I made an online tone generator based on the Firefox Audio API HTML5 Web Audio API. It’s basically a large logarithmic slider that allows real-time, smooth frequency changes.
Features
- Fine-tune the frequency in 1 Hz, 0.01 Hz and 0.001 Hz increments
- Pick a music note from a list (added Sep 2014, revamped May 2016)
- Increase/decrease the frequency by one octave (added Aug 2015)
- Can change the frequency smoothly as you move the slider
- Keyboard shortcuts (added Aug 2015)
- Generate a link to a specific tone, so you can share it (added May 2016)
- Choose sine/square/sawtooth/triangle wave (added Aug 2017)
- Input frequency as a number (added Aug 2017)
- Works well on Chrome, Firefox & Safari – including mobile devices (iOS, Android) – requires a browser with support for the Web Audio API.
There are other tone generators on the Web, but they are not as cool (if I do say so myself) and/or they require Java or Flash.
What can you use a tone generator for? You can do a science experiment with resonance, tune a musical instrument, test your new audio system (how low does it go?), test the limits of your hearing (I can hear virtually nothing above 18,000 Hz, even at maximum volume), or figure out your tinnitus frequency to better target therapy.
2/21/2024
I just found this website today. I bought some tuning forks and wanted to verify that the frequency the forks claim to be is a true claim. This works really well for that. Get your website tone going and make your tuning fork ring and listen to both. I have tested 2 forks so far and they are what they claim they are. Thank you so much for having this website.
On the Alzheimers thing – how about using binaural beats – open your TG in two browser tabs and set one for, say 460Hz in the left speaker/earphone, and 500Hz in the other, the brain hears the 40Hz beat. This certainly works for creating the beats (use frequencies closer together to really appreciate the beating) but what it would do for a sufferer, I don’t know.
i just have 1 question. for how much time can i leave my JBL speaker to play 50 HZ before destroying itself?
As long as you like if you do not play it too loud.
Hi Tomasz,
inspired by Dieter Broers I was looking for a tone generator and found yours.
Awesome.
Maybe you could add the possibility to adjust the frequency of A4 to 432 Hz.
This would be nice.
Thanks a lot and kind regards
Thomas
The sound stopped working. I’ve been paying a fee to support the site for a long time, but I can’t get any sound out of it anymore.
Interesting self test for a suspected condition:
Background Story:
I had some repeated infections in my left ear over the years and there was a somewhat rapid (6mo) onset of partial hearing loss. (The loss made it difficult to hear voices in the presence of loud background noise such as at a restaurant.)
For some time I have been asking doctors (primary care, audiologists, etc.) if the problem could be diagnosed as a “stiffening of the hearing drum” problem, they essentially said no but my opinion was they could “if they wanted to”, i.e., had the technology.
There was something about the way things sounded that made me feel my ear drum had become more rigid or changed shape.
So… now for the test:
While wearing headphones that had cups which provided an airtight-ish seal I played a constant tone and then increased/decreased the air pressure. I did this by applying pushing/pulling forces to the headphone first against the left ear and then the right. (The right ear being my “standard”/reference ear.)
What I noticed was there was a distinct increase in my ability to hear with my left when I decreased the air pressure but that was not the case for my right ear. An increasing the air pressure had a negative effect on both left and right. (i.e., My right ear was optimal at std. air pressure.)
So, this has given me some evidence that left ear problem may indeed be due to the suspected (deformed drum) cause. How I will apply this information to my “tone deaf” 😉 doctors, I don’t know.
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Thank you for web page. First time here.
Thank you for developing and maintaining this useful tool. It’s helpful as I work on broadening the range of my voice. I use this primarily on my phone.
Good for tuning my sound system.
Referring back to the tone generator, I can verify the amplification from my phone by using a spectrogram application. I do not know whether or not this is a good method, however as far as my ears go it sounds good. The best part of this tone generator when compared to other methods is the fact that it can hold a frequency as I’m tuning it and seeing the effect in the spectrogram app. Will use again.
Can I use the tone generator for meditation?
Thank you for the good hearing test program. I would like the volume control to be logarithmic. It would make testing for hearing loss easier.
At least in Finland, in medical studies, hearing is only tested up to the hearing limit of loudness, and this leads to incorrect hearing aid adjustments. The sense of hearing is not linearly proportional to the logarithm of sound intensity as expected. I have had my hearing tested for almost 10 years, I can only understand the speech of certain people without noise in conversations between two people.
I love this site and I have sent a small stipend for support. This morning it works well on my PC but it is totally silent on my iPhone. Please help.
Is there a way to use the tool offline?
This site is excellent, it has the tones I use and need to design steam engine whistles.
I there a way you can save a tone and add a second or third tone to it. I’m trying to make a three tone engine whistle and would like to hear it generated before I make it.
You can open it in several tabs if you want to mix several tones.
Real steam engines? As in a locomotive?
Could a feature be added to allow changing the phase of the tone?
Having the same frequency running in two tabs and then adjusting the phase of one back and forth would be useful for demonstrating noise cancellation.
Thanks for the suggestion – I think it’s already on my to-do list.
Multi channel support would be handy as well as the other comments.
sometimes multiple frequencies need to be generated – DON’t look for another app, just open multiple instances of this one and set each to the desired Hz, voila!…. make sure your equipment – which includes your ears and animals in the vicinity, can handle it!
Please get rid of the volume slide rule and replace with either drop down or manual entry. It is practically impossible to get to a lower volume.
