FREQUENCY X user manual

1Getting started

The app header shows Daily hits and Total hits. These are recorded visits to the app page, including repeat visits, not unique listeners or station plays. Daily hits use the current day in America/New_York; total hits include all days retained in the site's analytics. The figures refresh every minute while the app is visible. If counts cannot be loaded, the header shows “Counts unavailable” rather than an estimated number.

Open Menu → More → Live listeners to see anonymous browsers playing live media, grouped by approximate country. This is separate from hits: radio stations, network radio, receiver streams, live voice/scanner streams, the listening playlist and live video playing inside the app count only while playing and unmuted. Selecting a station or clicking Play is not enough: playback must actually start. Pausing, buffering, muting, zero volume, stopping or a playback error removes that player's active report; another player still playing in the same browser can keep it active. An open app page, local studio files, recordings, microphone/camera previews, demo tones and external TV links do not count. The app cannot verify playback on another website. Multiple players and tabs in the same browser count once, but separate browsers or devices can count separately; the figures are not unique people. Playback reports refresh every 30 seconds, including while the app is in the background when the browser permits it. A closed, disconnected or suspended browser drops out within two minutes of its last report. The panel refreshes every 30 seconds while visible, includes a manual Refresh button, and shows unavailable if the data cannot be loaded. No names, emails, visitor IDs or precise locations are published.

• Top bar. The bar at the top holds four buttons — ☰ Menu, Stations, GeoMap and Free TV — with the flag and your local weather next to them. Everything else (Home, Search, Stop, light / dark, Enhancement, Split screen, Data saver, Licence, Donate, and the rest) is in the Menu; press M to open it. The audio Enhancement processor is under Menu → Sound → Enhancement.
• Browser. Use a current version of Chrome or Edge on a computer for every feature. Safari and Firefox play stations, but some studio features are limited.
• First visit. Read and accept the Licence Agreement, then create a 4-digit PIN on the screen with the spinning FREQUENCY X logo. The PIN is required: type it twice to confirm and the app opens. It is stored only on this device, as a salted hash, never as the digits, and the app asks for it when you come back (choose how soon under More → Security → Auto-lock). You can change it there, but not remove it. Forgot it? Choose Reset the app on the PIN screen. That clears the PIN and this device's settings, and you accept the agreement and create a new PIN. No account login is required, and the app stays free for everyone.
• Optional login. Choose Log in on the top bar or Menu → More → Log in / Account to use an existing radio or invited site account with your email and password. There is no sign-up or social login in this panel. Forgot password? emails a recovery link; after following it, choose and confirm a new password. When signed in, the top-bar button becomes Account. Sign out of site account signs you out of the shared site account without cancelling a radio subscription or stopping the free app. Signing in does not sync local settings, unlock features or replace the device PIN. The paid members-only radio remains separate at /radio/.
• Permissions. The browser asks before the app can use your microphone or camera. Choose Allow; you can change this later from the padlock in the address bar.
• Headphones. Wear them whenever you monitor your own microphone, or you will hear feedback.
• Phones and tablets. The bar at the bottom of the screen switches between Bands, Scope and Channel, opens Stations, opens the Menu with every feature, and Home takes you back to the home page. The four top-bar buttons always stay on show at the top, and A− / A+, centred under the brand, change the page size (tap the percentage between them to fit the screen again; on phones that is 90%, whether the phone is upright or sideways). In Free TV, services that open as a whole website (such as Famelack) get an upright picture frame on phones, so they no longer ask you to turn your phone upright. On phones the station results are listed as compact rows so more of them fit on screen. When a station starts on a phone, the now-playing player opens full screen and stays that way while it plays, with the station catalog's current results listed between the volume and the presets: tap a row to switch stations, or Browse all to open the catalog. Tap ⤡ or — to leave full screen until the next station.
• iPad touch controls. Automatic fit uses 100% page size in portrait, landscape and Split View, including when a keyboard or trackpad is attached; you can still choose a different size with A− / A+. Buttons have finger-sized touch targets that stay usable when you change the page size, and show feedback as soon as you touch them. Drag volume sliders sideways; drag Enhancement dials up or down. Hold Talk or Cough only while needed; releasing or cancelling the gesture releases the control. Scroll normally outside dials and hold controls. Audio start time still depends on your connection and the station.
• Home screen. To open the app like any other app on your phone: on iPhone or iPad tap Share in Safari, then Add to Home Screen; on Android tap ⋮ in Chrome, then Install app or Add to Home screen. Stations still stream from the site, so you need a connection.
• This device. The app sets itself up for what it is running on: phone, tablet or computer, touch or mouse, and portrait or landscape. It changes again when you turn or resize the screen. Choose This device in the Menu (under More) to see what it found (layout, device, browser, screen, input, connection and page size). Under Live readings it charts the frame rate once a second, plus the download speed and round-trip time where the browser reports them (Chrome and Android do; Safari and Firefox don’t). Hover or touch a chart to read a point, drag sideways to go back in time, scroll or pinch to zoom, and press Back to live to return. Readings as a table lists the latest values. The readings stay on your device and are cleared when you leave the page. From the panel you can also fit the page to the screen, turn the data saver on or off, or add the app to your home screen. On a very slow connection the data saver turns on by itself the first time, unless you have already chosen.
• Documentation. Use Platform user manual or Software Licence in the Menu, under More. Each opens in a new tab so you can keep listening.
• World explorer. Choose 🌍 World on the top bar (or Menu → Explore) to open the World explorer, a catalog of 816 curated outside websites, each shown with its own logo: live satellite weather, every plane in the sky, ships at sea, storms and lightning, historical and volunteer maps, space and satellite trackers, deep time and history timelines, music and soundscapes, live counters, free book and museum archives, free everyday tools, design galleries, and courses and lessons on Coursera, Udemy and YouTube (course links go straight to the course page; some courses are paid), AI platforms (90 assistants, image, video, music, voice and coding tools and model hubs from the US, Europe, China, Japan, Korea, India, the Middle East and beyond), Social media (87 social networks, messengers and creator platforms from every region), and Android tips: 21 built-in Android features, such as screen pinning, Live Caption and notification history, each linked to its official help page. The Google graveyard category lists 308 retired Google products with their years; each links to the story of how it ended (from the Killed by Google list). Rest the mouse pointer on a site’s box (or move to it with the keyboard) to see a card with its logo, its full description, its category and its web address; on touch screens each box shows its full description. Search the list or filter it by category, then follow a link — each opens in a new tab on its own site, under its own terms. Nothing is embedded in the app, and the radio keeps playing while you browse.
• Healthcare & web hub. Choose this link under Menu → More to open our Polsia landing page in a new tab. It does not embed another site or move your sign-in or licence to that site.
• Polsia app and radio hub. Under Menu → More, choose Polsia radio hub to explore the external radio hub ↗, or Polsia app (currently unavailable) to open the supplied app link ↗. The app link returned 404 (not found) when checked on October 8, 2026; its destination needs to be restored on Polsia. Both shortcuts open a separate tab so the current radio can keep playing. They do not embed external media, share accounts, or transfer your licence or payment details.

