Why 50 minutes rather than 90
A study block and a work block are different animals. Study is usually one long task. Work is meetings, interruptions and a queue, and a 90-minute timer in that environment is a timer you ignore.
Fifty minutes fits between calendar entries and leaves ten to write down where you got to. The chip is adjustable, but the shorter default is deliberate.
The mistake: mistaking flatness for neutrality
Pure white noise is perfectly static. For twenty minutes that reads as neutral. For an hour it starts reading as pressure, and a fair number of people describe long sessions as making their ears feel full or their own tinnitus more noticeable.
Mellow wind at 15% fixes that for very little. It measures 71% of its power below 250 Hz with a centre at 233 Hz, so it sits underneath the white noise rather than beside it, adding slow movement you cannot name. Pull it to zero and listen to the difference over ten minutes, not ten seconds.
What it is covering, and what it is not
An open-plan office is speech, keyboards, chair wheels and a phone. White noise handles the first three well. It cannot handle your own name being said, which will always cut through, and it should not be turned up to try.
If the office is mostly air handling and a lift, this is the wrong preset — that noise is low and white noise has 1% of its power down there.
Both layers, measured
Measured on 2026-09-04: the wind loop decoded to 48 kHz mono from the shipped file, white noise rendered from the browser generator, both through the EBU R128 meter and an averaged 8192-point FFT.
| Layer | Preset level | Loop | Loudness | RMS | Centre | Low / mid / high |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| White Noise | 45% | generated, no loop | -11.5 LUFS | -14.7 dBFS | 12026 Hz | 1% / 15.6% / 83.4% |
| Mellow Wind | 15% | 32.02 s | -16.2 LUFS | -16.8 dBFS | 233 Hz | 71.4% / 28.6% / 0% |
- Mellow Wind loop join: the step between the loop’s last sample and its first measures 0.29× that file’s own 99.9th-percentile sample-to-sample move — inside the material, so a butt-join would not tick. The player overlaps each pass by 179 ms regardless.
- What this preset cannot do: The wind layer is subtle by design. At 15% it is below the point where most people can pick it out, which is the intent — if you can hear it as wind, it is too loud for this job.
Play white noise for focus
- Open this page in any browser.
- The preset is already applied: white noise at 45%, mellow wind at 15%, timer at 50 minutes.
- Press play before opening the task, not after.
- Leave both faders alone for the first block, then judge.
Frequently asked questions
Is white noise good for focus?
For covering speech and bright office noise, yes. It does not add concentration; it removes competition. In a quiet room it gives you nothing.
Why add wind to white noise?
Flat noise can start to feel like pressure over an hour. Wind at 15% adds slow movement below the white noise — 71% of its power sits under 250 Hz — without becoming a sound you notice.
How long should a focus sound run?
As long as the block. This preset arms 50 minutes, which fits a work session between meetings. Longer blocks suit study more than they suit an office.
Does white noise make tinnitus worse?
It should not at a low level, but some people find flat high-frequency sound makes their own tinnitus more noticeable over long sessions. If that is you, lower the level or use brown noise instead, and see an audiologist about persistent or one-sided tinnitus.
Can I use this with headphones on a call?
No. Pause it. Anything that masks speech will also mask the person you are talking to.