Noisli – Improve focus and boost your productivity | Hacker News Reader

Noisli – Improve focus and boost your productivity

noisli.com

221 pointsnoisli159 comments

Honestly, this is one of those things that I'm never going to use because it's Web 2.0 and doesn't need to be.

Your core functionality is cool: I definitely would like something that allows me to mix background noises.

But why am I signing up for your service? That has nothing to do with what I want from your app. That just gets in the way of using your app.

Why is there integration with Google Drive? That has nothing to do with background sounds and those permissions aren't happening.

Okay, so you're using the Google Drive integration for your integrated text editor. Why is there a text editor integrated? I have a workflow with a text editor and unless there's something I don't know here, my text editor is better and yours is just going to get in my way. And in fact I can probably name 10 text editors that are better than yours--unless your core product is a text editor, you're probably not going to beat out folks who are actually focused on making a text-editor.

I'd pay <= $10 for your app if I could download it without signing up for anything, without extraneous features, and use it from my taskbar without requiring an internet connection. Ideally I'd configure it once and never have to touch it again except to turn the sound on and off.

As is, this doesn't make it any easier to get good background noise than just keeping a collection of .mp3s on my hard drive, because the interface comes with so much unnecessary cruft. Tools like this don't encourage productivity, they encourage pointless tinkering.

Thank you for your feedback, appreciate your honesty.

Of course the text editor is not something for everybody. The users that do appreciate it want to write in a pleasant environment, without worrying to much on formatting. Would love to understand more how Noisli could be more useful for you. Just write me at hello (at) noisli (dot) com

> Would love to understand more how Noisli could be more useful for you.

What are you looking for? He just gave you exactly that list.

It can be more useful by doing less.

The page doesn't load for me at all because I have Facebook embeds blocked. You should probably not be assuming third party javascript will always work and be available.

> Uncaught ReferenceError: FB is not defined

Noisli could be more useful for me if it was just an app with different looping background noises that I could mix and balance with a nice interface (the one you have is nice). That is literally all you need to have a very good app.

Some features you could add after that: 1. Save mixes. 2. Sync saved mixes between app/phone/etc. (this would probably require a signup--but I might not use this feature, so don't force people to sign up to use the rest of your app). 3. Add your own sound loops.

Note that these features are all related to the core function of your app: mixing and balancing background noise.

I'm still really confused by why this includes a text editor. Notes, Stickies, TextEdit, pico, nano, and vim came preinstalled on my machine. I added OpenOffice, XCode and Emacs. I also use have used Google Docs, pastebin, txti.es, github gists, and probably more online text editors that I don't remember. There are dozens more text editors that I haven't mentioned, and there are probably hundreds I haven't even heard of. Why would anyone use one that's for no apparent reason bolted onto the side of a background noise app?

I'll happily signup if I can save my sound configuration. The biz dev dude in the office down the hall has been shouting on his phone all day, and I found this just as I was about to go berserk.

Anyway, nice work - and if you can build in saving sounds, I'd definitely pay for this.

Thanks for the feedback! Since today you can save and share combo from the web app :)

A contrary anecdote to yours would be mine. I love noisli so much, I actually bought the iPhone app! The app also lets you store combinations as named sets, a big plus for me.

As with anything software (or life), YMMV.

Now you can save and share combo from the web app :)

Any chance of linking the web-app and the iOS app accounts?

That's not completely a contrary anecdote: I agree the core functionality is awesome. The only difference between our opinions is that the cruft and privacy concerns are not a dealbreaker for you.

I'll add to my other comment that I've only looked at the web interface, not the smartphone interface.

I agree partially with >But why am I signing up for your service? That has nothing to do with what I want from your app. That just gets in the way of using your app.

It would be cool to have an explanation of what signing up does (for now, there is just a button that you can click without really knowing why).

You can find more info here http://www.noisli.com/features (link bottom of the page) and here http://blog.noisli.com/introducing-the-new-noisli/ (our official blog). Hope this helps :)

Very cool project.

I made something similar for Android last week: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.playwithvo...

If anyone uses this on a touchscreen device, I'm curious what you think about the slider that Noisli uses for volume control. Do you prefer the slider, or would you prefer to tap on the icon to toggle pre-defined volume states (off, 33%, 66%, 100%)?

I just tried this out. I love the simplicity of the homescreen and the simple volume toggle is great.

