Live data from Hacker News

What Does Perlin Noise Sound Like?

gpfault.net

21–30 of 32 posts

Re: What Does Perlin Noise Sound Like?

#21
post #2

Unfortunately, the audio clips do not play in Safari mobile.

Why does Safari struggle to open files in common and free formats?

AFAIK iOS (and tvOS) devices only support playing formats+codecs with native hardware decoder support; they don't have any pure-CPU decoding implementations.

This, from what I recall, was an intentional choice to disincentivize developers from making the "easy choice" to ship assets in the same format+codec for all devices, where such a format would burn the iOS device's battery doing CPU decoding. Instead, most developers will choose to separately encode their assets for iOS, so that they can use the iOS media frameworks—which coincidentally means that they'll be using the efficient hardware encoding and not burning much battery at all.

However, you can ship custom CPU decoding in your app if you want (e.g. VLC.ipa).

Websites, obviously, aren't (usually) built for single architectures, though, so it's a bit of a pain for them. Larger web video providers (most porn sites, for example) keep iOS-specific encodings on their CDN and try to detect the browser's user agent to decide which version to deliver. Other providers just give up on the concept and build specific iOS-specific apps in order to ensure the correct media is delivered (this being why there are more "video-sharing site" apps for iOS than for Android.)

Re: What Does Perlin Noise Sound Like?

#24
post #16
post #12

This sound kind of reminds me of one of these "Space Engine Sounds" on youtube, especially the Firefly/Serenity themed track. I used to love it for sleeping, it's rather relaxing.

To me the first sample sounded like some subway passing by but when you're still far away yet. That said, after about 15 to 30s of attentive, continuous listening, it started making me increasingly uneasy, as I perceived the sound as being extremely oppressive and ominous, in a very chthonian way. I'm not going to try to listen to that any longer because I'm half sure that could almost turn into a panic attack of sor…

The concept of getting a panic attack in response to listening to some audio is completely foreign to me. Is it normal to have that reaction? It sure seems like it wouldn't be.

Re: What Does Perlin Noise Sound Like?

#25
post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To me the first sample sounded like some subway passing by but when you're still far away yet. That said, after about 15 to 30s of attentive, continuous listening, it started making me increasingly uneasy, as I perceived the sound as being extremely oppressive and ominous, in a very chthonian way. I'm not going to try to listen to that any longer because I'm half sure that could almost turn into a panic attack of sor…

The concept of getting a panic attack in response to listening to some audio is completely foreign to me. Is it normal to have that reaction? It sure seems like it wouldn't be.

IIRC there's some evidence that very low-frequency sounds may cause feelings of anxiety and fear in human subjects. Very low frequency sounds may occur prior to catastrophic events like earthquakes, and some animals have been known to react to it. It's plausible that humans have evolved a similar protection mechanism which has gradually atrophied. That being said, I'm talking about sub-20 Hz frequencies here. I don't think these recordings contain that and I don't think it would be possible to reproduce on regular headphones anyway...

Re: What Does Perlin Noise Sound Like?

#26
post #2

Unfortunately, the audio clips do not play in Safari mobile.

I used a website to convert them to .mp3, then Message'd them to myself.

http://media.io/

http://gpfault.net/assets/post-audio/perlin-sound/white.ogg

http://gpfault.net/assets/post-audio/perlin-sound/noise-2.og...

Results (not sure how long these will live):

http://media.io/x-accel-download/noise-2.mp3?ae6b6860-3860-1...

http://media.io/x-accel-download/white.mp3?f6293100-3860-11e...

Re: What Does Perlin Noise Sound Like?

#27
post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why does Safari struggle to open files in common and free formats?

AFAIK iOS (and tvOS) devices only support playing formats+codecs with native hardware decoder support; they don't have any pure-CPU decoding implementations. This, from what I recall, was an intentional choice to disincentivize developers from making the "easy choice" to ship assets in the same format+codec for all devices, where such a format would burn the iOS device's battery doing CPU decoding. Instead, most deve…

I have VLC installed and Messages refused to save/play .ogg's even though it shows up with a VLC cone (including 3D touch "hard press" menu).

Re: What Does Perlin Noise Sound Like?

#28
post #12

This sound kind of reminds me of one of these "Space Engine Sounds" on youtube, especially the Firefly/Serenity themed track. I used to love it for sleeping, it's rather relaxing.

I can't remember where I found it, but I rather enjoy this version:

play -c2 -n synth whitenoise band -n 100 24 band -n 300 100 gain +20

Re: What Does Perlin Noise Sound Like?

#29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The concept of getting a panic attack in response to listening to some audio is completely foreign to me. Is it normal to have that reaction? It sure seems like it wouldn't be.

IIRC there's some evidence that very low-frequency sounds may cause feelings of anxiety and fear in human subjects. Very low frequency sounds may occur prior to catastrophic events like earthquakes, and some animals have been known to react to it. It's plausible that humans have evolved a similar protection mechanism which has gradually atrophied. That being said, I'm talking about sub-20 Hz frequencies here. I don't…

Professional headphones can reach 3hz and subwoofers about 0.5hz.

Re: What Does Perlin Noise Sound Like?

#30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The concept of getting a panic attack in response to listening to some audio is completely foreign to me. Is it normal to have that reaction? It sure seems like it wouldn't be.

IIRC there's some evidence that very low-frequency sounds may cause feelings of anxiety and fear in human subjects. Very low frequency sounds may occur prior to catastrophic events like earthquakes, and some animals have been known to react to it. It's plausible that humans have evolved a similar protection mechanism which has gradually atrophied. That being said, I'm talking about sub-20 Hz frequencies here. I don't…

Missing funtamentals are a thing though.

[0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Missing_fundamental

Post reply on HN