High frequencies being tested in the urban badlands: see, no teenagers here!
A lot of people find this site through searching for something along the lines of ‘Mosquito high frequency anti-teenager ringtone’, and are presumably disappointed when they find that there is no such ringtone to download, even if just because they’d like to test it on friends and family. (More on the Mosquito device) There’s also the more possibility of course of using the ringtone as a kind of ’secret ringtone’ that, supposedly, only younger people can hear, so you can receive text messages, etc, e.g. while in class, without adults noticing, though I’d have thought that was partially the point of the vibrate mode.
Anyway, I thought I might as well give those searching what they’re looking for, sort of.
EDIT (31.v.2006) : I’ve got rid of the mp3s, because even encoded with the LAME ‘insane’ (320kbps) preset, the sound was too different from the purer tone of the wave files. The whole point about mp3 as a lossy compression format is that it reduces the percentage of high frequencies that are (normally) less audible to humans: i.e., the high frequencies which are the whole point of this exercise are given much lower weighting.
30 second, 2.6 Mb wave files (produced using Audacity) are now available again, hosted at the Internet Archive (thanks for the tip, Andreas):
The above three files are hereby placed in the public domain.
Here too is a link to a BBC page where you can hear (and download) a 256kbps mp3 of the actual Mosquito sound - www.bbc.co.uk/wiltshire/…shtml.
I suppose MIDI files of the tones would be better: if anyone can supply these, this would be great.
Equally, I don’t know if the speakers in a typical mobile phone are set up to respond to frequencies in this range properly, so it may be that even the wave files will be useless when played using a phone.
Note: I’m only 23, but none of the above sound files sounds especially irritating to me (though my sound card and speakers may not be giving me the full effect that the Mosquito device itself would. I can hear the 20 kHz fine and it certainly wouldn’t drive me away: it’s similar to the hum an older TV or CRT might make.
EDIT (15.vi.2006 am) : This post is now fifth result in Google (UK) for ringtone download - wow! If only a few people would click on some of the ads, I might actually make a few quid…
EDIT (15.vi.2006 pm) : Wow, that dropped out quickly! By this afternoon the site wasn’t even in the first 10 pages of results…
Some of these files might be more fun to test: http://www.dogstar.dantimax.dk/testwavs!
OK, I’ve just found that the Teen Buzz ringtone specifically modelled on the Mosquito already exists - listen here at Orange Days or download it (torrent here)
(Via http://www.beloblog.com/ProJo_Blogs)
Guess I should have checked Boing Boing before posting this, or at least should have posted it last night when I was messing round with the frequencies rather than this morning!
Still, there’s some more variety in the samples above.
I’m 36 and can hear them all???
Hi Dan.
Saw your post above and linked to it on my blogpost about Teen Buzz if that’s OK with you.
This is my first visit here and will return. You have some interesting stuff to say.
Thanks
Luke.
The mp3s are useless, because the high frequences are cut during the compression. You can open them in a programm like Adobe Audition, then select Spectral Frequency Display, and you will see, that your 56 kbps mp3s are cut at 10 (!!!) kHz. So no wonder, you can’t hear anything. They must be 320 kbps to preserve frequencies up to 20 kHz.
Same here - I’m 33 and can easily hear all of them.
that czech translation of your error page is f*ing funny
I only put it up because 86% of the visitors to this site are coming from this story mobil.idnes.cz/…/telefony_dno! Yeah, I’m sure it makes no sense, since I just ran the message through a free translator. That’s pretty slack, but then I’m at work and at present I haven’t got time to try to sort it out properly, unfortunately.
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=0XJENM4F
mosquito tone modified can be found here
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=0XJENM4F
My mosquito revamped tones have been converted to mp3 and the frequencies are there
virutally inaudiable to over 30’s
tone2 is annoying, especially to under 16’s, because of the multiple tones at the various frequencies
hm2075@hotmail.com —> creator of mosquito revamped
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=0XJENM4F
mosquito revamped
tone2 is highly annoying to under 16’s due to the multiple frequencies
hm2075@hotmail.com creator of mosquito revamped
Isnt it a kind of hoax? - lets see http://www.museumofhoaxes.com/hoax/weblog/comments/4160/
Instead of hosting the audio files on your own server, you could also upload them to the Internet Archive.