I’ve found your website very helpful for ear training and getting my trumpet in tune – an on-going project.
Also an on-going project: I’ve tried to convince friends to stop blindly trusting (deafly trusting?) their digital tuners by opening three browser windows, setting up a triad, tuning the third to sound nice and then demonstrating how out of tune the tuner reports that third. There’s life beyond equal temperament.
My one tiny suggestion: drop the sound default sound level to maybe 25% to protect the hearing and/or sound equipment of unsuspecting users.
Another interesting observation you can make is to set a tone going through some stereo speakers and then move your head around the room and hear the nodes and anti-nodes.
Bro needs to hire a UI designer for this Life Of Pablo ahh UI
Hi Thomas
I have just found your online pure sine wave generator and am very excited to try it when I practise music. I prefer to adjust the A to 432 Hz, and it would be good to have the related frequencies for this. It did cut out and I started again but if all goes well I plan to donate. Thank you so much as I am passionate about the relationship of the degrees of a scale with its tonic.
Cheers Angela
I read the article about the time generator and alzheimer person with interest. I stumbled across another use. I have me/cfs and if I eat gluten I get wobbly legs or gait ataxia and my legs don’t do as they are told and I can’t walk. Mu mum put the blender on when I was staggering about one time and my legs started working normally. And speed again when she turned it off. I searched for a while though white noise, brown noise etc and found no help and gave up. Years later, trying vagal nerve simulation at different frequencies, I remembered about the blender and it occurred to me to try pure frequencies. At 156hz (E flat) my legs stopped wobbling and I can walk. I can sing it, hear it or apply it using the gems machine to my ankles. So I use your tone generator to get the pitch if I need it. One I discovered the cause was eating gluten, I obviously stopped eating it but I still get the occasional episode and it’s very useful for that. Besides which, 156hz having such a good effect I think it probably helps me in other ways too so I play it to relax. Thank you
That’s quite a story! Is it only 156 Hz that has this effect? What about 78 Hz (half) or 312 Hz (double)? What about frequencies slightly lower or higher than 156 Hz?
Hello. I believe this is where I posted about my tinnitus. Well…to cut a somewhat long story short I now have a wonderful pair of Jabra EP hearing aids. I’ve never used anything of this brand before, but they are working very well. It was discovered that I have Eustachian-tube dysfunction in both ears. My father decided to take me to his audiologist at Costco. Costco wasn’t on my mental list of possible places to go for hearing aids, but this audiologist did a very good job. He re-tested me, and we actually found that my hearing had declined a bit since my exam with another audiologist. So that is how I got these, and I highly recommend them! In addition, I recently picked up some more Flonase at the grocery store and have been using that. I’m actually hearing a tad better without the hearing aids, but I’m still going to use them.
Hi Tomasz,
thank you for creating this tool.
Could you add a tool for downloading the frequency created?
Thank you for reading
Namaste
Anyone else have trouble playing it on their iPhone? What am I missing?
I learned of this site on X earlier this week on a discussion on 432hz v 440hz frequencies for music. I am not a musician, but as a singer, this is an invaluable tool to comprehensively learn the scales and thus use this as a vocal enhancement tool.
Thank you so much for this valuable work.
Dear Tomasz P. Szynalsk,
Last weekend my brother and I were using this website to find the pitch of a BBQ spatula that ringggggged (rang*) like crazy when he hit it against his barbecue grill. He was trying to swat a wasp and, well, he eventually got it. It died, and BONUS: the cheeseburgers weren’t affected….. I forget the pitch… But, I digress…
When I tune my instruments (which isn’t as often as I like) I only use this website. A440 can go to hell…. and it sometimes does.
I’ve tested your website on a few different devices with tuning capabilities, and it is accurate!
Thanks for all of your hard work!
Respectfully,
Clayton Booi
*rinnnnnged doesn’t have the same “ring” as “rang”.
You’re iphone is probably on silent mode…. turn the “silent” switch to the opposite position.
Hey,
Thanks for posting this online. Handy and easy to use – I’ll definitely use it again.
I was listening to a old favorite song (Tomorrow Wendy – by Concrete Blonde) and it seemed to really sound ….lacking… I thought maybe it was because it was mp3 and compression of the algorithms was hurting the bass line of the song (it has a realllllly low bass guitar track) and it sounded really weak/quiet (and the bass really sets the mood for this song….
Then I realized maybe it was the bargain-basement ear buds I was using…..oy. Quick test on your website shows the earbuds have an effective frequency range of about 150Hz to 10KHz – everything outside that is almost silent or completely silent….. time to buy some less cheap/awful earphones…..now if I can figure out how to test-listen to them prior to paying…..
Thanks again for the cool/useful website!
That is a nice song. Just listened to it on my speakers and then again on my earphones (Moondrop Aria). Reminds me of “Everywhere” by Fleetwood Mac and one other song, maybe it’s the Pachelbel chord progression that makes it sound so familiar. Concrete Blonde is new on me, now I’m going to listen to the whole album. Thanks for the tip!!
Oh wow…round two…
I just got another set of earbuds (free) from a library doing a promotion…(randomly – about an hour after my prior message). The new ones have a range of about 150 Hz – 8.5 KHz (worse than my other awful earbuds – high end cuts out 1500 Hz earlier…). And the testing was not real scientific…the 150 Hz for low end is kinda charitable, I think its more like 175Hz when comparing the two sets of earbuds….
definitely gotta get some decent ear buds or phones – this is depressing