How is the timing calculated?

It follows the PARIS standard. One dit (dot) lasts 1.2 divided by the words-per-minute setting, in seconds. A dash is three dits, the gap inside a letter is one dit, between letters three dits, and between words seven dits.

What characters can it encode?

All 26 letters, the digits 0 through 9, and common punctuation including period, comma, question mark, slash, parentheses, and the at sign. Unsupported characters are skipped. Spaces become word gaps.

Does it actually make sound?

Yes. It synthesises sine-wave tones live with the Web Audio API rather than playing a recording. Short fade-in and fade-out ramps on each beep avoid the clicking you would otherwise hear at tone edges.

Why does nothing play on the first click sometimes?

Browsers require a user gesture before audio can start. Because you press the Play button, the audio context is created on that click, so it should work. If you hear nothing, check your system volume and that the tab is not muted.

What speed should beginners use?

Many learners use the Farnsworth idea of fast characters with longer gaps, but a simple start is 10 to 13 words per minute at a clear pitch around 600 hertz. Increase the WPM slider gradually as your ear improves.

What is the Morse Code Audio Player?

Convert text to Morse code and hear it played as real dot and dash tones using the Web Audio API. Adjustable speed in words per minute and tone pitch, with PARIS-standard timing. Runs entirely in your browser. It runs free in your browser on Gera Tools, with nothing uploaded.

Morse Code Audio Player

Name: Morse Code Audio Player
Creator: Gera Tools
License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Reading Morse on paper is one thing; recognising it by ear is another. This player turns your text into Morse and plays it as real audio tones, so you can practise listening, test a key’s timing, or just hear what a message sounds like in code.

How it works

Each character is looked up in the international Morse table and turned into a string of dots and dashes. Playback timing uses the PARIS standard, where one dit (dot duration) equals 1.2 / WPM seconds:

dit             = 1.2 / wpm   (seconds)
dot tone        = 1 dit on
dash tone       = 3 dits on
gap in a letter = 1 dit silence
gap between letters = 3 dits silence
gap between words   = 7 dits silence

Tones are generated by scheduling Web Audio oscillator notes at the right times and durations, with tiny volume ramps to prevent clicks at tone edges.

The PARIS standard explained

The word PARIS is used as the calibration word because it takes exactly 50 dits to transmit in standard Morse: .-. .- .-. .. .... At 20 words per minute, each dit lasts 1.2 / 20 = 0.06 seconds. A dash lasts three times as long (0.18 s), and a word gap seven dits (0.42 s). This deterministic relationship means any two operators running the same WPM setting hear identical timing, which is how Morse contests and amateur radio operators report speed.

The international Morse character set

The tool encodes all 26 letters (A–Z), digits 0–9, and common punctuation:

Character	Morse	Character	Morse
A	`.-`	0	`-----`
E	`.`	5	`.....`
S	`...`	?	`..--..`
T	`-`	/	`-..-.`
O	`---`	,	`--..--`

Unsupported characters are skipped; a space becomes a word gap.

Learning to copy by ear: practical tips

Start slow, then speed up. Begin at 10–13 WPM where you can consciously count dots and dashes. As patterns become familiar, raise the WPM slider — your goal is to hear each character as a sound pattern, not a sequence of individual elements. The letter C (-.-.) should eventually sound like one rhythm, not four separate beeps.

Use the Farnsworth method mentally. Even without the tool explicitly supporting it, you can simulate Farnsworth practice by playing characters at a moderate speed and pausing manually between letters, giving yourself time to decode before the next one arrives.

Choose your pitch. Traditional amateur radio CW practice uses 600–700 Hz, which sits in the comfortable middle of the human hearing range and cuts through background noise. Higher pitches (800–900 Hz) are sharper and may be clearer in noisy environments; lower pitches feel more relaxed. Experiment with the pitch slider to find what your ear tracks best.

Follow along then test yourself. The dot-and-dash translation is displayed below the text. Read along for the first few passes, then hide it and try to write down what you hear from sound alone. The gap between what you expect to hear and what you actually decode is where learning happens.

Practise common letters first. E (.) and T (-) are the most frequent in English and the simplest to recognise. Add S (...), I (..), A (.-), N (-.), M (--) early. These eight letters cover the majority of characters in typical English text.