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.
Thank you. I determined the frequency of my tinnitus with this.
The note palate you have added is fantastic! Thanks for the work you’re doing.
A very useful test tool. Most appreciated.
This was perfect for checking my DIY 18″ Subwoofer Enclosure. I tuned my enclosure to 38 Hz, and all the frequencies below 40 are the loudest. Thanks for this easy to use application.
This is great although I think my headphones are limiting the frequency a bit.
YES! This right here!
I have been searching for this for years, even tried having some computer graduate students tackle it as a class project – but they were not able to solve these problems.
This could be very helpful for music students learning intonation if it was in a mobile app form with 4 sliders which allowed you to build 7 chords (4 note chords) and check your answers as compared to relative or just tuning.
May I access the code? Or, may I hire you to compile it into an app that could be shared with music teachers?
Thatnk you for this wonderful tool. I wonder if there is a keyboard instrument that plays notes in the 12k hz to 20k hz range. I would like to compose and play music in that range.
This is a great tool. I would like to be able to modulate back & forth between two designated frequencies in a pulsing rhythm. For experiments.
Thank you for your useful site. Since 9/10/2016 I’ve been suffering from tinnitus, a single pure tone stuttering like a telegraph in one ear. Your straightforward tone generator has helped me track the pitch. I noticed the tone started around 180 Hz (around F#3) and has been slowly but surely gone down in pitch, currently 155 Hz (almost to D#3). So it crept 3 half-steps down over the last month. I am wondering why (physiologically or mentally) the pitch would be going down – whether this is a good or bad sign, or does it mean anything at all. Any information or theories would be appreciated.
Dana, it could be you are siffering from Tonic Tensor Tympani Syndrome, and that the pitch lowers as your Tensor Tympani becomes less tense. For me, the pitch certainly rises as the tension and volume rises. You should look into it
I meant suffering, not siffering
it’s cool that a simple website can do so much! thanks online tone generator! this is a pretty cool site
Hello, and thank you for the great work. I suffer from TTTS, with a pure tone tinnitus accompanying it when I have my bad days. Finding the tone (it fluctuates) and blasting my ears with it seems to give me some relief.
It would be great if you developed this as an app for Android and Ios, so that one could use it while on the go without having to be online. Preferrably multitrack, with volume sliders for each track. It’s also important that both frequency and volume sliders are large in size, to accomodate fine tuning. There are tone generator apps in the market, but I so far haven’t found any that lets you adjust the frequency while the sound is playing, and your generator’s ability to do so makes it hugely useful.
I would pay for and recommend such an app
It is a good tool to check out a dog’s hearing, also for dog repellant, lol!!!!!
Hi. I have pure-tone tinnitus for as long as I can remember. So long, in fact, I can happily say it doesn’t bother me so much.
Do you have any idea how hard it is to explain tinnitus to people who don’t have it? I usually can’t do any better than “that sound you hear in bed after you’ve been to a loud concert”.
This tool has given me a way to let others (my wife for example) experience what I hear 24/7. 9946 Hz… http://szynalski.com/tone#9946
Thanks for making this.
Great tool to practise unfretted string instruments like fretless bass 😉 Love it!
wow this is amazing! I have had tinnitus for a long time i think but it has recently started bothering me. Every time i listen to you tones even though i haven’t figured out my exact frequency yet, my tinnitus disappears for a while. It’s nice to be able to experience silence for a bit. Thank you so much!
LOVE THIS TONE GENERATOR!!! Can experiment mathematically with different frequencies!!! Thanks so much for making it. I open two or more tabs usually to test out harmonization. Again I really like this tool! Thanks!
Ha ha now don’t need to buy a rpm meter to set the idling of my car, 1000 rpm is 17 hz, I can do it by ear, however why do they claim the lower range of hearing is 20 hz I can easily hear down to 5 hz….but no chance at age 70 of hearing 20,000 hz, best I can do is 8000 hz.
Could you add a option to download the tone?
Interesting idea. Do you have a personal need for such a feature?
Hi there
Can you tell me how I might record or download the tone I have identified as useful?
It would be for personal use at this stage
Thanks
Rachel, you cannot download an audio file at this point. This kind of functionality is not supported by Web browsers very well. You can use the Get Link button to make a direct shortcut to your chosen tone.
