While Audacity is mostly designed as recording and editing software, there are a variety of interesting features embedded within it. One of my favorites is the Chirp generator. By playing an Audacity chirp on loop, it’s possible to simulate a variety of alarms.

What you’ll need for this exploration:

• Audacity (see Step 1 for download link)
• Speakers or headphones.

Step 1:

Open up Audacity. If you don’t already have it, you can download your free copy at audacity.sourceforge.net.

Step 2:

Under “Generate” tab, select Chirp.

You will see a number of settings. Play around with them; each modification changes the sound and character of the chirp a little. For our purposes, keep the Time Interval small ( < 0.5 seconds). I also recommend changing Interpolation to logarithmic, as it gives a better alarm sound overall.

Step 3:

Click the button which will generate the sound for you.

Step 4

Press Shift+Play (for looping) and enjoy your creation.

Step 5 (optional)

Export as an MP3 and post it to Soundcloud, and then post a link in the comments below. I’d like to hear what you’ve come up with!