Noisy is a noise generator with a simple interface yet powerful feature set. It plays the standard colors of noise using a highly-efficient audio engine.

Downloads

Noisy will likely run fine on newer versions of macOS; however, I cannot guarantee compatibility.

For the curious, the source code to Noisy is available on GitHub.

History

Around 2001, a company called Blackhole Media released Noise for Mac OS X. It was a beloved pink noise generator which I used for many years. Unfortunately, it didn't survive Apple's transition from PowerPC to Intel.

I decided to fix this in 2008 by creating Noisy. As I worked for Apple at the time, I released it anonymously. I maintained it until 2010 when a hard drive failure destroyed my login credentials to the anonymous account.

In 2025, unable to find a lightweight and efficient noise generator, I decided to recreate Noisy.

Design & Features

Noisy's interface is simple: select a noise preset, click the play button, and adjust the volume as needed.

If Dock space is limited, Noisy can run as a status bar item.

Auto Mute

Noisy can automatically mute the noise when any of the following occur:

Note that the Now Playing feature requires macOS Sonoma or earlier, as Apple decided to block access in later versions of macOS.

Custom Noise Presets

Noisy supports custom noise presets via JSON-formatted text files. For example, the following preset generates brown noise with a boost at 14000 Hz:

For more information, read Noisy Advanced Usage and browse the example preset files.

Acknowledgements