Moin Moin! A couple of years ago, I moved from a small village in the southern part of the Czech Republic to Flensburg, Germany. Before that, I lived for nearly a year in an old Bavarian farmhouse. The Bavarian farmhouse, and the village in the Czech Republic were remote enough from the larger metropolitan areas that they were very quiet and peaceful. One could go to bed at night, and not hear anything except the sounds of nature, and I found it to be very good for my nerves, and general health.
Flensburg however, is another story. It is a beautiful little city with a lot to offer in terms of cultural events, shopping and good eateries. My apartment is in a wonderful old mansion that overlooks the old harbor on a fiord, which is chockers with more antique sailing boats than I have ever seen in my life. The residents of Flensburg are fanatical gardeners, so as soon as the weather is right, the city explodes with flowers. Everything about my current setup would be Perfect, if it were not for the the noise. Right between my apartment and this gorgeous view is a main coastal road that is used by all of the transport vehicles, as well as all of the emergency and police vehicles to service the outlying areas to the East of the city. The traffic is non-stop, and due to my proximity to the street, I sometimes wake up with the feeling that the last passing ambulance or police car just drove over the foot of my bed. It is driving me completely bonkers, and I have to do something about it. I would also like the solution to be something more interesting than stuffing cotton balls in my ears, or looking for another apartment. I read some years ago a little about various different noise cancelation technologies involving a microphone, a computer with a sound card, and a set of speakers. The basic idea was to take in a sound wave with the microphone, produce an opposite sound wave in the computer, and then blast it back through the speakers aimed at the unwanted noise source to cancel the sound. I have a bunch of computers around here that I could use, and I would welcome the opportunity to do a project. Does anyone here know of any links to homebrew noise cancelation solutions such as this? Quaking in Flensburg, Knuke
