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Tone Generator
Play any frequency as a sine, square, triangle or sawtooth wave, or sweep between two.
Free tools that run in your browser. Nothing you type, open or create is uploaded to NerdBible or anyone else.
To protect your hearing and your speakers, start with the volume low and raise it slowly. Square and sawtooth waves and very high tones sound much louder than the slider suggests, and small speakers can be damaged by very low tones played loud.
The tone is generated by your browser, so its accuracy is that of your device's sound clock, normally within a small fraction of a hertz. What you hear also depends on your speakers or headphones: most laptop and phone speakers play little below 100 Hz, and many adults hear little above 15 kHz.
How to use it
- Turn the volume down, then type a frequency, drag the slider or pick a note.
- Choose a waveform and, if you like, move the balance to test the left or right speaker.
- Press Play, or open Sweep to glide from one frequency to another over the time you set. Press Stop to end.
Questions
What can I use a tone generator for?
Checking speakers and headphones, finding which side is which, hunting for a rattle in a room or a car, tuning an instrument to a reference pitch, and finding the highest frequency you can hear on your equipment.
Why is the slider not even?
It is logarithmic, like hearing: every octave takes the same distance, so 20 to 40 Hz is as wide as 10 to 20 kHz. For exact values, type the frequency in the box.
What is the difference between the waveforms?
A sine wave is a pure tone with a single frequency. Square, triangle and sawtooth waves add harmonics at multiples of that frequency, so they sound buzzier and seem louder at the same volume setting.
Should a sweep be linear or logarithmic?
Logarithmic spends the same time on every octave, which suits listening and speaker tests. Linear spends the same time on every hertz, so it races through the bass and lingers in the treble.