2 things: 1. The coffee shop has the Joe Walsh song The Joker in the background. It's a ridiculously catchy song and I found it very distracting.

2. I couldn't figure out how to turn this off. It went haywire and I ended up with lots of white noise. I had to turn off my bluetooth speaker, and going to applications to force stop. Nothing I did in the app would stop the sound.

A big play or pause button might help in this situation.

Hope this is helpful.

Thanks for the feedback.

The coffeeshop noise is my favorite and I've definitely noticed the song, as well. I plan on replacing it with a similar audio track this week.

A huge issue I've had trying to find music/noise that I can use to drown out background noise is the human voice. I can't find a playlist that has sounds/music without human voice! I found a couple great trance songs that just let me put my head down and really tune everything out... and then there is either a sample of a lyric or even a "hey!" added in for no reason and it pulls me out. And if they don't have a human voice, often it will have some other repeating noise that pulls my brain away from the task. I put on headphones to keep my mind from procrastinating at a time when it really, really wants to. The hardest thing is finding music/noise that doesn't give it any excuse to wander.

The volume controls on my touchscreen device.

Well, one of the features is to be able to mix your own sound, by playing multiple sounds at different volume levels. So, what we're really doing is adjusting the volume of the app, relative to the system sound.

I hope that helps explain what I'm looking for feedback on, and why using the device's volume controls isn't a solution.

Looks great! I would love it if you added a "coffee-shop" sound, something like this: http://mynoise.net/NoiseMachines/cafeRestaurantNoiseGenerato...

Suggestion noted ;)

there are a couple guys at work who are into these types of background noise settings.. but they kept getting upset at what they found because after a while you can clearly tell the cutoff point. you'd hear a quarter drop at some point, then know exactly when it was coming later, and your mind would start focusing on that, and that defeats the point of the thing.

if you could make a mix of coffee shop sounds and then randomize them in a way that feels natural, that would be a hit ;)

Thanks for the hint ;) Appreciated!

This is great. I was using Coffitivity which has been featured oh HN before. Unfortunately they tried to launch a paid version and that didn't work out all that well. They wanted to tie it to a facebook account and I can't get on board with that strategy so I decided not to use it.

There's also the fact that they were charging either 4-5 bucks a month (can't recall exactly) for what amounted to 3 additional mp3 files. That's a tough sell.

Thank for the feedback and for sharing your experience. Hope you enjoy Noisli :)

I love, recommend, and use Noisli often in our open plan office.

The only tiny annoyance is that I really like the ambient cafeteria noise, and after a while I start to notice the looping! There's a very prominent bit where a lady shouts "Swwwwing!". There isn't much you can do about it though other than make the sample much longer, and it's hardly a problem. Just something I notice.

Thanks for the site. I actually registered noisebubble.com a while back with something similar in mind, but you beat me to the punch and I'm happy you did.

Thank you so much for using Noisli and for recommending it! Also thanks for the feedback!! It's something we will definitely keep it mind to keep improving the service ;)

Listen any loop enough times and you start spotting repeating noises. I've experienced this even with rain loops and it's super annoying.

We keep working on enhancing the service and its features :) Sorry for the annoyance.

I have had the same problem with 'ambient sound' apps, and they eventually render them useless for me. Perhaps it would be an idea to layer two tracks of different lengths on top of each other to at least make it 'random' for longer? Have you considered this?

(Other than that, great work. I might buy the iOS version soon!)

Thanks :) Definitely. We are doing our best to deliver the best service ;)

There's a way to make this harder to detect: create "loops" which are actually a multitude of loops that have prime number lengths. The individual components will repeat, but "beats" of simultaneous repeats won't exist, giving the illusion of a much longer sequence.

I've seen an example in graphics used to create very large tiling patterns from a small image space. See:

http://web.archive.org/web/20110410071059/http://designfesti...

Thanks for the hint ;)

Since people are likely to play several loops at once, you might make a policy that _all_ loops are different lengths, in prime integer numbers of seconds. I haven't checked for how long your segments are, but that would allow users to mix-and-match.

This is great. Why do you need an 8 character password? Are you planning on adding some kind of a payment feature later? For things I don't care, I just use a simple password.

>For things I don't care, I just use a simple password.

Maybe you don't care, but others might.

Thanks for the support ;)

One problem that is exposed by low-quality / frequently reused passwords isn't so much poor password protocol among users (though there's that), but overauthentication on the part of sites and apps.

