Is there an app for that? Sound frequency identifier not audible

September 26, 2022 3:34 PM

Long story short... I think I'm being affected by sounds that are *just* outside of my hearing range... maybe Is there an app that can tell me the levels of the noises I shouldn't be able to hear? (more explanation inside... but that's the main question)

New neighbor started playing really loud sound a few days after he moved in on the floor above me. Not music, just sound. Super low bass kinda pulsating but not like EDM or anything. Punctuated by tones of various frequencies and various amplitude. No melody... just noise. So loud that I could hear it over everything else in my apartment.

I knocked on the door after 24 hours of this, no answer. Couple hours later knocked again and they answered. Don't think they were expecting me. Anyways they said they didn't realize it was that loud and turned it down. Still always on. I can't express how annoying it is.

Anyways I was home sick Friday and had enough and knocked again, no answer. Left a note on the door explaining that I was home sick and could they please turn it down again. It was turned down maybe an hour later.

So for almost a full 24 hours it was fantastic, dead silence like it used to be.

It's been back on for a while now. I think it's back to full volume but they have tried to mask the sound. I can just barely hear it, but I can *feel* it. It makes me feel like I need to pop my ears, it makes my ears ring, it makes me feel like there's pressure inside my head. It's hard to describe.

So I'm looking for a way to visualize it. Because once I step out of my apartment I stop feeling that way. So there must be a difference, maybe?

Also if you have any idea what purpose this kind of sound serves let me know please because the curiosity is killing me too.

posted by one4themoment to Technology (10 answers total)

White noise generator (for relaxation/blocking external sounds)?
posted by toastedcheese at 3:44 PM on September 26, 2022

I can definitely hear music that I can't quite hear - I had a relative who'd leave their walkman playing quietly with the headphones connected and I could always just feel/hear the tinny-ness of it even when I couldn't strictly hear it. I can also hear when a TV is on without any sound. When I was a kid, my friends and I agreed that we could hear a tube TV on mute even while just standing on the lawn of a neighbour's house. It wasn't quite a sound, but I felt it as my neck-hairs standing on end (my parents thought I was nuts, lol). Those are high frequencies, but it must also be true for low frequencies. So I just want to validate that yes, you definitely can kind of "feel" frequencies that are just out of your hearing range.
posted by nouvelle-personne at 3:47 PM on September 26, 2022 [2 favorites]

Low frequencies travel *through* things. High frequencies are easy to baffle and diffuse. The physical properties of soundwaves traveling through a building can easily rob rock and roll (e.g.) of discernible rhythm from a different unit.
posted by aspersioncast at 4:18 PM on September 26, 2022 [5 favorites]

Best answer: You want to get an audio spectrum analyzer app. It can show a spectrogram of what is being recorded, graphing the loudness of frequencies over time, including those outside of "normal" human hearing. Unfortunately you're going to be limited by the sensitivity of your phone's microphone, which is tuned to the range of human hearing of 20-20,000Hz. If the sound is just outside that, you might get something.

What nouvelle-personne is describing is the frequency of the flyback transformer inside CRT TVs, which is at 15.734 kHz. That's quite high and is outside of the hearing range of a lot of people, especially those over 40, as those high frequencies can roll off significantly with age. But it's probably low enough to be captured by a phone's microphone.

I think the only way you're going to find out what is generating the sound is asking them what it is.
posted by zsazsa at 4:25 PM on September 26, 2022 [4 favorites]

Ignoring everything but the first question:

Yes, there are lots of devices made to listen to bats and other high-frequency phenomena.

There are also phone plugin dongles that claim decent high-frequency response to detect/listen to bats. I cannot vouch for any of these products but I am interested in listening to high-frequency sounds and have been shopping for stuff like this.
posted by SaltySalticid at 4:35 PM on September 26, 2022 [1 favorite]

They have their sub-woofer on, and you are hearing the low frequency bass sounds. I fully know how you feel after having gone through a similar experience after a new neighbor moved in a couple of years ago. I had to have a couple of talks and explain how the bass sounds comes through the walls and how it was rattling our windows and glass cabinets.

Each time I’d ask them to please turn off the sub-woofer and after a few times of this, I think they have disconnected the sub-woofer because we don’t hear those sounds anymore. I was friendly and even introduced myself first with a box of donuts before I brought up this issue. This worked so far with this neighbor. (There was another neighbor in the past where we had to call the cops late night after a lot times trying to knock on their door because the noise was so loud).

There is no way to block out these low frequencies from your end, they go through walls, so the only solution is to talk to your neighbor and make them understand that shared walls means we all have to help each other out to have a peaceful home life. You could explain how it is affecting your sleep and even a sense of peace during daylight hours. Good luck!
posted by thewildgreen at 4:48 PM on September 26, 2022 [2 favorites]

Best answer: The category of apps designed to do this are called "Real Time Analyzer(s)", the one I have is called Octave RTA, but it costs money.

Here's a free one for iOS, having never used it I can't vouch for the quality, but Octave RTA is very sensitive and picks up low frequencies that I can barely hear.
posted by jeremias at 5:30 PM on September 26, 2022

Best answer: On Android, NoiseCapture works quite well, and is designed for noise nuisance measurement and reporting
posted by scruss at 10:13 AM on September 27, 2022

Response by poster: The apps all worked in their own way and were helpful!

The "tones" came up as 251hz give or take in each app, and with some googling I found "binaural beats" which is very similar to what I'm hearing! The bass sound is around 125hz. Also found that in binaural. If you put the two together (I couldn't find them already together but I didn't look long) it's almost exactly what I'm hearing. Which at least satisfies my curiosity about the "what even is this").

Unfortunately while both are annoying to hear 24/7, they aren't the sound that I'm "feeling" they are the sound I can actually hear and match up with what shows on the app.

So it looks like I actually will need better equipment to really get a full picture. I think there's something much lower (or higher?) that the phone mic isn't picking up any better than my ears are.

Thanks for the help everyone :)

(ps nouvelle-personne yes the old tube tvs!! and some power supplies as well)
posted by one4themoment at 4:48 PM on September 28, 2022

Response by poster: Here's what it looks like on the NoiseCapture app when I sit real still trying not to make a sound google drive link.
posted by one4themoment at 5:02 PM on September 28, 2022