Hmeowners Cries for Help

I have a 3-year-old home with a walkout basement. The air conditioner is on the master bedroom side of the house and mounted up on a rack that holds it off the ground and level with the first floor. When the air conditioner kicks on, it makes a very loud sound. It wakes me up every time it kicks on and keeps me awake while it is running. Is there anyway to mask/reduce the noise so it isn't so noticeable in the bedroom.

The location of the outdoor unit does not concern me as much as the noise if we are talking about normal start up noise it may be that you have a lower quality unit. If we are talking about noise that sounds like metal on metal (clanking) then we need to think about a damaged compressor or refrigerant floodback on start up.
Look at the system airflow first because that is the easiest and cheapest to remedy. Is the filter clean or are there any other airflow obstructions.