What is the difference between the square and pulse shapes?

Both switch between two fixed levels, but the square spends exactly half of each cycle high and the pulse spends a settable fraction. A pulse is therefore a square with a duty cycle you control, and the closer that duty gets to the extremes the thinner and brighter the tone becomes.

What does the phase control actually change?

Where in its cycle the waveform begins. At zero degrees a sine starts at zero and rises, while at ninety degrees it starts at its peak. The frequency content is identical either way, but the starting point matters when two generated tones will be mixed or compared.

Why does a high-frequency square sound harsh or odd?

Because these oscillators are not band-limited. A square contains odd harmonics at three, five, seven times the fundamental and beyond, and once those pass the Nyquist limit they fold back into the audible range as tones that were never part of the intended signal. That is aliasing, and it grows worse as the fundamental rises.

Can I generate a stereo tone?

No, every shape is written as a single channel. If two tones are needed in different ears, the binaural beat generator produces a stereo file with one frequency per channel, and a mono tone can be panned afterwards with the panning tool.

Is the amplitude setting a level in decibels?

It is a linear percentage of full scale, not a level. Fifty percent is about minus six decibels relative to full scale, and ten percent is about minus twenty. For work that needs a level stated in decibels, the test tone generator takes the value directly.

Tone Generator

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Tone Generator synthesises a steady tone in any of five wave shapes, with frequency, level, duration, phase and duty cycle under your control. It is the general-purpose oscillator that the single-shape generators specialise from.

What is Tone Generator?

Set the parameters, press generate, and a sixteen bit WAV appears with a player and a download link. Nothing is recorded and nothing is uploaded: the samples are computed from the numbers you entered, so the same settings always produce the same file.

The controls and what they do:

A wave shape selector offering sine, square, sawtooth, triangle and pulse, with the last one exposing an extra duty cycle control from five to ninety five percent.
Frequency from one hertz to twenty thousand, defaulting to the concert A at 440 hertz.
Duration from a tenth of a second to sixty seconds, defaulting to three.
An amplitude slider from one to one hundred percent of full scale.
A phase dial from zero to three hundred and fifty nine degrees, which shifts where the waveform starts.
A sample rate selector for 44.1 or 48 kilohertz, applied to every generated file.

The synthesis is a direct per-sample evaluation of the shape function on a phase accumulator, which is why the results are sample-exact at exact fractions of a period. The sine is a true trigonometric sine, the square and pulse switch between fixed levels according to the fractional part of the phase, the sawtooth ramps linearly and wraps, and the triangle rises and falls linearly with zero crossings at the quarter and three quarter points. One property is worth stating plainly: these are naive oscillators with no band-limiting, so a square, pulse or sawtooth at a high frequency contains harmonics above the Nyquist limit that fold back as aliasing. For measurement and referencing that is harmless, because the harmonic content is far below the listening band edge at normal frequencies; for anything musical, an anti-aliased oscillator in a synthesiser is the right tool instead. Two more details are worth knowing before a tone is trusted. First, the phase is computed as a product of frequency and time rather than by repeated addition, which keeps the frequency exact across the whole file and lets an awkward value such as 440.5 hertz stay accurate over a long duration. Second, the file is written at sixteen bit depth, so the noise floor belongs to the format rather than to the synthesis itself.

Where the tool stops short:

There is no band-limiting, so high-frequency shapes alias as described.
The output is mono for every shape, so no stereo width or per-channel offset is offered.
Amplitude is a linear percentage of full scale rather than a decibel value, so level references have to be converted by hand.
There is no envelope beyond the fixed start of the waveform, so tones begin and end abruptly unless the length happens to land on a zero crossing.
No frequency modulation, vibrato or glide is available; those live in the chirp, sweep and warble tools.
The maximum duration is one minute per generated file.

Use it when you need a defined tone at a defined level: checking a signal path, confirming a speaker or headphone works across the range, testing a recording chain, or producing a reference file to import elsewhere. When the shape is the only variable that matters, the single-shape generators present the same synthesis with fewer controls, and the test tone tool adds a decibel-referenced level and a burst envelope for measurement work.

How to use Tone Generator

Choose the wave shape, and set the duty cycle if you picked pulse.
Enter the frequency, duration and amplitude, and set the phase if the starting point of the waveform matters.
Pick the sample rate, then press generate to synthesise and encode the file.
Play the preview to check the tone, then download the WAV.

When to use Tone Generator vs related tools

Tone Generator is the general oscillator, so it is the right choice when the shape is an open question or when phase and duty need adjusting. Test Tone Generator adds a level expressed in dBFS and a repeating burst envelope for measurement, and Sine Wave Generator strips the choice back to one shape. When the frequency has to move rather than hold steady, Sweep Tone Generator and Chirp Generator cover the moving cases.

Privacy & Security

This tool runs entirely in your browser — no data ever leaves your device. There is no server round-trip, no upload, no logging, and no account required. Your input is processed locally using client-side JavaScript and is never stored, transmitted, or accessible to anyone else. When you close the tab, everything disappears.