What is pink noise?

I believe pink noise, and white noise, are first of all random noise, like hiss, used for testing electronics and acoustics. I think that pink noise is equal enery per ocatve and white noise is equal energy per decade. For example, pink noise would have the same energy in the 20Hz to 40Hz range as there is from 40Hz to 80Hz. White noise would have the same energy from 20Hz to 200Hz as there is from 200Hz to 2,000Hz. I am sure someone else here can give a better explanation. Please help!

Blueswan sounds about half-right. Pink noise has equal energy per octave. White noise has equal energy at all frequencies.

One virtue of pink noise is that it's an easy way to test frequency response. It's much easier to hear differences in frequency response when listening to pink noise than when listening to music. That's because, in music, there might be little or no energy in the frequency range where the difference occurs, or what energy exists is masked by louder sounds at other frequencies.

On the other hand, pink noise would be a lousy way to test transient response or imaging!

i assume that it's a noise of a pink freequency spectrum. pink is a composite color from red, blue; blue is at the same time is composite color of RGB of a certain intencity. white freequency is usually the composite of all colour freequencies of a highest intencity together.

if we assume that the colour freequency is someway proportional to the audio freequency we can make judgements about the noise behavior in terms of colours.

there can also be maroon, burgundy, yellow, bage, ultramarin, off-white, cyane, navy-blue,... etc... noise.

to tell you the truth i don't yet recognize the noise colors and probably i will need to smoke a joint or do something more serious to realy distinguish ultramarin from for example bage types of noise.

dig it?

Pink noise is equal energy at any given octave. White noise is equal energy at any given frequency.

The result is that white noise sounds more like high frequency noise, and pink noise sounds like full range noise.

Think of it this way. An octave represents a doubling of frequency (40Hz is an octave higher than 20Hz. 14,000Hz is an octave higher than 7000Hz etc.)

As you look at that, think about how many more frequencies are contained within any given octave as you go up the musical scale.

Concert A (a minor third below middle C on the piano) is equal to 440Hz. The lowest note on the piano (excluding some Bosendorfers) is three octaves below that, or 55Hz. If we count in whole integers, there are only 385 frequencies between those three octaves. Three octaves ABOVE concert A resonates at 3,520Hz. If we count in whole integers again, there are 3080 frequencies between concert A, and the A three octaves above it.

If each one of the 3,465 frequencies implied in the above paragraph has the same power when they are all played at once, we will hear the higher frequencies as being louder, because there are more of them per any given octave as you go up the scale. White noise

If you devide up those frequencies into octaves, and compensate for the doubling of energy that is inhearant in white noise by giving as much energy to the octave between the lowest note of the piano ((A1-A2) 55-110Hz) as you would to the higest octave of the piano ((C7-C8) 2093.04 - 4186.08Hz,) you get Pink Noise.

hope this helps