Sounds - Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community

mrap1 · 10-23-2003, 07:02 PM

I'm not sure if this is the right place for this but here goes:

In class today the prof. was talking about computer audio and how humans can only hear sounds between 20Hz-20KHz. He said that most people, especially as they get older, lose their hearing, and are only able to hear in a far more limited range. I was wondering if anyone knows of a webpage that has sounds at different frequencies that I can download so that I can test the range of my hearing. I'm especially curious because I'm constantly exposed to high levels of noise (train, traffic, ipod, etc.) living in NY. I know that there are doctors that do these tests, but I'd just like to do an informal experiment.

Scorpion23 · 10-23-2003, 07:55 PM

I don't know about wav files or something similar, but you can always do it with a little old school programming.

Get QBasic from http://download.microsoft.com/downlo...-US/olddos.exe
Then look under the built-in help for sound, here's a sample:

Quote:

From QBasic 1.1
SOUND frequency, duration

þ frequency The frequency of the sound in hertz; a value in the range 37 through 32,767.
þ duration The number of system clock ticks the sound lasts; a value in the range 0 through 65,535.
There are 18.2 clock ticks per second.

Example:
FOR i% = 440 TO 1000 STEP 5
SOUND i%, i% / 1000
NEXT i%

BTW, we used to have fun doing this on all the computers at school :-)

The_Dude · 10-23-2003, 08:09 PM

oh yes! i remember doing this.

we had truebasic installed and then we had the pc make sounds. one guy even programmed in the national anthem!

think of what happened when these sound files were inside a loop and the loop became infinite?

Scorpion23 · 10-26-2003, 12:22 PM

hehe, on some of the comp's with better pc speakers the frequency could go so high that it became hard to discern whether or not you could still hear it.
KrazyKemist actually took the time to make a program that cycled the sound frequency while flashing multi-colored shapes on the screen. Gave quite a headache in a fairly short amount of time.

cliche · 10-26-2003, 12:29 PM

If you want to do it really properly, you should set it up so that it plays the same pitch at gradually increasing volume; and you hit a key when you can hear it. Repeat for various pitches and you'll have a nice graph of your threshold at different frequencies. If you've been exposed to noise damage you tend to lose the high frequencies first.

anyway, that's what the Drs do...

mrap1 · 10-26-2003, 08:21 PM

I have no idea as to how to use this program. Isn't there something more modern that I can use?

10-23-2003, 07:02 PM	#1 (permalink)
mrap1 Insane Location: NY	Sounds I'm not sure if this is the right place for this but here goes: In class today the prof. was talking about computer audio and how humans can only hear sounds between 20Hz-20KHz. He said that most people, especially as they get older, lose their hearing, and are only able to hear in a far more limited range. I was wondering if anyone knows of a webpage that has sounds at different frequencies that I can download so that I can test the range of my hearing. I'm especially curious because I'm constantly exposed to high levels of noise (train, traffic, ipod, etc.) living in NY. I know that there are doctors that do these tests, but I'd just like to do an informal experiment.

10-23-2003, 08:09 PM	#3 (permalink)
The_Dude The GrandDaddy of them all! Location: Austin, TX	oh yes! i remember doing this. we had truebasic installed and then we had the pc make sounds. one guy even programmed in the national anthem! think of what happened when these sound files were inside a loop and the loop became infinite? __________________ "Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity." - Darrel K Royal

10-26-2003, 12:22 PM	#4 (permalink)
Scorpion23 Psycho	hehe, on some of the comp's with better pc speakers the frequency could go so high that it became hard to discern whether or not you could still hear it. KrazyKemist actually took the time to make a program that cycled the sound frequency while flashing multi-colored shapes on the screen. Gave quite a headache in a fairly short amount of time. __________________ "Empirically observed covariation is a necessary but not sufficient condition for causality" - Edward Tufte

10-26-2003, 12:29 PM	#5 (permalink)
cliche Rookie Location: Oxford, UK	If you want to do it really properly, you should set it up so that it plays the same pitch at gradually increasing volume; and you hit a key when you can hear it. Repeat for various pitches and you'll have a nice graph of your threshold at different frequencies. If you've been exposed to noise damage you tend to lose the high frequencies first. anyway, that's what the Drs do... __________________ I can't understand why people are frightened of new ideas. I'm frightened of the old ones. -- John Cage (1912 - 1992)

10-26-2003, 08:21 PM	#6 (permalink)
mrap1 Insane Location: NY	I have no idea as to how to use this program. Isn't there something more modern that I can use?