If your users are giving you poor passwords, maybe you shouldn't be using accounts.

We simple wanted a safer solution. Nothing to do with obscure plans :)

Plenty of simple two-word passwords.

Fun fact: Spotify has playlists like this. Keeps them under the "Sleep" collection.

But this is awesome! I love the clean aesthetic.

/me goes back to blasting bad pop music through youtube

Thank you! Glad you love it :)

I discovered that if you turn all the sounds on, it quite rapidly has the opposite effect of the submission's title.

Maybe activate just a few for now ;)

alert - "Whoa there, you sure that's relaxing?"

Neat tool. Your page completely fails to render, however, if I keep connect.facebook.net blocked.

Stops processing at FB.init({ appId : '1496974077209368', cookie:true, xfbml: true, version:'v2.0'});

The website should be back ;)

Failing to load for me on Firefox 35.0.1 with the Disconnect add-in. Working fine in IE.

ReferenceError: FB is not defined application-96c626561436c4678adfdaf2587c9beb.js:11386 "SoundManager V2.97a.20140901 (HTML5-only mode)" application-96c626561436c4678adfdaf2587c9beb.js:20912 "SoundManager 2 HTML5 support: mp3 = true, mp4 = true, ogg = true, opus = true, wav = true" application-96c626561436c4678adfdaf2587c9beb.js:20912 "SoundManager 2: Ready. ✓"

thanks for the feedback.

I have a 4 month old daughter and paid for a white noise app to help her sleep / calm down. This is a perfect replacement with better design etc.

I urge you to make an app marketed towards parents - I would pay for it.

Thanks for the feedback! If you have iOS we also have an app :) https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/noisli/id862773459?mt=8

Just purchased :-)

no android version?

With all 3 of my babies, there is a single magical track on iTunes that has done wonders - on the album "Sweet Dreams: Soothing Sounds for Babies", track #6, "Running Shower".

BUT, I had to edit it so that it stitches together when played on repeat. It fades out and then comes on loud again, startling the baby awake.

I listen to this whilst surfing the web:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HZLlumRLsbQ

Also handy:

https://coffitivity.com/

http://www.getworkdonemusic.com/

This is a personal favorite too - Star Trek TNG Ambient Engine Noise (Idling for 24 hrs):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZPoqNeR3_UA

Personally, whilst coding, I enjoy absolute terrifying silence.

Can't remember where I found it, but someone once shared this command to fake the Star Trek engine noise:

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

that would be a funny combo :)

Nice. I've used the TNG one before :)

Here's on of my current favorites: http://www.calm.com/

If you like Star Trek engine noise, you'll like my app, a desktop Java app:

http://sourceforge.net/projects/applpi/

There is a free app that has the same basic functionality that came out a few months ago: http://noiz.io/

Actually the first version of Noisli has been launched in September 2013 ;) ..and Noisli is free too :)

> a free [OSX] app

I was expecting a mobile app. Or at least something cross-platform.

We have an iOS app https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/noisli/id862773459?mt=8

I was talking about the app the person linked to, not noisli.

There are lots of apps that do this. I used to use them to help me sleep. There was a fantastic thunder storm one but it was quite expensive. The songs were incredible though.

I have always like the ambient sound stuff, but normally those sites are not well designed. This site is pretty darn good looking. Any plans on an Android app?

Thank you for the kind comment! About Android app, yes ;)

As a frequent Raining.fm and Coffitivity user, I find this awesome, and will definitely give it a try while working!

I'd strongly recommend finding an easier name to remember/spell though. If somebody told me "go to noisli.com", I'd spell it noisely.com. Ideally it should be something that's easy to remember and speaks to its function (noisey.fm, ambient.fm, and backdrop.fm are all available domains).

Thanks for the awesome :) Give it a try and let me know how it goes :) That would be great!!

We just released the new version of Noisli (http://www.noisli.com), a tool I created out of a personal need to achieve more productivity having to work on loud co-working spaces or working in total silence from home. Hope you find it useful too :)

Looks like http://asoftmurmur.com/

It is more the other way round. Asoftmurmur was pretty ugly https://web.archive.org/web/20141012204201/http://asoftmurmu... but has recently updated to look like noisli.com.

Don't get me wrong Asoftmurmur.com is also great, and I tend to use a combination of noisli and it.

