BART http://whitenoiselounge.com/2008/06/riding-bart/ http://whitenoiselounge.com/2008/06/riding-bart/#comments Sun, 01 Jun 2008 07:21:20 +0000 DJ Justin Somnia http://whitenoiselounge.com/?p=14 MC Soleil and I are taking White Noise Lounge on the road—to France! So posting might be a bit irregular, depending on the good sounds we find along the way.

To get in the spirit of travel, I took a recording on BART between Daly City and South San Francisco, on the way to the airport. It’s not as “pure” as I’d like, you can hear people talking and the occasional cough, but I suppose it adds something to its vérité. For anyone who’s never ridden on BART before, it can be surprisingly screechy, especially at high speed underground. Gives me a newfound appreciation for the Paris metro’s tires.

]]> http://whitenoiselounge.com/2008/06/riding-bart/feed/ 0 Food Court http://whitenoiselounge.com/2008/05/food-court/ http://whitenoiselounge.com/2008/05/food-court/#comments Mon, 26 May 2008 19:42:58 +0000 MC Soleil http://whitenoiselounge.com/?p=13 After hours of shopping at the San Francisco Westfield Mall, we had pasta and a gigantic salad from the gourmet food court. The decor is pretty retro hip, but the tile floors emphasize every little sound, from people chatting to chairs sliding to silverware clinking to heels clomping… creating an interesting mélange.

By the way, White Noise Lounge is now available as a podcast in iTunes. Check it out!

]]> http://whitenoiselounge.com/2008/05/food-court/feed/ 2 Vespa LX150 http://whitenoiselounge.com/2008/05/vespa-lx150/ http://whitenoiselounge.com/2008/05/vespa-lx150/#comments Mon, 19 May 2008 07:26:26 +0000 DJ Justin Somnia http://whitenoiselounge.com/?p=12 I tried on two occasions to record my scooter while I was zipping around the city, but the mic’s foam windscreen let too much wind noise through. That and the frequent stop-and-go city traffic made for a jarring listening experience. So in the interest of “white noise” over realism, I recorded a few minutes of my Vespa’s 4-stroke, 150cc engine just idling.

Click on the photo for a new “immersive” visual experience.

]]> http://whitenoiselounge.com/2008/05/vespa-lx150/feed/ 2 Golden Gate Bridge joints http://whitenoiselounge.com/2008/05/golden-gate-bridge-joints/ http://whitenoiselounge.com/2008/05/golden-gate-bridge-joints/#comments Mon, 12 May 2008 03:09:30 +0000 DJ Justin Somnia http://whitenoiselounge.com/?p=11 At either end of the Golden Gate Bridge, there are ribbed joints in the surface of the roadway. I don’t think they’re expansion joints, I think they simply connect the surface of the approach to the surface of the bridge itself. Since they’re about two feet wide, the ribs add traction to the metal surface in wet weather. They also make a really neat sound, especially in rush hour traffic. Like mechanical (or maniacal?) barking sea lions.

]]> http://whitenoiselounge.com/2008/05/golden-gate-bridge-joints/feed/ 2 Cable car cable http://whitenoiselounge.com/2008/05/cable-car-cable/ http://whitenoiselounge.com/2008/05/cable-car-cable/#comments Sun, 04 May 2008 18:57:54 +0000 MC Soleil http://whitenoiselounge.com/?p=10 One of San Francisco’s characteristic charms is the cable car. Mostly ridden by tourists, it is still one of the locals’ chosen commute methods.

What is striking about the cable car is that, well, it’s pulled by cables… still blows my mind! The cables run continuously under the street, sometimes making a ringing sound. 10pm on a weeknight at Hyde and Washington is a prime time to experience it.

]]> http://whitenoiselounge.com/2008/05/cable-car-cable/feed/ 7 Electric shaver http://whitenoiselounge.com/2008/04/electric-shaver/ http://whitenoiselounge.com/2008/04/electric-shaver/#comments Sun, 27 Apr 2008 17:52:18 +0000 DJ Justin Somnia http://whitenoiselounge.com/?p=9 My dad uses an electric shaver, so when it came time for me to shave, I also chose an electric shaver. I tried an actual razor once in college, and I felt like it took off a whole layer of skin on my face. Even with an electric shaver, I only shave every other day (or lately every 2 days) to prevent my skin from getting too raw.

]]> http://whitenoiselounge.com/2008/04/electric-shaver/feed/ 0 Handwashing dishes http://whitenoiselounge.com/2008/04/handwashing-dishes/ http://whitenoiselounge.com/2008/04/handwashing-dishes/#comments Sat, 19 Apr 2008 22:21:25 +0000 DJ Justin Somnia http://whitenoiselounge.com/?p=8 First of all, welcome to White Noise Lounge. A week ago MC Soleil and I had this wacky idea to broadcast white noise over the internet. So we decided to start an audio blog of the ambient sounds in our environment and on our travels. Not strictly white noise, but in the same vein. This is our first post.

This afternoon I did the dishes. Washed by hand because we don’t have a dishwasher, and because I actually enjoy washing the dishes by hand. Two people don’t make that many dishes, but there are always a lot of glasses to wash. We mostly drink water, and since they all look the same, we’re constantly forgetting whose glass is whose.

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