Experimental Audio Tools
Two sound-design experiments for extreme time-stretch drones and generated noise textures, both running on your device like every other Audio Lab tool.
Which tool do you need?
| If you want to… | Use | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Turn a short clip into a long ambient drone | Extreme Time Stretch | Spectral time-stretching up to 100× turns transients into slowly evolving texture. |
| Build a cinematic pad from a field recording or a chord | Extreme Time Stretch | Window-size control shapes how smooth or granular the stretched result sounds. |
| Stretch a vocal phrase into something unrecognizable | Extreme Time Stretch | Extreme stretch ratios move well past a normal slowdown into abstract texture. |
| Build harsh, distorted noise textures | Noise Music Generator | Drive, bitcrushing, and ring modulation combine for aggressive, layered noise. |
| Bitcrush a sample for a broken, lo-fi texture | Noise Music Generator | Adjustable bit depth and sample-rate reduction for a deliberately degraded sound. |
| Generate metallic, ring-modulated tones from any input | Noise Music Generator | A ring modulator with adjustable frequency, plus delay and tremolo, for metallic and warped textures. |
The lab tools 2
Harsh-noise and distortion playground with a capped delay and panic stop.
Experimental FXWhat the lab section is for
The lab is where Audio Lab keeps tools built for sound design and experimentation rather than everyday editing tasks. They run entirely on your device, are free with no sign-up, and follow the same waveform, preview, and export patterns as the rest of the site, so nothing about how you use them is unfamiliar. The difference is intent: a lab tool is meant for stretching, breaking, or generating sound in ways a typical editing or effects tool wouldn't attempt, and the results are often closer to raw material for a project than a finished, radio-ready track.
Because these are experimental by design, treat their output as something to shape further rather than a final deliverable straight out of the box. Extreme settings can produce results that are genuinely unpredictable — that's the point of a granular stretch pushed to 100× or a noise generator with every control turned up — so previewing before you commit to a long render is worth doing here more than almost anywhere else on the site.
Evaporator vs. the noise laboratory
Evaporator takes a short sound and stretches it, sometimes up to 100 times its original length, using a spectral technique that smears transients into long, evolving drones rather than simply slowing playback down. It runs in a background worker so you can keep working while a long stretch renders, with a progress indicator and the ability to cancel. It's built for turning almost any source — a chord, a field recording, a vocal phrase — into ambient material, not for keeping a recognizable version of the original at extreme settings.
The noise laboratory goes in the opposite direction: instead of smoothing a sound out, it roughens one up, with distortion drive, a bitcrusher, a ring modulator, delay, and tremolo that you can push as hard as you want. A limiter on the output and a panic-stop shortcut keep runaway feedback and volume in check while you experiment. Where evaporator asks "how far can this sound stretch before it loses its shape," the noise laboratory asks "how harsh can this get while staying listenable," and the two rarely produce results you'd mistake for each other.
Frequently asked questions
Why are these tools labeled experimental?
They're built for sound design rather than the everyday editing tasks most of Audio Lab covers, and their extreme settings can produce unpredictable results. That's intentional, but it's a different kind of tool than something like the EQ or trimmer, so the lab label sets that expectation up front.
Could these tools change more than the rest of Audio Lab?
They're smaller, newer additions than the core 36 tools, so treat them as more likely to evolve. The underlying processing — on-device, free, no sign-up — follows the same principles as everything else on the site.
Is the noise laboratory safe to turn all the way up?
The output passes through a limiter, and a panic-stop shortcut (Esc) cuts sound immediately, both specifically because pushing distortion, feedback, and delay to their limits can otherwise get loud fast. Keep your playback volume moderate while you're exploring extreme settings, especially with headphones.
Can evaporator process a long song, or just short clips?
It accepts the same files as other Audio Lab tools, but extreme stretch ratios on a long source take a while to render and produce a very long output, up to about 10 minutes. Short clips, a few seconds to a couple of minutes, are the more practical starting point.
Are the lab tools free and processed on my device like everything else?
Yes. Both lab tools are free, require no sign-up, and process audio entirely in your browser, with nothing uploaded to a server.