I have no idea about the static noise! Thanks for mentioning, I need to try that. I found this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Yb-G7Y9ZR8. Is this what you are talking about?

I usually listen to some classical music. It is less distracting than anything else and is pleasant (depending on what you are listening to).

I use this sox command:

    #!/bin/bash
    play -q -c 2 -n synth brownnoise band -n 1600 1500 tremolo .1 30

You can adjust the frequency and other parameters to suit your environment. Adding tremolo makes it sound a bit like ocean waves.

That is ingenious, didn't know play had that capability

http://simplynoise.com is what I use.

http://mynoise.net is the best if you ask me. You can customize everything.

I second my noise! I've used it quite a lot, and it's very customizable. No idea why SimplyNoise is ontop of search results lately, must be some SEO spamming.

Yeah; I've been using simply noise because it was the first thing I found. I'll check out mynoise.

I really like being able to modify things because different kinds of noise block different sounds at different levels with varying effectiveness

I'm fond of http://www.noisli.com/ myself.

I am the opposite, in that static noise just grates on me. I prefer music, but I need it to be familiar (new music is just distracting). I prefer music that I have heard a hundred times, which could be classical music, but could also be Black Sabbath or Dave Brubeck.

I can't stand it if it's got the really high pitched tones in it, but what simplynoise has as uh -- I think brown noise? -- reminds me of being at my aunt and uncles house that's on a river. They lived right next to a series of small overflows/dams and it sounds a lot like the water rushing over those.

Interesting, I will try it out.

Yeah; I just tried http://mynoise.net/ and I've used simply noise. SimplyNoise isn't bad but it looks like you can do more with mynoise. I managed to get a curve I really like.

Hope it works out for you