White Noise MP3s.com

The world makes its own music, but we rarely listen with naive ears.

White Noise MP3s.com is a digital haberdashery of simply spiffing environmental white noise soundscapes, drones, and soothing ambience, incorporating select sounds created both by nature and humans — rainshowers, waterfalls, streaming rivers, leaves being rustled by the wind, air conditioners, fans, office equipment, appliances, sleepy machinery hums, et al. — dedicated to creating ever-calming sanctuaries of sonic solace for those short on sleep, tinnitus relief, and ambience to write their doctoral thesis to.

As is often the case with environmental white noise, what seems simple to the ear is in fact deceptively complex, a delicious micropolyphonic tapestry delicately woven of tiny individual acoustic phenomenon.

White Noise MP3s.com is solely owned and operated by Karen Ramirez in Toronto, Canada. I take a personal interest in the satisfaction of each and every customer. I personally guarantee satisfaction to every customer with a 60 day no quibble money back guarantee or free replacement. I may be contacted at whitenoisemp3s@gmail.com. If you have purchased an MP3 and are unsatisfied, please contact me - I won’t bite.

It is the policy of White Noise MP3s.com to give you the opportunity to preview each MP3, so that you’ll have a clear idea of what you’re buying. A free sample preview of about 15 seconds in length is offered for every MP3 download so that you can get an idea of what it sounds like – before you buy.

Me, myself, and macaroni

White Noise MP3s.com is solely owned and operated by Karen Ramirez in Toronto, Canada. I am the person responsible for this mess. I am a composer and conceptual sound designer based in Toronto, Canada, currently doing freelance audio production work for various studios by day, and a stealth cookie ninja by night.

I have been involved in electronic music for over 8 years as a musician, composer, producer and sound designer, and my sound design and production music have been broadcast on TV worldwide. I graduated with an Honours BFA in music from York University with studies emphasizing sound design, electronic composition, recording, producing and mixing. While on campus I composed, recorded, engineered and produced music for a radio show, Donut Soda, for 3 1/2 years and interned at Electronic Arts.

I work primarily with sound composition, production and installation and produce and work on projects extensively throughout Canada and the US as well as Europe and have published a number of my compositions on such delicious labels as Intransitive Recordings (US), erewhon (NZ), SIRR (PT), Edition Sonoro (UK), CMR (BE), Staalplaat (NL), CUT (PH), Orogenetics (US), Pale-Disc (JP), Elevator Bath (US), Cloud of Statics(CH), and Digital Narcis (JP).

My areas of interest include film sound, found object sounds, acoustic sounds, site-specific sound installations, phonography, environmental sounds, sound and performance, processing and composing acoustic sounds, collaborative sound actions, location sound, video game ambience and effects foleying, and extended tonal/atonal drones.

Since the early naughts I’ve explored a number of approaches to sound recording, production and generation. My techniques and methods range from the capture of various acoustic phenomenon through “found sound” and environmental field recordings and the construction of my own zany inventions to digital multitracking and manipulation. Often, the resulting compositions are studies in juxtaposition, experimental contrasts and similarities, alternate scoring techniques, and extended evolutionary wacky zany permutations of each selected set of sound sources. These select sources can focus on unique properties of sound emanation and instigation that can range from the overtonal resonations from a set of pliable metallic strands stretched across a room to the textural cadenced animation of inanimate objects or a closed-air mechanical ferromagnetic noise field.

Throughout the naughts I had developed hyperacusis and tinnitus from a noise trauma incident where the sound from the airbags deploying in my car reached over a zillion decibels when I was hit by a stupid drunk driver at a red light. Apart from being dazed, I didn’t really notice much afterwards - but in the weeks to come, I had developed annoying ringing sounds in my ears that just wouldn’t go away whenever I tried to sleep or whenever it was completely silent, unless something in my vicinity was generating sound.

Sleeping was extremely difficult and retarded for me unless there was a constant, soothing hum running to relieve my tinnitus - such as from an air conditioner/fan/shower/faucet. Around this time I started to develop an incredible passion for ambient, atmospheric phonography and environmental white noise. I am an avid field recording enthusiast, and am almost always found with a portable recording device nearby.

The freelance I do (effects foleying, music production, sound designing, commissions, and an unholy assload of everything else) keeps my juices running with white hot pumpedness as many of the sounds I capture invariably become raw material for new soundscapes and musical concepts, and refining recording techniques, updating studio and recording equipment is always a continuous process.

In addition to an unrelenting hardcore buttkicking soundsmith, I’m also a polyamorous pansexual naturalistic-spinozic pantheist, an archetypal Pisces, and a proud member of Mensa (and I do believe that the universe is at its base composed of indivisible strands of reality that each hum at different frequencies to differentiate themselves from one another, and that they sit accross a massive membrane of space time that holds them all in concert, and that “above” and “below” the membrane are all sexy exciting parallel universes that each function within the bounds of their own respective set of delicious strings), and I also know how to make great guacamole.

Got a question or comment? Feeling down? Need me to tell you the funniest joke I know to cheer you up? E-mail me. I read all my e-mail.

Binaural recording techniques, eh?

The MP3s that are tagged with “binaural” were recorded using binaural field recording techniques.

Binaural recordings are compatible with both speakers and headphones — however, while stereo speakers produce a realistic representation of the original environment, stereo headphones will produce a full 360-degree three-dimensional surround sound image as if you were right then and there, in person, experiencing the exact same place and location at the very moment of the recording.

My daughter.

The result of binaural recordings during playback is the perception of a full three-dimensional arrangement of sound, instead of the boring linear arrangement of sound (a straight dumb line between two speakers) in a conventional stereophonic recording.

When listening to ordinary stereo music using headphones, the music will sound like it’s inside of your head — listening to binaural recordings is much different, because all of the directional and unique distance cues the brain interprets are all played back which makes the binaural recording sound like it’s right next to and all around you.

For example, listen to Rain on the River and you’ll feel like you’re right outside chilling on a river bank completely soaked in the rain and mud - lurking the waters for a delicious scaly vertebrate friend to cook up and munch on.

For more info on binaural listening and binaural recording, The Binaural Source is a great place to start. Here’s a link to their FAQ page.

Omni-directional microphones for hella realism.

MP3s tagged with “binaural” are recorded using this technique instead of directional dish and shotgun mikes — directional microphones greatly reduce the number of directional paths recorded.

My omni-directional daughter.

Each one of these directional paths has its own unique and individual characteristics of volume, frequency, and time delay — these directional paths result from not only just the particular location, but also the weather, the climate, the season, the surrounding topography, and the time of the day.

They speak of dew on leaves, of hills and cliffs, of trees and branches, of moss-covered rocks, of lakes, of pine-needled carpets, of everything that is present — and that isn’t something that can be reproduced using studio reverbs and delays.

Location = everything.

When out in the field, I choose my locations with the utmost meticulous attention to detail.

I find those unique, special little spots that exude both charm to the ears and facilitation for prolonged listening, as well as individuality and spirituality — the landscape, nearby vegetation, and surrounding topography all influence and “colour” the interaural quality of the recorded sound.

Pure sex.

Then, from within those chosen spots, I painstakingly arrange the position of my microphone and baffle to best capture not only the primary sounds of the location, but also the character, pep, and spirit of the location.

I will do some careful listening from different points, facing different directions, and at different heights, to choose my microphone placement. A slight change in position or direction often makes a big difference in what I’ll get.

This process can often take up to two hours of meditative monitoring — such as with End of the Cave. It took three separate placement attempts to get the recording just right. Each time, only to discover a problem… the wind a bit too brisk, my microphones a little off-center.

Hearing it all in 3-D.

Since my HRTF baffle only approximates the size of the human head, and everyone’s head and ears are shaped a bit differently, it’ll take a little listening for your brain to catch on to the spaciousness of my binaural field recordings.

The visual equivalent would be one of those stereoscopic viewers which uses two images of slightly differing perspectives to produce a three-dimensional image. Often it’ll take a couple of minutes to fully visualize the 3-D effect.

So it is with my binaural recordings, and the three-dimensional effect will only shine through when using stereo headphones. You can listen to them over speakers, but you’ll miss out as it’d be like watching a 3-D movie without the glasses.

Payment and download information

Payment information and all transactions are secured and handled by PayPal at no extra cost to you. Major credit cards are accepted with no registration required as well. Payments made with credit cards are processed immediately and downloads are enabled. Payments made with eChecks are processed a lot slower (usually 4 business days) and downloads are enabled once the funds are cleared.

PayPal is becoming the global standard for online payments. It is fast, free and secure to use and you do not need an account to make a purchase. PayPal offers service in over 190 countries and regions with over 100 million registered users, including more than 2.2 million business accounts. If you would like more information about PayPal and how it works, here is a link to www.paypal.com.

After your purchase, click the “Return to Merchant” button to be sent back here to the download page where you can download your MP3s. The login and password fields will automatically be filled in by clicking “Return to Merchant”. Also, make sure your e-mail address is valid prior to submitting payment information, as the download information will be sent to the e-mail address that you provide.

100% satisfaction guarantee

Your purchase is protected by the White Noise MP3s.com no quibble 100% satisfaction guarantee and policy. If you are not 100% satisfied with your purchase, e-mail whitenoisemp3s@gmail.com and you will receive either a replacement of your choice, or a full money refund. It is your choice.

If you are not 100% satisfied with an MP3 purchase in any way, your MP3 will be replaced at no cost, or your money is totally refunded. The customer chooses whether they want the replacement or a refund.

I also invite customers with concerns or suggestions to write and tell me. Your suggestions are used to help refine or to make new products.

- Karen Ramirez BFA