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F.A.Q. Frequently asked questions.

Square Tone Generator

Introducing the Square Wave

The ideal square wave is a periodic waveform made of instantaneous transitions between two levels. It consists of a sine wave of the same frequency (e.g. 100Hz) and all the odd harmonics to infinity (300Hz, 500Hz, 700Hz, ...) at decreasing levels.

Perfect square waves are a view of the mind. No real-world system has the infinite bandwidth required to produce instantaneous transitions. Travelling faster than light is impossible anyway!

Therefore, generating an square waveform in the digital "sampled" world is not as easy as it seems. Samples jumping from one level to the other will do the trick, but only poorly. Even the most complex algorithm will trade off sharp edges in the time domain with spectral purity. Our algorithm has been designed to deliver the purest tone instead of the best looking waveform.

The square wave compared to...

wav ↓	wav ↓	wav ↓	wav ↓
Square	Sine	Sawtooth	Triangle

Listen to how the square wave sounds in comparison to other classic waveforms such as the sine, sawtooth and triangle. Try to isolate the fundamental frequency by ear (it sounds equivalent to the sine tone) from its harmonics. Our default values are used here (1000Hz, 3s, -3dBFS).

.wav File Signal Generator

•	Digital Frequency Generator	•

•	Waveform ...... Sine •Square Sawtooth Triangle Frequency ..... 0Hz(DC)~SampleRate/2 Duration ...... 0.01~10s Level ......... -72~0dBFS Sample Rate ... 8·16·22.05·32·44.1·48kHz Output ........ Uncompressed .wav file (16bit) downloaded to disk	•

•	Frequency	Duration	Level	SampleRate	•
	Hz	s	dBFS	8 16 22.05 32 44.1 48 kHz

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External Links

• Online square tone generator (longer durations, up to 96kHz sampling frequency)
• Square wave @ Wikipedia
• Introduction to Electrical Waveforms

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