For the upcoming White Noise Boutique, I’ll be generating bespoke white noise for visitors using a variety of methods. These quick tests show that, while they sound essentially the same, different algorithms do in fact generate different white noise. For each generator, a spectrogram and frequency plot are shown for a ten-second sample. The plots were generated with Audacity.
Above: the AES_OFB algorithm from the Dieharder suite, one of two cryptographically-secure methods.
Linear congruential generator, an old-fashioned and non-secure generator.
The only “true” generator here, via the operating system’s built-in “dev/random” command, which creates random numbers from hard drive entropy.
The Threefish generator, also via the Dieharder suite and the other cryptographically-secure algorithm.
