1/12/249:00 am Use Mac Background Sounds To Cancel Noise and Focus on Your Work There is a built-in feature of macOS that will play white noise to help you work in a busy environment or to help you concentrate on your work. You can also watch this video at YouTube (but with ads). Video Transcript: Hi, this is Gary with MacMost.com. Let me show you how you can play background sounds on your Mac using a built-in feature to help you focus or drown out other noise. MacMost is brought to you thanks to a great group of more than 1000 supporters. Go to MacMost.com/patreon. There you can read more about it. Join us and get exclusive content and course discounts. Starting in macOS Ventura Apple includes a built-in feature to play background noise or sounds on your Mac. To access this all you need to do is go into System Settings. This is an Accessibility feature. So go to Accessibility and then choose Audio. One of the sections under Audio is Background Sounds. So before you turn it On choose a background sound. Click the Choose Button here. Now there are just a few that Apple includes but not all of them are downloaded. You'll see a little trashcan icon if it is already downloaded so you can remove it from your Mac. You'll see a Download button if it is not yet there. So you can just click that and it will download that sound. Then you can choose which one your want. So let's just start with the basic Balance to Noise. Select OK and then you can set a volume. You can adjust this after you turn on Background Sounds. You also have the option to turn Off Background Sounds when your Mac is not in use. So when it is locked or the Screen Saver starts. So once you have that setup you just turn this On and you'll hear the background sound. While the sound is on you can adjust the volume to get it just right. You could also choose a new background sound and it will just change to that. So, for instance, here is a bright noise and then it will switch to the other four as well. (playing different sounds). Now note these will play through whatever device you have chosen for the rest of your Mac sounds. So it could be through your Mac speakers or they could be through AirPods, or external audio devices. Whatever it is you normally have your Mac set to play sound through. Now if you think it is hard to access this by going into System Settings and then Accessibility and then go into here to turn it On or Off, well, there is an easier way. If you go to Control Center and System Settings then you can look under the Other Module Section. There is a section for hearing. You can turn On the Hearing control in the Menu Bar or the Control Center or both. Here it is in the Menu Bar. Click it and you can see one of the things that appears here is Background Sounds. So I can turn it On or Off here and even change which one is being used. Then likewise since I have it set to appear in Control Center as well, and you can use that button right there to access the same controls. So that makes it very easy to turn it On or Off especially if sometimes you listen to music or watch videos you can easily access it here in the Menu Bar so you can switch it Off, listen to something else, and then switch it back On again when you need to concentrate on writing or other work. Now, of course there are other options than using this built-in feature. For instance if you subscribe to any streaming music service, like Apple Music, you'll often find that if you Search for Background Sounds or ambient sounds or all sorts of other terms like that it will come up with various different albums that either have sounds or very gentle music or noise or some combination of those. So maybe if you don't have Apple Music you can use Spotify for this or perhaps if you don't have any of those you can bring your own CD's or music purchased elsewhere into the Music App and play it there. This is particularly useful if you're in a noisy environment, like in a workspace where you can hear other people around you, or public space like a coffeeshop and you want to put in your AirPods or wear your headphones and drown out the noise around you while you are at work. It is far more effective that just using noise cancellation by itself and it is especially useful if you don't like to use music while you work but you do need something to be able to cancel out all that noise around you. Some people even find it useful in a completely quiet environment to have the white noise there to help them concentrate. So give this feature of macOS a try. Hope you found this useful. Thanks for watching. Related Subjects: System Settings (161 videos) Related Video Tutorials: 14 Tips To Help You Focus While Working On Your Mac ― How Many Mac Third-Party App Installs Work Comments: One Response to “Use Mac Background Sounds To Cancel Noise and Focus on Your Work” Jackie B 11 months ago Thank you. I was not aware of this feature. Now that I am I will check it out as there are times when it would be very helpful. Leave a New Comment Related to "Use Mac Background Sounds To Cancel Noise and Focus on Your Work" Name (required): Email (will not be published) (required): Comment (Keep comment concise and on-topic.): 0/500 (500 character limit -- please state your comment succinctly and do not try to get around this limit by posting two comments) Δ
Thank you. I was not aware of this feature. Now that I am I will check it out as there are times when it would be very helpful.