ToneGen is some simple software I put together, in order to give the ability to generate continuously varying tones easily, for fine-grained tonal perception exercises and testing. (You can use your voice or a violin for the same purpose, but your voice may have control issues, and vs. the case of your voice or the violin, this software allows you to use headphones and not wake the neighbors.)
Below is a screenshot of ToneGen, which should give you an idea how it works.
Video Demo
Here is a
video shot of someone trying to develop a very precise sense of tones in the scale, using the ToneGen. They also have on my other software, Spectratune, which displays the notes nicely, but strictly speaking it is not necessary for that purpose. (Note that the ToneGen version in the video is missing some of the newer features.)
NOTE: ToneGen still many uses not covered in other of my software (and the highest pitch accuracy), but you should note that I have put the ability to generate continuously varying MIDI-instrument tones to my free
Midi Music Analysis Software. (That program does much more -- the continuously varying instrument tone an auxiliary feature. When you combine it with my Spectratune, and use the Spectratune / MIDI Analysis interconnect and a microphone, you really have a complete musical sound immersion system (for Western music, of course). However, note that ToneGen is still usually substantially more accurate in terms of generating very exact pitch than my MidiAnalysis software, since the MIDI analysis software uses the MIDI hardware or software that you have, which is typically a few hundredths of a half step off. That is still good enough for musical perception uses -- the ear does not have absolute accuracy, anyway. But if you want the most accurate pitches, use ToneGen.)
The software was intended initially to complement my Spectratune software you should be able to use it without the Spectratune.
TO GENERATE A PURE SINE
Just keep "Harmonic Richness" at its initial zero position, or else keep it set at anywhere under 5% (I treat 5% as the cutoff for zero in my algorithm).
OVER-AMPLITUDE:
If you set the amplitude too high, your generated wave will go over the max level of the D/A converter quantization, which will yield a distorted wave. To be sure you are not doing this, take a peek at the wave you are generating with
the "plot" checkbox.
PLOT CHECKBOX:
This shows you the wave being fed to your sound card's Digital-to-Analog converter. (Rather than doing a spectral analysis on the sound inputted to your sound card. My Spectratune.
software does that, if that's what you're looking for.)
USING TONEGEN FOR EXAMINING SOUND-CARD RECORDING AND PLAYBACK LIMITATIONS/TESTING:
My 2010 additions were actually done to trace some limitations on my sound card. [That is, it seemed, even when set at 44100 hz sampling, my onboard sound card input only detected up to about 6000 hz. This updated Tonegen software has allowed my to confirm this. When I send out a sine of over about 6000 hz, which I can see from the new plots (and also hear) that I am sending out accurately, the Microsoft recorder, even at 44100 hz .wav, misses the signal. Apparently, the sound-card designers wanted record to work at lower sampling of 11000 hz without any kind of "aliasing" problems, so they stuck in a filter of higher frequncies. The sound card is apparently cheap enough that they didn't make the filter cutoff frequency go up, as it could, with higher sampling rates.]
USING TONEGEN TO SEE AND HEAR QUANTIZATION ERROR, AND THE NEED FOR DITHERING
Generate a pure sine wave above your limit of hearing. (Device Sampling rate at least 44.1 khz, set to pure sine (Harmonic Richness at initial position, or actually, anywhere below 5% is set to generate a pure sine.) As you bring the sine frequency above your limit of hearing (about 12khz in my case), your ear doesn't detect the sines, but there are odd lower frequency sort of musical artifacts, some varying periodically. I get the same stuff on different sound cards--it appears to be quantization error. To avoid these perceptible patterns, CDs, etc, have random dither added by the audio engineers. (Note: ToneGen does not add any dither--the signal generated and that you can plot with the "plot" checkbox goes straight to your soundcard's digital input.)
DOWNLOADING:
The software is for Windows XP, Vista, and Seven.
It is quite light and simple software, as it is just one small .exe file (about 200 Kbytes), that doesn't call anything else, and doesn't write anything to your files or registry, and doesn't access the internet or anything.
Please make sure you accept this license agreement before downloading the software. (The software is free at the moment, but note it is still protected by copyright, and you can not redistribute it.)
Since the software is just a single .exe file, you can just download it and click on it to run it, and make your own shortcuts, if you know how to do that.
This link is for the manual install version (which is the only version):
I accept the license agreement -- please give me the .exe for a quick test run or manual install. (If you want a really quick trial without even putting it on your computer, it also seems to work if you click "Run", rather than "Save" after you click on the link. You can try the program that way, but if you want to reuse the program without coming back to the site, you should download it.)
Note that you may need to adjust microphone or CD volume as it makes it through your soundcard, or webcam mike volume, on your PC volume controls/mixer, which is outside my software. That is, you need to open it separately from my program, and adjust "record" volumes (not playback volumes) until you see the soundwave, at substantial amplitude, but not so high that the top is squished, on the Spectratune's top rectange.
Questions?
If you have any questions about how to use it, I'll be glad to try to answer if you email me (norm@nastechservices.com).
Also, if you find a bug, a suggestion for improvement, or just feedback, I'd really appreciate your input (norm@nastechservices.com).
Version notes:
2007: Initial version
2010.10/28 I added the ability to view the output waves. I also cleaned up the device selection, so that you can generate waves any audio output device on your system. I also increased the maximum generated frequency to half the sample rate you select for your device.
2010.11.17 I added ability to generate tones in stereo, with amplitude and phase differences between channels adjustable. (This is to support some acoustical experiments that I am doing.)
2010.11.21 Corrected phase error in 2010.11.17 release, and a few minor improvements.
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