Thanks Andreas, that’s a good tip. I will get on & do that later today. Cheers!
weird, I can’t hear anything on the 20 but I can hear the 17.5 and the 15 just fine
ahoj ja sem z cech /// it means - hi i am from czech/// i played my fother a sound witch frequency was 20kHz and he heard it!
he is 40 years old
Just a heads-up, it takes really good speakers to play the high-frequency sounds. Often, speakers play the sounds but VERY faintly.
A free speaker test!
I think this is just one more gimick/fad
to spark up an already dumbed down teen
population and giving them a cheap sense of superiority against “those old people” who because they can’t hear a bug noise to soothe their already fragile psyche and make them feel better. The frequency response through an average head phone or speaker is below the mosquito sound level anyway
a case of THE EMPEROR’S NEW CLOTHES. read you equipment specs- better yet just read and stop trying to ride every trivial trend.
good thank
From http://blog.orgday.org/2006/05/25/teen-buzz/, an interesting extra development of the idea:
# 207 Jason Thomas on Jul 2nd, 2006 said:
why should the high frequency inventions stop here? firts poleice use it to drive kids away from loitering, now cell phone ring tones. I am curently workign on a project that im calling MicroSound. it is goign to be a program similer to MicrosoftSam (type words in and he says them.) except this will generate Sounds between 13000Hz and 15000Hz that will make out words. it will be a great way to cheat on tests becasue all the students will be able to hear it, but teachers wont be able to.
sorry, boys you´ll be happy, that I am not your teacher. I am 51 old lady from Prague (Czech republic)and can hear all and strong, hehehe!
once you hear it once it just keeps ringing in you ears even when it not on it is so annoying
age 13
im gunna make a device that will destroy mobiles in 100 meter radius, then we will see who gets annoyed
I´m 26 and the sound is very unpleasant.
привет нифига не понятно
i can hear the 15 and 17.5 but i cnt hear the 20khz so the 17.5 is now my ringtone
i found the thing but how do you make it your ringtone?
Im downloading lots of teen buzzez but my parents can hear all of them! they are 36 and 40 years old!
I am a about a month and half from 33, and I can hear all 3 of these files.
Hey Dan!!
Regarding the dogstar testwav, one of the files really gonna kill me..
It’s the 20Hz to over 20kHz octave file or something like tat..
The higher it gets, the louder and more piercing the sound.. Gosh, it’s really painful to my ears at the ending, and i’m 23 this year.. No problem listening to the 3 files too.
My parents can listen Teen Buzz! This is bad!
im 20 from HK…
i cant hear that 20kHz…>
chtel bychsi stahnout wav tokio hotel srai
I want Teen Buzz..thanks
slyším :-)…boded ne, je mi 14, ale mamce je 40 a slyší to taky :(…a většina učitelů, ať to vypnem :(((((((( :D:D:D !!!!!
yeah dude my parents cant hear the ringtone i foundo n other sites but they can hear yours
(I’m French) If anyone would like to get these teen buzzes, just turn on the cellphone function “recorder” and let’s record the sounds! ^^ (I was able to hear the 20khz ringtone, I’m 18…)
i am 12 and i cannot hear the ringtone what should i do?
can i listen
to it
I am 55 years old (56 in November)and I certainly and painfully can hear these tones. Is this why I cannot stand to remain in some stores and malls?
MIDI files would actually not be possible since MIDI DOES NOT contain Audio. It’s just a list of information (what instrument to play, when, what note and how loud) for a synthetiser (eg a sound card on a computer).
be careful not to blow out your speakers…….
Wow,if you can here 20khz then the sound isn’t right. I’m 15 and I can barely hear the 20khz. If your computer can’t produce the sound (or the speakers) then all it does is produce the sound at a lower frequency or just not produce it at all.