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Program to play inaudible sound continuously

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Deozaan:
Old solutions for new problems....

I had an old Pentium I computer with a combo modem/soundcard that had issues staying connected to the internet when a system sound played (system would lock up just long enough to kick me offline), unless there was sound continuously flowing through the soundcard at all times. This meant playing music all the time, and usually keeping the speakers turned off if I didn't want to hear it, till I came across a small app capable of playing continuous low frequency tones that my cheap speakers were unable to produce. (25 Hz did the trick)

Flash forward to a couple of days ago, when a screwy Windows feature update, which I am unable to uninstall, messed up my bluetooth, so that no matter how I have the hardware settings configured, it turns Bluetooth off (to save power) when it thinks it is not in use. This is very BAD for a bluetooth mouse. I reported here about this issue in this thread, and was avoiding reinstalling that update for as long as possible, but Microsoft managed to automatically cram it down my throat when I recently rebooted my machine, despite having updates paused till some time in January.

BUT I noticed it doesn't cut off my mouse if I have sound playing through my bluetooth headphones. So, I am back to using that very old app, to generate a continuous 10 Hz tone, just so I can use my mouse.

I had to use the system volume mixer to set the volume of this app at a very low level, since my bluetooth headphones are capable of producing audible sound generated from this app, at even the lowest (10 Hz) setting.
-app103 (December 18, 2020, 11:13 PM)
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Do you have a link to that app, app?

About 6 months ago I moved my entire PC setup into another room, and when I plugged in my speakers to the power source (a surge protector), they made a very loud POP sound, and ever since then none of the audio jacks on my PC work. So now I've got a bluetooth speaker connected to my PC, but it has the unfortunate problem of taking half a second to "warm up" (or catch up?) whenever some audio is played for the first time after a few seconds of silence. And it's like it receives and plays that first half-second of audio all at once, making an unpleasant (and relatively loud) popping or crackling sound in the speaker as it begins to play audio.

I figure if I could trick it into thinking it is constantly playing audio, then it would stay "awake" and not have this issue. Then I remembered you mentioned playing an inaudible, low frequency sound to help with your BT issues and so here I am, asking about it. :D

Shades:
Then I remembered you mentioned playing an inaudible, low frequency sound to help with your BT issues and so here I am, asking about it. :D
-Deozaan (April 09, 2021, 06:39 PM)
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If, for example, you don't use Windows Media Player for anything, you could set it to play the same (tiny) audio file in a loop. Getting a 25Hz WAV file will be the hardest part to do in this workaround.

But if you do use Windows Media Player (?!?!!), you could substitute it for a simple portable audio-player with a tiny GUI that you can easily hide from view or one with no GUI at all. If this player doesn't have a 'loop' mode, you could use the Task Scheduler built into Windows to play the sound every 10 seconds for example. 

A tiny batch or powershell script can automate the few steps this workaround takes to play the sound, so it works with a simple double-click. Quick and easy.

Shades:
Overview from command-line audio players:
DLCPlayer
MPXplay (this one has a CUI, not a GUI)

You can create a WAV file with a 18Hz tone yourself with Audacity (open source). 18Hz was the frequency where I stopped hearing it. 25Hz was still as clear as day. Which is weird, as I am way closer to 50 than I like to admit and I have not been kind to my ears all those years. Or you could use the 10 seconds of glorious 18Hz WAV file I attached to this post.

Personally I prefer portable applications, so for my situation an example batch file would look like:

--- Code: PowerShell ---D:\PortableApps\MultiMedia\Audio\MPXplay\mpxp_mmc_x64.exe -pre D:\PortableApps\MultiMedia\Audio\MPXplay\18Hz_44100Hz_16bit_10sec.wav
Save this script as: Play_18Hz_continuously.bat     or    Play_18Hz_continuously.cmd    or    Play_18Hz_continuously.ps1

This would play the 18Hz file in a loop. Whenever you turn on your computer, you start this little script too and you'll have what you need.

And if you want to make sure it starts when your computer boots, you could also use the Windows Task Scheduler to configure a task that executes this script when your system boots. Then you don't even have to remember to activate it at all. 

KodeZwerg:
Hi there,
i did not read this full thread, just last post.

I did attached an executable CLI program that might help for that matter.
How it work? Total easy ofc.
Extract file somewhere and call the kzToneGenerator.exe program to test it.
You'll be asked for Hz, Duration and Volume.
When sound output is done, application does self terminate.

Definitions:
Hz = Hertz
Duration = count in milliseconds / 1000 = 1 second
Volume = range from 0 to 1 / 0 = 0% volume, 1 = 100% volume

If tests are good, you can call it with 3 parameters, you guessed right, again Hz, Duration and Volume are needed.
Example: "kzToneGenerator.exe 100 1000 0.5"  <<- would play a 100Hz sound for 1000ms(1sec) at half possible volume output.

Like it, tell me?!

Just a quicky made for you ;)


(you can rename .exe name to whatever you want, program is portable, program is freeware)

Technical details:
Compiler: Delphi  :-*
Channels: 1 (mono)
SamplesPerSec: 44100
BitsPerSample: 32
All done via WinApi  :-* :-* :-*

VirusTotal results:
Program to play inaudible sound continuously
I am sorry for two false-positives.

Deozaan:
Thank you very much for your response, Shades. Your suggestions look like adequate workarounds for my issue. :Thmbsup:

Example: "kzToneGenerator.exe 100 1000 0.5"  <<- would play a 100Hz sound for 1000ms(1sec) at half possible volume output.

Like it, tell me?! Just a quicky made for you ;)
-KodeZwerg (April 09, 2021, 10:53 PM)
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It works wonderfully. May I request a change to pass in -1 duration for it to play forever? Or possibly have it play forever until I press some input (such as Q) to stop it? If you don't want to bother with adding input checking, then I'm fine with being able to have it play forever and I can press ctrl-c to interrupt it.

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