There's an app for Mac/iOS ($4.99) called WhiteNoise that does a similar thing. It also has a really extensive library of new sounds you can add: http://www.tmsoft.com/white-noise/

Android too. It was one of the first things I bought when I moved from iOS to Android. Helps me sleep.

Page a few seconds loading and ended up as a blank page, (due to Facebook not loading).

I'm not convinced there's any reason to use this instead of http://mynoise.net/

Even more closely related: http://asoftmurmur.com/

Color of this page hurts my eyes :( Ability to change background color would be great, after sitting in front of terminal for hours this green background is too bright.

You find the option to stop the background color clicking on the wheel icon on the left menu ;)

Yes, but it does not save it's state between page reloads and not attached to my account. Also not sure what is the point of account. I would like to stop background and be able to stay anonymous.

Is there a limit on the amount of sounds I Can activate? it seems as if after playing with combinations for a while, something gets stuck so I can activate/deactivate one of the sounds and nothing happens until I deactivate a previous one.

Is this normal?

Also, is there a way to cache the files locally? if I deactivate a sound and activate it 3 seconds later, it seems to have to load it again (there's a delay) instead f being instant-on.

Unfortunately, we know about this problem :( and actually this is also a browser limitation. Definitely working to enhance this!

Awesome! will keep using it anyway :)

You are great! Thanks for the support ;)

This is great! Being able to save my favorite combos and set an "off" timer is nice, now would it be possible to set a timer to automatically switch to another (random or specific) combo? I'd light to define day/night cycles or sun/rain cycles :)

Also, once you saved a combo, how do you edit it? It seems there is no way to get back to the home page once a fav combo is started.

Thanks for the feedback! Just click on the star icon to open/close the combo view ;)

I wish it would tell you somewhere that you can only have a certain amount of sounds at once, that was a bit confusing. Great work though!

The sound limitation is actually due to browsers limitation. Will keep working to enhance the experience! Thanks for the feedback!

Nice! Might I just propose better color contrast between text and background? Sometimes it's a little hard on the eyes.

http://contrastrebellion.com

Though the page colors vary over time.

Thanks! Actually, now there is the option to stop the background color at any time ;) Just click the wheel icon on the menu and there it is :)

In case anyone is interested in getting this functionality on Android, I run a competing service that has an Android app:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.gabemart.a...

Can't download it on my oneplus one, says it's not compatible. Do you know why that might be?

Yeah, unfortunately there's a persistent problem with the One where playing more than a few audio streams simultaneously results in stuttering or crashes. I've looked into it but never found a reliable workaround. Every few months I take another look, but no luck so far. It's the only modern device that I've had to list as incompatible, but it's a real shame because it's a great phone.

Looks like a nice app, bought it for iOS.

I love the "animate" feature of this page: http://mynoise.net/NoiseMachines/rainNoiseGenerator.php

Any change of the app getting something like it? Or perhaps a new app?

Thanks for the support and for the kind feedback! Definitely will keep it in mind for further developments ;)

This is like anti-noise-reduction. Which to me is weird. It's the fan white(?) noise which makes my blood pressure go up not down. So I wonder if it isn't just a myth that this should be calming at all.

That said, I still think the page is very well made and the sounds sound great! Well done!

Great job, I'll be trying this out during my next sprint. So far Soundrown is my favourite. Both seem very similar in functionality but I prefer the visual style of Soundrown more. http://soundrown.com/

Please give Noisli a try and let us know ;)

I'm in my happy place.

www.noisli.com/get_combo_by_link/LfuyDN4ryc0DE7x

Where did you source these loops for this project?

So glad you found your happy place on Noisli :)

The Soundcloud links are giving me a 502/504 which means that I don't hear anything.

Sorry to hear this. We have a bit of overload. Please be patient. ;)

Open the browser console, go to the resources tab, and delete all the soundcloud api local storage/cookies/etc. Perhaps at soundcloud.com too. I had that problem, mine works now.

I've noticed on the propeller and nighttime sounds that there's a gap in their playback as the loop starts again that's honestly quite jarring. Especially when the propeller is the primary background sound.

Even the fire has a noticeable pause.

Thanks for the feedback!

