Starting with the 3rd generation (?), iPods came equipped with the ability to design custom alarms. These are specified through ".tone" files.
A tone file is a text file, with the first line consisting of the header (usually just the tone name), followed by several lines of text, each line having 2 integers, separated by a space.
The first integer represents a frequency (in Hertz) and the second integer represents the duration (in milliseconds).
Here's an example of a tone file:
Beep
540 200
676 400
540 200
676 400
540 200
676 400
540 200
676 400
In this example alarm tone, a 540 Hz sound will be emitted for 200 milliseconds, followed immediately by a 676 Hz sound by 400 milliseconds, and so on, until the end of the file is reached.
The sounds are emitted by the iPod's piezoelectric speaker. The specific frequency range is unknown.
This directory contains some utilities for working with tone files. There is a Rust CLI utility, a Rust GUI, and a simple shell script.
Run the ipod_tone_player_gui binary.
You can edit tone files in real time, then either play them directly to your headphones/speakers, or save it to a WAV file.
The CLI binary is called ipod_tone_player_cli. It lets you basically do the same thing the GUI does.
(1) play the sounds encoded in a Tone file to your actual speakers/headphones (2) save the sounds encoded in a Tone file, to a WAV file
To play the sounds from your speakers/headphones, do:
./ipod_tone_player <TONE_FILE_PATH> --soundTo save the sounds to a WAV file, do:
./ipod_tone_player <TONE_FILE_PATH> --fileThe script mobo_tone_player.sh can be used to play tone files on your computer directly, using your motherboard's own piezo speaker (not your actual speakers/headphones!):
Simply run:
./mobo_tone_player.sh <PATH_TO_TONE_FILE>and you should hear the tone file being played.
Links to some fun tones to try out: