If you work on a computer, you have a great deal more control over what you hear than most other professionals. Just put your headphones on and play anything that helps you focus, at least if you can find it.

Blankie is a free, native, open-source app for creating ambient noise mixes. Aside from making it easier to stay focused, it can be useful for relaxation or even to help you fall asleep, especially if you suffer from tinnitus.

I’m sure you’re aware of all the web and mobile apps that offer this functionality, but they tend to be either very limited or expensive. Blankie is free, and while it isn’t exactly packed with features, there’s potential for the future.

Creating a mix is easy: just select all the sounds you wish to enable, tweak their volume until it’s just right, and save your preset. You can then load your preset with one click.

The audio samples themselves sound good, though at 64 kbps, the bitrate could be higher. Some of the audio files are a bit short, particularly the train sound, where you can very clearly tell when the file loops.

If you’re unhappy with certain sounds, you could try replacing them in the application package, as they are saved as simple .mp3 files. In future versions, it would be nice to have something like this implemented in the UI, along with more sounds for mixes.

There are a few other features that would come in handy. A timer would make the app a better sleep aid, full menu bar integration would make it less obtrusive, and I’d love to be able to remove it from the Dock altogether.

Blankie is off to a good start, and more features will hopefully be added in future releases. It’s free, open-source, and written entirely in Swift, with a minimalistic GUI and a decent set of controls for managing your ambient mixes.