Which curve should I choose?

Exponential for anything that will be heard. It spends equal time in each octave, which mirrors how pitch is perceived, so a sweep sounds even from bottom to top. Linear is useful when the analysis cares about absolute frequency spacing rather than musical intervals.

Why does a linear sweep sound rushed at first?

Because it moves at a constant number of hertz per second while perception works by ratio. From twenty to two hundred hertz is more than three octaves and it happens in the same slice of time as the climb from two thousand to two thousand one hundred, which is a fraction of a semitone.

What happens if the start and end frequencies match?

The glide becomes a steady tone, since there is nothing to move between. That is not reported as an error, so if the result sounds like a constant note the frequencies are the first thing to check.

Can I sweep repeatedly?

Not from this tool, which generates a single pass. The chirp generator produces a repeating up-and-down cycle, and a one-way sweep can be looped in a player by leaving repeat enabled, though the join at the loop point will be abrupt.

Why sweep the whole audible range rather than spot frequencies?

Because one continuous signal crosses every frequency in the range, so a resonance, a dropout or a distortion artefact shows up as a change in the sound at the moment the sweep reaches it. Spot tones require knowing where to look, which a sweep does not.

Sweep Tone Generator

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Frequency Analyzer

Detailed frequency analysis

Sweep Tone Generator glides a tone from one frequency to another across a chosen duration, with a choice between equal-hertz and equal-octave spacing. It is the straightforward single-pass sweep.

What is Sweep Tone Generator?

Set a start frequency, an end frequency, a curve and a duration, and the tone slides once from one end of the range to the other. Nothing repeats, and the file ends at the frequency you asked for.

The controls and the choice they express:

Start frequency from one to twenty thousand hertz, defaulting to twenty.
End frequency over the same range, defaulting to twenty thousand.
A curve selector offering exponential, described on screen as equal octave spacing, or linear, described as equal hertz spacing, with exponential the default.
Duration from a tenth of a second to sixty seconds, defaulting to ten.
An amplitude slider from one to one hundred percent, defaulting to seventy.

The curve is the decision worth thinking about. An exponential glide multiplies the frequency by a constant factor over each interval, so it covers each octave in the same amount of time; a linear glide adds a constant number of hertz per second, so it spends most of its time in the upper reaches where hertz come thickly. For an audible sweep the exponential is almost always the right choice, because hearing judges pitch by ratio rather than by absolute frequency, and a linear twenty to twenty thousand sweep sounds as though it rushes through the low end and lingers forever at the top. Whichever curve is chosen, the implementation determines the instantaneous frequency for each sample and integrates it into the running phase, which is what guarantees a smooth, click-free glide: a linear sweep consequently accumulates phase quadratically and an exponential one geometrically, exactly as the textbook chirp definitions require. The clamp on the low end is a practical detail at extreme settings, since frequencies are held above a very small positive floor rather than being allowed to reach zero, which would stall the glide. One behaviour follows from the exponential curve in particular: an equal-octave sweep moves through the low frequencies slowly in hertz terms, so a resonance near the bottom of the range gets noticeably more time to announce itself than the same resonance placed high up would receive.

What it does not provide:

Only a single pass is generated, with no repeat or loop option.
The curve is limited to linear and exponential, with no custom shape.
Amplitude stays constant while the frequency moves, so there is no associated level envelope or tilt compensation.
The sweep cannot be reversed here, and there is no preset library; the frequency sweep generator has both.
Setting the start equal to the end produces a steady tone rather than an error, which may be surprising.
The output is mono and capped at sixty seconds.

Use it for the classic purposes of a sweep: finding a resonance by ear, characterising a room or a speaker across the range, testing a compressor or a gate with a signal that crosses every frequency, or producing a rising effect for a mix. When the sweep has to be repeated rather than performed once, the chirp generator is the tool that cycles; when presets and a reverse direction would save time, the frequency sweep generator wraps the same synthesis in a workflow.

How to use Sweep Tone Generator

Set the start and end frequencies for the range you want to cover.
Choose exponential for a musical-sounding sweep or linear for even hertz spacing.
Set the duration and the amplitude, then press generate.
Download the WAV, or view the result on a spectrogram to confirm the sweep shape.

When to use Sweep Tone Generator vs related tools

Sweep Tone Generator covers the single one-way glide from one frequency to another. Frequency Sweep Generator adds presets, a longer maximum duration and a reverse option for the same job, and Chirp Generator is the tool when the movement should repeat in a cycle. When the point of the signal is its harmonic content rather than its movement, Sine Wave Generator and Tone Generator are the steady references.

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