Tone and Noise

Generators
Stormie Burcky

Arizona State University

Apps Being
Reviewed:

Tone Gen
An app that allows users to
generate artificial single note
sounds using volume (%) and
frequency (Hertz [Hz])

An app that allows users to

Noise Gen
generate artificial noise (the
collection of all sounds within an
environment) using color, low and
high cut filters (Hz), and volume
(%).
Purpose:

Both apps can be used for various purposes. The App

Store categorizes both as Music apps for ages 4+. For
my uses, I would characterize these both as practical
education tools.
Relevance: My students and I could use this
tool to tune instruments and

Tone Gen
locate unknown frequencies by
mimicking the sound through this
app. They then could learn how to
translate the notes they are
hearing (A-G#) into numeric
figures (Hz).

My students and I could use this

Noise Gen
to identify types of noise (brown,
pink, white, blue, and purple) and
what filters are naturally present in
a room’s noise by mimicking range
through this app.
Audience:

The audience these apps are geared towards is a wide

range honestly. They specify that ages 4+ can use it
implying the “just for fun” use of the app. Because it
can be used to test gear it is also marketed to (and
created by) audio engineers working in the music
industry.
Key Design
Aspect:

Both apps have a super simple design which makes it

easy to interact with. This is helpful for my first-year
students because they will not have been exposed to
the amount of information normal equalizers hold and
could explore this app to get a basic understanding.
Key Content
The visual sound wave is useful
Aspect:

Tone Gen
for understanding exactly how this
frequency moves within a physical
space. The app also color codes it
according to the range of noise
the frequency resides in (example
is brown, low frequency).

Just like the Tone Generator,

Noise Gen
seeing the visual representation of
the noise is helpful in
understanding what adding filters
looks like in terms of noise moving
in a room (example is a mid white-
blue noise).
Innovation:

Because of the simplicity, this app becomes highly

accessible and applicable to many situations. Normally,
your gear tester, tuner, and noise reader would all be
seperate, costly items. This free app allows someone
who knows exactly what they’re doing to execute all of
these tasks in one spot. This is innovative as many
companies are trying to monetize every little aspect of
gear and sell only pieces of a product.
Use and
Navigation 1: Their simplistic designs make using and navigating
these apps super easy. There is only one page to work
with and a couple of sliders that have full range.
Use and The tone generator had tons of great reviews, some
requesting octave jump buttons but overall great for my
Navigation 2: purpose

The noise generator had many reviews from people trying

to sleep or tune out tinnitus. Though those are good uses,
this is the only review relevant to my field
Changes:

I would not change most of the apps quite honestly. I

would maybe add a microphone option to detect and
display the frequency the microphone is picking up.
This could be useful in a number of situations but is not
entirely necessary.
Cost and
Popularity:

Like I mentioned on a previous slide, the app is

completely free to use. The noise generator appears to
be more popular than the frequency generator due to
customers looking for help sleeping, focusing, or tuning
out tinitus.