Ambient & White Noise Apps

Overview

White noise, rain, or coffee-shop ambience can make a noisy room easier to work in. Linux has two good ways to get it: Blanket, a small GUI app for mixing ambient sounds, and SoX, a terminal command that generates noise directly with almost no resource use. This guide installs both and shows when each makes sense.

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1. Blanket (GUI App)

Blanket is the most polished ambient noise application on Linux. It runs quietly in the background and lets you mix different sounds into a preset environment.

Key Features

• Includes White, Pink, and Brown noise.
• Includes environmental sounds (Rain, Storm, Wind, Coffee Shop, Train, etc.).
• You can save custom presets (e.g., 50% White Noise + 30% Rain).
• Integrates with the Linux Mint volume applet and runs in the system tray.
• Allows importing your own custom audio files (OGG, FLAC, MP3, WAV).

How to Install Blanket

The best way to install Blanket on Linux Mint is via Flatpak:

flatpak install flathub com.rafaelmardojai.Blanket

Once installed, you can find Blanket in your standard application menu. To keep it playing while you work, enable background playback in its preferences.

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2. SoX (Lightweight CLI Option)

If you just want white noise without a graphical application, use the sox package. Instead of playing an audio file, it generates continuous noise directly.

How to Install SoX

Install the Sound eXchange package from the standard Ubuntu/Mint repositories:

sudo apt update
sudo apt install sox libsox-fmt-all

How to Use It

Just open a terminal and run this command:

play -n synth whitenoise

To stop the noise, just press Ctrl + C in the terminal.

Alternative Noises: White noise can sometimes sound a bit harsh (like TV static). If you prefer a warmer, deeper sound that helps you focus without being sharp, try pink or brown noise instead:

• Pink Noise: play -n synth pinknoise
• Brown Noise: play -n synth brownnoise

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Which Should You Choose?

• If you want a beautiful interface, the ability to mix rain with coffee shop sounds, and a system tray icon, install Blanket.
• If you are a minimalist who just wants pure focus noise without a window or background process taking up GUI resources, use SoX.