If you need a sound file with a specific frequency, I could generate one for you.
Have you thought of giving users the option to change the phase of the signal so that they could possibly reduce or cancel the sound from another device. I have tinnitus and would like to see if it is possible to use this method to reduce the level of the sound in my head.
I am seeking a tone, 180 deg out of phase, to 8460 Hz. This is the frequency of the high pitch sound that I have identified to be ringing in my head 24/7. Your tone generator helped me to identify the thing. Thanks.
I don’t think that would work — tinnitus doesn’t have phase because it’s not an actual sound wave. It occurs on the level of neurology. When you hear e.g. 5 kHz, some neurons in the auditory cortex start firing. They don’t fire at 5 kHz. The frequency is encoded by position, i.e. 5kHz and 4kHz correspond to different neurons, not the same neurons firing at different frequencies! (In other words, the brain does a Fourier transform to decompose the sound into frequencies — this probably destroys the phase information.)
Otherwise, you would hear a difference every time you started the tone generator (every time you started it, it would be at different phase with respect to your tinnitus).
This is a great tool! It’s the only online tool I found that can do 1/1000 of a Hz. It would be great if you could play two different tones at the same time so you can hear intervals and beats.
Thanks! You can open it in two browser tabs to get two at the same time.
Thank you very much! It helped me a lot 🙂
It is a great thing you have done here !
Thank you so much for the sharing 🙂
(I am using it to hear and heal with the 432 Hz instead of 440 Hz).
(28,5 / 75,75 / 91 / 128 / 192 / 288 / 432)
witch is frequencies of Tibetan Healing Sounds.
But thanks to you, it is possible to access very low frequency for the body that is not possible with Tibetan bowl.
Thank you my friend 🙂
I forgot to mention that to make 0,5 or 0,75, I use the arrows with the mouse and then with the keyboard. By pressing the arrow “right” of the keyboard for example, the number won’t change before I press it 4/5 times so I know where I am exactly between 0,25 0,5 0,75 …
For the ones who make an interest with this, here are the frequencies you can use for each chakra to heal :
1 : 14,25 / 28,5 / 57 / 114 / 228 / 456 / 912
2 : 37,875 / 75,75 / 151,5 / 303 / 606 / 1212
3 : 45,5 / 91 / 182 / 364 / 728 / 1456
4 : 64 / 128 / 256 / 512 / 1024 / 2048
5 : 96 / 192 / 384 / 768 / 1536
6 : 144 / 288 / 576 / 1152 / 2304
7 : 216 / 432 / 864 / 1728 / 3456
I just discovered your tool yesterday and what I can say is : “it gives a lot of energy using is as I do”. Just try to play :
* (28,5 +128+432) at the same time (1+4+7)
* or (75,75+192) (2+5)
* or (91+288) (3+6)
and see what happens for fun ! 😉
I used the tone generator for an IB Physics HL investigation on Chladni figures.
It was very useful. Thank you so much!
Thanks for the tone generator, is very helpful for determining tones in meditation.
🙂
New use: testing the effectiveness of noise-cancelling headphones, at different frequencies.
Awesome!
Would it possible to request an auto slider?
Say x Hz to y Hz over z Seconds?
The tone I get on by iPad Air IOS 10.3.1 is not clean. There is a cackground noise, like static, that is most noticeable (higher amplitude compared to selected frequency) at the low end than at higher frequencies. It’s like a modulated rhythmic crackling, that makes the generator all but useless.
What is the period of the crackling? I tested tones around 100 Hz on my iPad Air 2 (with Safari) and I could’t hear anything — other than the normal distortion of my headphones (which is present regardless of the device or generator used).
I just found your tool and it’s fantastic. Thanks!
How easy or difficult would it be to add a selector for a square or sawtooth wave instead of a sine wave? Sometimes I have trouble matching octaves with a pure sine wave.
It’s very possible — will probably add this feature down the road.
Done.
heh. at 37hz my window in my room doors is vibrating like crazy it vibrating soo hard it makes noise lol
Hi Tomasz.
What a great little program you have put together.
I will use it to improve my studio monitor design and acoustic
treatments for the room.
Well done!
Ian Bett – Western Australia