The iOS app ($1.99) should more prevalent here too (it's buried in comments below):

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/noisli/id862773459?mt=8

Thank you for the support :)

Awesome tool! I've been a big fan of Rainy Cafe for quite some time but I'm going to give this one a shot this week. Thanks!

http://rainycafe.com/

Thank you! And please let me know how it go ;)

Looks and sounds fantastic. Very well done. Love the simple interface.

Only annoyance is that the sounds are stacked in 2 columns on a laptop. I'd love it if I could see more of them on my screen at once.

Thank you for the suggestion!! Will keep it in mind!

Very nice, I've been listening to http://rainytunes.com. Good to know I have yet another option.

This is awesome, looking forward for an android app so I can use on my tablet and try with my daughter. Too bad that the website is going offline :(

We are working on it :)

FYI I get a blank white page with Chrome. Version 40.0.2214.111 m (64-bit). Checking source, it's all loaded. Just nothing showing.

Works fine in IE 11.0.15

Experiencing some load problems. Please, be patient :)

I would pay for a version that had an Australian bush option with occasional kookaburras and bell birds, maybe lyre birds and wattle birds too.

HEY NOISLI !!!

Your site isn't loading in Firefox or Chrome.

Others have mentioned it, but it looks like you missed their comments. Just thought I'd mention it again.

Thanks for reading our comments!

What does your site offer that http://mynoise.net/ does not?

On Noisli we offer different features to support your productivity. Besides the sounds, we also have a Timer (useful especially for time management techniques) and the built in distraction-free Text Editor with Markdown support (Very much appreciated by blogger, students and writers)

Can you consider sharing your Mnemosyne deck about Ruby and other technology? I am currently making something identical and it would be pointless energy on duplicating something already done.

Note: I am posting here as commenting on https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8184615 expired.

This might be niche, but if you happen to have access to creative-commons liscenced fiddle and mandolin music, that helps me focus.

Will keep it in mind ;)

I like it. I've used Simply Noise in the past but will give Noisli a try next time I think of it!

Future feature request: ASMR sounds.

Gotcha ;)

The thing that will improve your focus most is called "The Well-Tuned Piano".

What's the benefit of signing up? Couldn't find any information about it

Here you can find more info ;) http://www.noisli.com/features

Hm, this is maybe the smartest project I've seen, in a while. Great work! :-)

Thanks ;)

Reminded me of Myst. So nice.

Thanks ;)

tool to drive you nuts at work if white noise isn't your thing

We have a selection of other sounds too. What about birds and water stream? :)

For a splitsecond i read Nisoli, and i had a micro-heart-attack.

Lovely webapp. Looking forward to your android port! :)

Sure ;)

noisli is one of product I love to use. and it seems server is on fire! I hope lots of people can get some productivity boost by using it.

Thanks ;)

can you also add a frequency bar? I like the sound of the train, but not constantly. I'd like to adjust how often it happens.

Thanks for the suggestion! Will keep it in mind ;)

Love the coffee shop. Great job.

Thank you!

Just a white page in Opera 12.

noisli, where's your android app and mac app?

This is delicious!

Thank you :)

>"Upload, download, update, and delete files in your Google Drive. Create, access, update, and delete native Google documents in your Google Drive. Manage files and documents in your Google Drive (e.g., search, organize, and modify permissions and other metadata, such as title)"

Hell. Fucking. No.

We have a built in text editor feature, and you can also save on Google Drive

Make it optional then. Permissions are really scary.

Sure! Will definitely look into it. We don't want to ask permission for something we do not need.

to give you context to that permission: If someone stores business information there, then they're giving your free reign to view/change/delete their taxes, invoices, payroll etc.

Or maybe they store something personal there: Selfies and private cat photos... I basically do not give this permission to anything because there is too much at stake. I wish there was a way to give that permission to a single folder or file.

I'd guess that these permissions actually only pertain to files that the app itself creates.

Is that how permissions work? I was under the impression if you gave the app permissions to read write and delete files in your storage, it could (in theory) read/write/delete anything it wanted?

You are right, that's why the permissions are scary as hell.

We are sorry for scaring you all. Really, no bad intention here.

I can't access the site so I'm not sure what scope you use on the API, but it sounds like you're requesting full scope on drive. You might be able to get by with only requesting access for just the app files you create for the user:

https://developers.google.com/drive/web/scopes#google_drive_...

Edit: I see Disconnect was the reason I couldn't access your site. The page doesn't seem to load when "FB" isn't defined.

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