Weaning White noise

Just wondering the experience of anyone who uses white noise to settle their child.
My boy is 8 months old and I have been using white noise since about 4 months.
I want to start weaning him off this dependancy before summer as we are traveling a lot, camping etc.
I've starting turning it down a little each night and he is still sleeping through except every 3 or 4 hours will have a very dramatic 30sec cry. He never really wakes up (by the time I get to his room he is sucking his thumb and back to getting to sleep.
I'm just wondering if taking away his comforting noise is giving him little scares everytime he wakes.
Any thoughts?

I was in no hurry to wean Jacob off ours, but I didn't want to use it unnecessarily, so whenever the batteries ran out of our machine I'd try him for a day without it. If he was harder to settle, I'd pop new batteries in it. The other month (when he was about 13 months or so?) he just didn't seem to notice, so I never put new batteries in it

Oh, and ETA for anyone thinking about buying something that makes white noise... don't do what I did and get a battery-powered thing! Buy a cheap CD player instead. Much more sensible!!!

Edited by Hopes

We use the radio that I had when I was a kid - back in the days before CD players were invented

I use it for DD if she wakes during the night, but I try not to use it during the day unless I have to. I have been trying to cut down the length of time I have it on (but someties I fall asleep ) So a work in progress.

My little mans sleeping without the noise..so far 3 hours and not a peep!
Is it weird to be kinda proud?