Green Noise has two different definitions in the noise ambient world. It is much less known to noise listeners or to audio engineers compared to Pink Noise, White Noise or Blue Noise, Not once have I heard, “play some green noise through those speakers for testing” in a audio engineering situation.
Meaning One
The first Green Noise meaning, from the broadcast color world, is mid-range frequency noise focused in the human voice range of 80Hz to 5000Hz. Mid-range focused electronic static noise. I have yet to create this version-one of Green Noise on the Noise Ambient channel because the second version is much more interesting in comparison. Version two of Green Noise is not an electronic static noise color in the traditional sense, rather a bunch of natural recordings blended together.
Meaning Two
Meaning two for Green Noise is Earth’s average noise blend of naturally occurring sounds that are not human made. There is a lot of possibilities with that idea creatively. While it would be impossible to record everything everywhere on the planet, a blend of natural sounds can be recorded and pulled from the audio archive to make this imaginary noise.
The Creation Process
To start, I thought about the types of natural noise the earth creates, like water sounds for instance, rivers, streams rain and ocean waves. There is wind on earth at different speeds and intensities. There are volcanoes, earthquakes, avalanches, thunder, and there are insects, animals, while less sonically prominent in could be added in the average sound.
To make Green Noise, dozens of sound samples recorded over the years were pulled from my sound archive then imported into a digital audio workstation. Listening carefully to each track, the obtrusive bits and man-made sounds were edited out. The final length of the listen is ten hours, so individual tracks were looped at different times over that timespan. It took several sessions to complete the mixing and editing, and the final result is noise ambiance I am proud of and enjoy listening to.
On YouTube
Green Noise was released in 2014, and has natural quality with a steady intensity. It sounds familiar, but not distracting. There are some animal sounds in this version, and some comments came in asking for a version without animal sounds like birds or dogs. Green Noise2 was created in 2018 without animal sounds that some listener’s find distracting. And while it is not as popular as the classics like Pink Noise, it is a enjoyed by a small enthusiastic set of noise fans and remains one of my favorite creations for overnight listening while sleeping.
Sweeping Green Noise was added to the channel a year later.
Enjoy and thanks for listening. Dale
Download Green Noise
Green Noise 2 One Hour
Green Noise 2 Ten Hours
Green Noise One Hour
Green Noise Ten Hours
Green Noise Playlist on YouTube
Dale Price is a career audio engineer and ambient audio creator with a specialty in off-the-wall soundscapes.