White
0 dB / octave
Equal energy at every frequency. Because we hear in octaves, it sounds bright and hissy — the classic "TV static".
Audio effects.
Delay, reverb, chorus, flanger, phaser, wah and more, on a guitar, drums, a synth or a voice. Switch the effect on and off, turn its knobs, and watch what it does to the sound.
Now playing
Deep sleep
Listen to each effect
Tap an effect to play it, and again to pause. Choose what plays through it below the cards, and use the sliders to go from dry to full effect, or to change its depth and speed.
How audio effects work
Most effects are built from a few simple tricks. A delay plays the sound again a moment later; make that moment short and let it waver, and two copies of a sound add and cancel at different frequencies, which gives chorus, flanger and phaser their swirl. Changing the volume over and over makes tremolo; changing the pitch makes vibrato.
Others reshape the wave itself. Distortion squashes its peaks and adds new harmonics; a bitcrusher keeps fewer steps of level and fewer samples a second; a wah sweeps a narrow filter through the sound; a ring modulator multiplies it by a tone, replacing every frequency with a pair of new ones. Reverb adds thousands of tiny echoes, the way a room does.
Facts that often get mixed up
- Tremolo and vibrato have long been swapped: Fender called the tremolo on its amplifiers “vibrato”, and the Stratocaster’s “tremolo arm” actually bends the pitch, which is vibrato.
- Flanging is said to have been named after a finger pressed on the flange, the rim, of a tape reel, slowing one of two machines playing the same recording.
- The Leslie speaker, built by Don Leslie in the 1940s, spins a horn inside a cabinet: what you hear is the Doppler effect, plus the sound turning towards you and away.
- The Daleks of Doctor Who got their voices from a ring modulator: an actor’s voice multiplied by a low tone.
| Effect | What it does | Where you have heard it |
|---|---|---|
| Delay / echo | Repeats the sound after a set time, each repeat quieter | Dub reggae, U2’s guitar, vocal echoes |
| Reverb | Thousands of reflections, like a room or a hall | Almost every recording |
| Chorus | Adds copies 15–30 ms late, their delay wavering | Clean 1980s guitar, string pads |
| Flanger | A copy 1–10 ms late, sweeping, fed back: a moving comb | The jet-plane whoosh in 1960s and 70s rock |
| Phaser | All-pass filters move a few notches through the sound | 1970s guitar and electric piano |
| Tremolo / vibrato | Volume wavering / pitch wavering | Surf guitar / singers and violins |
| Distortion | Clips the wave and adds harmonics | Rock and metal guitar |
| Wah / ring modulator | A sweeping filter / multiplying by a tone | Funk guitar / robot and alien voices |
What is the difference between chorus, flanger and phaser?
All three mix a sound with a changing copy of itself. Chorus uses longer delays (about 15–30 ms) that waver, so it sounds like several players; flanger uses very short delays with feedback, a strong comb that sweeps; phaser uses all-pass filters, a few softer notches that move.
What is the difference between delay and reverb?
A delay repeats the sound as distinct echoes. Reverb is so many reflections, so close together, that you hear them as one smooth tail, like a room.
Are these real guitar pedals?
They are our own effects, built the way classic pedals work, running in your browser on our own guitar, drums, synth and voice.
Mixes
Pick what you need. One tap to start, change anything and save it as your own.
Focus timer
Work in waves.
The Pomodoro rhythm: focus with calm sound in your ears, then take a real break. A soft bell marks every change, so you never watch the clock. Every fourth break is a long one.
Every fourth break is twice as long.
25:00Focus · 1 of 4
Sound while you work
Breathe
Slow your breathing down.
Follow the circle and the sound: it rises as you breathe in and falls as you breathe out. Choose a rhythm, or set your own, and pick what plays underneath.
Ready
Sound while you breathe
Noise generator
Any color of noise, from deep brown to bright violet — and everything in between.
Brown noise
Spectrum · 20 Hz – 20 kHz
Sound science
The colors of noise
Same randomness, different tilt. Each color shifts energy between low and high pitches — here is what that sounds like.
Pink
−3 dB / octave
Equal energy in every octave, so it sounds even to the ear. Steady rain, rustling leaves. A favorite for focus.
Brown
−6 dB / octave
Deep and warm, like a distant waterfall or a plane cabin. Masks voices and traffic without any hiss.
Grey
Equal-loudness curve
Shaped around how our hearing works, so every pitch seems equally loud. Balanced and soft.
Blue
+3 dB / octave
The mirror of pink: more treble than bass. Airy, crisp, like a light spray.
Violet
+6 dB / octave
Mostly treble, like hissing water. Sometimes used to mask high-pitched ringing.
Calm
Gentle tones to settle into: singing bowls, a slow warm drone, wind chimes tuned so every note fits.
Frequencies
Famous tones on pages of their own: hear them side by side, with honest facts.
Sound phenomena
How sound bends, shifts, rings and fools the ear, and why space is silent: hear it for yourself.
Nature
Rooms & travel
Animals & countryside
A purring cat, whales and dolphins, a nightingale in the dark, cowbells on a summer pasture. Wonderful in stereo.
For babies
Womb sounds are what a baby heard for nine months: a deep rush of blood flow, and the heartbeat.
Hearing and speaker tests
Check your ears, headphones and speakers, each test on a page of its own with a live picture.
Ear Age · 60 seconds
Test your ears.
Our ears lose the highest pitches first, and it starts early. Find the highest tone you can still hear and see the typical age for it.
- Headphones on, quiet room
- Set a comfortable volume on the 1 kHz tone
- Don't turn it up when a tone disappears — that's the point
Step 1 · Volume
Play the reference tone and set your volume so it's clear but comfortable. Leave it there.
Step 2 · Listen
8,000Hz
Your result
8k12k16k20k
A rough guide, not a diagnosis. Your phone, headphones and even this browser can cut the highest tones. Worried about your hearing? See an audiologist.
More ear tests
Check your headphones, find the deepest bass your setup can play, or play any pitch you like.
Headphones check
Left & right
Each ear should get its own side. It matters for 8D, binaural beats and every stereo sound here.
Headphones on, then tap a side.
Bass test
How low can you go?
Deep tones from 200 Hz down to 20 Hz, the bottom of human hearing. Mostly it tests your speakers or headphones.
200Hz
Your setup plays down to
Tone generator
Any pitch, 20 Hz – 20 kHz
Hz
Start quiet: high tones and square waves get tiring fast.
Take it to bed
An app without the app store.
Add Ears & Waves to your home screen and it opens like any app — full screen, with its own icon. Everything it needs is saved on your device, so it keeps playing on a plane, in a tent or with Wi-Fi off.
Preparing offline mode…
- Works offlineNo streaming. Sound is computed on your device, forever.
- Screen offKeeps playing with the phone locked. The timer fades it out gently.
- PrivateNo account, no ads, no cookies. Your mixes stay on your device.
