Synthetic noises are generated to mask undesirable disturbing noises arising during the operation of a vehicle. The synthetic noise is generated from an unmodulated synthetic noise to adjust a desired sound characteristic by multiplication with at least one filter and/or amplifier which is dependent on a vehicle parameter. A pitch of all acoustic signals of which the modulated synthetic noise is composed is kept constant during an emission of the modulated synthetic noise. The unmodulated synthetic noise is designed as 1/f noise, and is pre-modulated by at least one static filter before being modulated by the at least one filter and/or amplifier which is dependent on the vehicle parameter.