Fanno
People say “white noise” for almost any steady background sound: a fan, the rain, a sound machine. Strictly, it means one particular kind of noise, and it’s the brightest of the three colours. This page plays white noise the way Fanno does it, as the tone of a fan, live in your browser.
What white noise is
White noise has equal energy at every frequency. Every pitch, from the lowest rumble to the highest hiss, is there at the same strength, the way white light holds every colour. We hear it as bright and hissy because so much of the range is high: the top octave of hearing, roughly 10,000 to 20,000 Hz, holds as much of its energy as everything below it put together. Think of a radio between stations, or an old TV showing static.
Pink and brown noise lean the other way, toward the low end. Our guide to white, pink and brown noise sets the three side by side.
White on a fan
Pure white noise can sound harsh, and it doesn’t sound like anything you’d have in a room. Fanno uses White differently: it’s one of three tones for a fan, not a separate sound. Choose White and the fan keeps the bright edge of its air, the part a darker tone rolls away, so you hear the rush of air past the blades. Fanno softens the very top so it stays smooth rather than sharp, and the blades and the room are still there underneath. It’s the crispest the fan gets, and because it’s made live, it never loops.
What a bright sound is good for
With the most high end of the three tones, White is good at blurring small, sharp sounds: a dripping tap, keys in the front door, a phone buzzing, dishes clinking downstairs. Some people simply prefer a crisp, airy sound to a deep one. It feels like a fan in summer rather than a rumble. If the darker tones sound muffled or stuffy to you, White is the one to try.
Getting the most from White
This page plays the box fan on White at speed 6. In the app, low settings on the dial make White a gentle, breathy hiss, and as you turn up through the ten click-stops the air opens into a bright, full rush. Pair it with each fan for a different kind of bright:
- the box fan, on this page, gives White some body underneath
- the desk fan is the brightest pairing, close and airy
- the air purifier on White is a clean, even hiss with no blade beat
If White starts to feel a little sharp, press Pink on the strip: same fan, softer edge.
On your phone, and in the app
White plays in your phone’s browser too. On iPhone, though, the sound stops as soon as the screen locks, which is why there’s an app. Fanno keeps the fan going behind the Lock Screen, with play and pause right there. It adds a sleep timer knob with a slow fade at the end, a night mode that darkens the panel, and Blade texture, which sets how much of the blades you hear under White’s air.
The app is free, with no ads, no account and no data collected. It works offline on iPhone and iPad, with four fans and three tones to choose from.