Pink Noise
- Low20–250 Hz
- 47%
- Mid250 Hz–2 kHz
- 32%
- High2–10 kHz
- 21%
- Level variationP90–P10
- 1.3 dB
ST-90 · SIDE O · OPEN-PLAN MASKING
Office Sound Masking.
The most distracting thing in an open office is not the volume — it's the conversation two desks away that your brain insists on transcribing. Sound masking fixes the problem at the acoustic level: a soft, steady background that makes distant speech unintelligible. Preview the three masking channels below.
01 — LISTEN
Three masking channels.
Yes. The 126 sounds marked with a play button loop continuously in this browser player — free, with no sign-in or time limit. The NoiseTape app includes all 126 sounds, offline playback and a fade-out sleep timer.
These curves are calculated from the actual loops on this page. Compare their tonal balance and how much the level changes over time.
Want to tune the masking level? Open the adjustable Office Speech Masking Mix.
14-DAY FREE TRIAL · PAY ONCE · NO SUBSCRIPTION · OFFLINE
02 — HOW OFFICES DO IT
What the ceiling speakers are playing.
Sound masking is an established piece of office engineering: many corporate buildings quietly run networks of ceiling loudspeakers playing filtered noise at around 42–48 dB, tuned to a pink-like spectrum that concentrates energy where human speech lives. The goal is not silence but a shorter distraction radius — a conversation fifteen meters away stays audible as texture but stops being intelligible, and unintelligible speech is dramatically easier to ignore. Acoustics researchers call the underlying problem the irrelevant speech effect: understood words, even unwanted ones, measurably tax reading and working memory.
If your office has no masking system — or your office is a kitchen table — the same principle scales down to one desk. Pink noise is the closest match to what the commercial systems play; white noise masks a wider band at the cost of a brighter hiss; a steady fan does the same job with a more natural, mechanical warmth. Keep it just loud enough that speech around you loses its words, on headphones or a small speaker. NoiseTape runs it offline on iPhone, iPad and Mac — on the Mac, the menu-bar controller starts and stops masking with ⌘P, no window needed.
03 — FAQ
Sound masking at work, answered.
01
What is sound masking?
Adding a soft, steady, engineered background sound to a space so that speech and sudden noises stand out less. Commercial systems play filtered pink-spectrum noise from ceiling speakers at roughly 42–48 dB; the same effect works at one desk with a phone or laptop. The aim is unintelligibility, not silence — speech you can't parse is speech you can ignore.
02
Pink noise or white noise for the office?
Pink noise is what commercial masking systems approximate — its energy sits where speech does, so it masks conversation efficiently at a comfortable volume, and most people can sit inside it for a full workday. White noise covers a wider band but sounds brighter and hissier. Try pink first, white if chatter still cuts through, and a fan sound if you prefer something that reads as a real machine.
03
Headphones or a speaker?
Headphones give the strongest masking and bother nobody — the practical choice in a shared office. A small speaker at low volume works well in a home office or a private room, and keeps your ears free. Either way the volume rule is the same: just enough that nearby speech loses its words.
04
Does sound masking actually improve focus?
Research on open-plan acoustics consistently shows intelligible background speech harms reading and working-memory tasks, and that masking reduces that penalty — which is why sound-masking installations are a standard line item in office builds. It won't make work effortless; it removes one well-documented tax on attention.
See also: pink noise for deeper sleep · white noise for sleep & focus · fan noise for sleeping · sounds for studying · GUIDES · the full 126-sound library