Octave Converter
Most oscillations in the universe are far too slow to hear. Double the frequency octave by octave, move it into the audible range and listen.
Convert
The mean 5-minute oscillation of the Sun's surface (Noyes 1963).
Each octave doubles the frequency; a negative value moves it down.
- Source frequency
- 3.33 × 10⁻³ Hz
- Factor
- 216 = 65,500
- Output
- 218.5 Hz · La3 −12 sent
- Time at the same factor
- One period would last 4.58 milliseconds.
This is an octave shift: frequency and time change by the same factor, and the ratios are kept. What you hear is not the source's own sound but a copy of it moved into the audible range.
The calculation
The output frequency is f × 2ⁿ: moving n octaves up multiplies the frequency by 2ⁿ. If a period is T, the source frequency is 1 / T. The same factor also speeds up time: an oscillation moved up 2ⁿ times lasts 2ⁿ times shorter.
This is the simplest mapping that keeps the data's ratios; published sonifications often combine several layers and other mappings. The Sound of the Universe journey