Still having difficulty Creating Test Tones

[John Johnson 10]

I am still having an impossible difficulty creating test tones in Audition. I want to have 19 kHz and 20 kHz sine waves at 24/192 sampling. When I create the tones, the base tone is 1 kHz. I set the level at -5 dB. I set the multiplier to be 19 and 20 but it won't go above 12. I set the duration at 1 minute. When I play the tones, it clips. It will not play them at - 5 dB. Audition is some of the worst crap software I have ever used. Just impossible.

[John Johnson 10]

Finally, it listed the multipliers at 19 and 20, but when I play the tones, it is still clipped. When I save the tones and play it in another program, it is still clipped. What the hell is wrong with this?

[John Johnson 10]

I am going to have to pay one of you to create the test tones for me. I am just finding it impossible. Please send your quotation to me at {redacted - no personal email addresses allowed on forum - mod}

[John Johnson 10]

I have cancelled my Adobe Creative Cloud subscription, so I will need one of you to create the test tones for me and I will pay you. It is not worth my time to figure out how to use this crap.

[SteveG_AudioMasters_]

https://forums.adobe.com/people/No+Friggin+Screen+Name  wrote

I have cancelled my Adobe Creative Cloud subscription, so I will need one of you to create the test tones for me and I will pay you. It is not worth my time to figure out how to use this crap.

And I am beginning to think that it's not worth our time trying to explain it to you. We try to do our best by people, but I'm afraid there are limits to this, and you're pushing them.

[John Johnson 10]

Well, you don't seem to have an understanding of test tones. The modulation of one frequency against another is the exact result I am looking for. It's called Intermodulation Distortion (IMD). The modulation produces distortion peaks at 1 kHz (20 kHz minus 19 kHz, called the B minus A peak), and occasionally peaks on either side of the 19 kHz and 20 kHz peaks depending on how susceptible a preamp or power amp under test is subject to IMD. The problem is that the test tone that is created by Audition produces clipping, which I have not seen before in a 19 kHz, 20 kHz test tone. I have been doing this for 25 years and never experienced this problem. I see I made the right decision in cancelling my Adobe Creative Cloud subscription.

[John Johnson 10]

I finally managed to get a test tone track with two frequencies in each channel, with no clipping, by setting the level to be minus 10 dB.

[John Johnson 10]

Now I am having difficulty again, this time creating the test tone at 19 kHz. The base frequency is 1 kHz, but the multiplier window says 12 instead of 19. I tried changing it to 19, but it reverted to 12.

When I saved the test tone and tested it in a spectrum analyzer, the frequency is indeed 12 kHz and not 19 kHz. Big problem. This happened with Audition CS6 and CC 2018 but is variable in its occurrence.

[SteveG_AudioMasters_]

https://forums.adobe.com/people/No+Friggin+Screen+Name  wrote

Well, you don't seem to have an understanding of test tones. The modulation of one frequency against another is the exact result I am looking for. It's called Intermodulation Distortion (IMD). The modulation produces distortion peaks at 1 kHz (20 kHz minus 19 kHz, called the B minus A peak), and occasionally peaks on either side of the 19 kHz and 20 kHz peaks depending on how susceptible a preamp or power amp under test is subject to IMD. The problem is that the test tone that is created by Audition produces clipping, which I have not seen before in a 19 kHz, 20 kHz test tone. I have been doing this for 25 years and never experienced this problem. I see I made the right decision in cancelling my Adobe Creative Cloud subscription.

I think you'll find that I have a rather more comprehensive understanding of test tones than you do, judging from what you've said. You do not get distortion when you modulate one tone with another - you just get modulation; that's how it works. The peaks are not inherently distorted - if they were, then the entire world of radio transmission wouldn't work... and what are you trying to play these tones back via? You need one hell of a good sound device if it's not going to add itself to any IM value you determine, which is why it's generally not a good idea to attempt this on a single channel.

And if you understood how digital audio works, then you'd understand why creating two tones at 0dB in one file is going to lead to a result that will attempt to exceed 0dB - this is straightforward dB addition. This is basic stuff, and that's where your distortion is coming from - it's not a modulation side effect at all. Intermodulation distortion is caused by mixing two signals in a non-linear device, and it is not an inherent property of the signals themselves.

As for your use of multipliers - well it doesn't make a scrap of sense, and in your example, all you have is an unachievable value for a resultant frequency. If you look at the example I posted above, you'll see how to do this properly. It does not start with 1kHz.

[John Johnson 10]

Poor explanation. I can see I made the right decision to go elsewhere.

[SteveG_AudioMasters_]

https://forums.adobe.com/people/No+Friggin+Screen+Name  wrote

Poor explanation. I can see I made the right decision to go elsewhere.

Since there is an overwhelming amount of evidence here that my explanations are anything but poor (I have 14000+ points for doing this whilst you have 12, and they were just for voting) then I think that statement says more about your ability to understand simple explanations than anything about me. So what's demonstrably poor here appears to be - from the evidence - your comprehension.

There is no point in continuing this discussion, therefore the thread is closed.

[SteveG_AudioMasters_]

https://forums.adobe.com/people/No+Friggin+Screen+Name  wrote

I am still having an impossible difficulty creating test tones in Audition. I want to have 19 kHz and 20 kHz sine waves at 24/192 sampling. When I create the tones, the base tone is 1 kHz. I set the level at -5 dB. I set the multiplier to be 19 and 20 but it won't go above 12. I set the duration at 1 minute. When I play the tones, it clips. It will not play them at - 5 dB. Audition is some of the worst crap software I have ever used. Just impossible.

Blaming the software for one's own lack of understanding is, unfortunately, quite common, as you demonstrate.

If we look at the settings you are trying to use, we'd end up with the two frequencies on the same channel, and they will modulate each other - you'll end up with two effects. The first is, of course, amplitude modulation, and the second is straightforward dB addition. But if that's what you want, then you haven't gone about it very sensibly, I'm afraid. If you start with a base frequency of 19kHz, and use the correct multiplier, then generating the 20kHz signal is easy:

And you reduce the output amplitude by 6dB to take account of the dB addition.

If you want the 19 and 20kHz signals on separate channels, then you have to use the method explained to you ad nauseum on the other thread.

The tone generator is behaving exactly as the Laws of Physics say it should.