Good Explanation of Masking, and Different Types of Noise (Pink, Brown, etc.)

This isn't really Research News, but I can't see a better place for something on-topic like this. Feel free to move, admins.

There is a post on Reddit that explains the different types of noise and how they interact with other sounds.

tl;dr mix brown noise and pink noise to generate a "wall of sound" that masks construction noise and everything else. Play it loud, your ears adjust in a minute or two and it stops sounding loud to you. Whether this will work with your windows open I don't know, but in order to block the sound you need POWER, which means this will not block truck bass with an iPod dock. If there's lots of noise, you need to put up lots of noise in your "wall," so get some speakers that can put out power in the bass end. Add other types of noise to the pink + brown and tune it to make the actual sound -- sort of like throaty rushing air -- as pleasant as possible to your ears. After you're used to it, which happens a lot faster than you may think, you'll hardly notice even when it's freaking loud.

 

My audiologist told me about purple noise, and gave me a CD. It's great, got more high frequencies, knocks my tinnitus out and is very comfortable. White and pink are harsh to me.

 

The effect of brown and black noise on persons suffering from a low frequency sound.

 

Seems like you have had tinnitus for a long time. How is your hearing now? Does tinnitus really make you deaf?