Sine wave software for Mac

[ManFromGlass]

Has anyone found a sine wave generating plugin for Mac that is -
- Not too expensive
- Can create tones to 2 decimal places?

So far the internet has not been helpful but I’ll keep searching.
Logic can generate up to 1 decimal place but I need a bit more accuracy.
I’m assuming a hardware device would not be inexpensive.
Thanks.

[Wonks]

Do you mean output levels in dBFS to two decimal places? e.g. a sine wave with a peak value of -7.68dBFS or maybe an RMS value of -16.32dBFS?

[ajay_m]

Pro audio tone generator for android (from dutchmatic) will do stereo sine tones and turn your phone into a useful audio generator. It has 0.1Hz resolution up 1khz and then 1Hz after that. Not quite what you asked for but it's free and works well.

[James Perrett]

Reaper comes with a tone generator in the JS effects. Being a JS effect you can also modify it so that it works exactly as you want it to if the stock version isn't to your liking.

[R_A]

Has anyone found a sine wave generating plugin for Mac that is -
- Not too expensive
- Can create tones to 2 decimal places?

So far the internet has not been helpful but I’ll keep searching.
Logic can generate up to 1 decimal place but I need a bit more accuracy.
I’m assuming a hardware device would not be inexpensive.
Thanks.

Have you experimented with https://www.wavtones.com/functiongenerator.php ?

Costs USD 6.99

[sonics]

Try Melda MOscillator, it's free.

[pk.roberts]

If it doesn't need to specifically be a plug-in, then Audacity would also do the job.

[RichardT]

You could always use Logic and walk about a bit to exploit the Doppler effect!

This online tone generator claims to work to an accuracy of 0.001Hz:

https://www.szynalski.com/tone-generator/

[ManFromGlass]

Do you mean output levels in dBFS to two decimal places? e.g. a sine wave with a peak value of -7.68dBFS or maybe an RMS value of -16.32dBFS?

Apologies - I should have been clearer.
I’m helping out a not so musical coding nerd (!) and he wants frequencies like 1276.86 Hz, rather than 1276.8 Hz
I know I wouldn’t hear the difference but he is building an app that requires this kind of accuracy.

[James Perrett]

I’m helping out a not so musical coding nerd (!) and he wants frequencies like 1276.86 Hz, rather than 1276.8 Hz

The clue to generating them is in the name. My son has been generating sine waves in software since he was 8. He was always proud of how natural his computerised grass looked when it moved because the movement was a sine wave.

Of course they are also relying on the audio clock being that accurate - I wouldn't take that as given unless it is synchronised to a very accurate source.

[rockydennis]

Of course they are also relying on the audio clock being that accurate - I wouldn't take that as given unless it is synchronised to a very accurate source.

You are correct that coding is the best way. In C/C++ for example, the sin() function takes an angle (radians) argument that is float, double, or long double and the output is of the respective precision. So that's more than enough. (There isn't a way to write to .wav or audio formats in the standard libraries in C/C++, but there are downloadable libraries that can do this.)

The audio clock isn't relevant. To generate the sinudoid, it's sin(2*pi*n*f/samplerate) where n is the sample number. It's not sampling a continuous signal. It's calculating a sample at an exact incremented time.

[James Perrett]

The audio clock isn't relevant. To generate the sinudoid, it's sin(2*pi*n*f/samplerate) where n is the sample number. It's not sampling a continuous signal. It's calculating a sample at an exact incremented time.

It may not be relevant to the coder but it is relevant to the overall system.

[rockydennis]

It may not be relevant to the coder but it is relevant to the overall system.

How so? Unless I'm missing something. Say i'm generating a .wav file that's 44100 hz. I calculate a five sample signal -

for n=0 to 4
signal[n] = sin(2*pi*n*f/44100);
end

and then I write signal to an audio file. The calculations don't require any clock at all. The signal is a function of time, but it's at times, the values of which I specify. The time of each sample is n/44100 where n is an integer.

[BenWilesMusic]

The clock matters because the output frequency will only be completely accurate when produced by a speaker if the clock is exactly the same as the nominal sample rate. If the sample clock runs at 44101 Hz or 44099 Has when outputting CD audio the signal will be stretched accordingly (by around 0.002%) and the pitch will be higher or lower than the wav file output by the C code should be.

Note that (a) even on consumer equipment clocks are much more accurate than this and (b) such a small change in pitch would be imperceptible to the ear anyway. But if for some reason you wanted to hear a sine wave at "1276.86 Hz, rather than 1276.8 Hz" (a difference of 0.005%), clock drift might become relevant. And if you need that sort of accuracy, clock jitter messing up the purity of your sine wave might be a problem too.

This is if you want to transfer the signal into the analogue realm, of course. Within the perfect world of digital, the frequency is fixed and the sine wave is as true as it can be at that sample frequency and bit depth. As soon as you want to turn the maths into a real world phenomenon, though, clocks become an issue, and how accurate your clock needs to be will depend on how accurate you need it to be for your purposes.

[paulbyrne]

Since your friend is writing software perhaps they'd like to use https://csound.com/ as you can specifiy and compile wav files from the command line (and consequently in real time depending on kind of software your friend is writing).

[rockydennis]

Okay, but asking for software that generates a sine wave is assuming that the output is digital. And apps can only perform operations on digital signals. But yes, if it's to be converted to analog, and then back to digital for some reason, then yes, the clock comes into play

[ManFromGlass]

MOscillator will accept two decimal points but rounds up or down according to their graphics. But thanks for that suggestion. (I also upgraded to a newer version of Melda plugs and the install erased all the ones I paid for - grrr. Took a bit to get them back.)

The online generator has potential but I would have to record the tones through the internet into my DAW or digital recorder. Would an internet generated tone be accurate? How could one even answer that question. Ahhh but I could measure the final tones with DAW software, assuming it is accurate.

Still exploring the other suggestions. Thanks.

[sonics]

(I also upgraded to a newer version of Melda plugs and the install erased all the ones I paid for - grrr. Took a bit to get them back.)

Did you not select them on the plugin list page? Anyway, it remembers your selection for the next upgrade, which is as it should be.