Your favourites, presets, soundboard sounds and voice settings are saved in the browser you are using. They do not follow you to another browser or device.

2Listening to stations

1. Press Stations in the top bar to open the station catalog. On a phone or iPad the app opens straight into the catalog with the 🗽 New York State collection selected; on a computer it opens on the Stations Browse list. GeoMap is one tap away in the top bar.
2. On a computer or wide screen the catalog opens in three frames: A — Browse on the left, B — Results with the search box and matching stations in the centre, and C — Station details on the right. The full monitor stays on the main screen, outside Stations. Phones and smaller windows keep their compact stacked catalog and now-playing player.
3. Find a station: type in the search box, or use the browse list and the genres. From the third letter on, the worldwide search runs as you type, using the country, genre and sort chosen under Refine; press Enter or Search to run it at once.
   • Browse (frame A, left) — Browse, Popular, Local, Favorites, Recent, By category, For You, GeoMap. The country, genre and sort filters are under Refine in frame C.
   • Genres & Collections (frame A, below Browse) — Jazz, Hip-Hop, Rap, Gospel, Reggae, Classic Hits, House, Disco, Drum & Bass, News and more.
4. Each result in frame B shows the station’s logo, name and details. Tap it to play it: the compact now-playing radio updates, and its details appear in frame C on the right.
5. Live sound equalizer. Below Refine in frame C, red spectrum bars follow the selected station’s actual audio from low to high frequencies, with live redraws capped at 30 per second. The bars stop for silence, pause or mute; they do not use simulated movement. The live equalizer stays active with Data saver on, while decorative visuals remain reduced and low-bitrate streams are preferred. The equalizer reads the sound you hear from the Enhancement processor when it is in use, otherwise from the player itself; if that stays silent for a few seconds while the station plays (and in Safari and other browsers without player capture) it switches to a separate, inaudible analysis connection to the same station, which uses additional streaming data and may be slightly delayed from what you hear. That connection closes when the equalizer is hidden, playback pauses or output is muted. Tap Enable live spectrum or Restart live spectrum if the bars do not appear; Restart tries every analysis path again and, when needed, briefly reconnects the station so its audio can be read. Some station servers or stream formats allow listening but do not expose audio for browser analysis; the status explains this without interrupting playback. Try another station if restarting does not help. Analysis never sends directory streams to studio tools or recordings.
6. On a station row, the buttons are ▶ play, ♡ add to favourites, ⚑ report a stream that will not play.
7. Press Close to return to the main screen. The station keeps playing.

Station listings come from the community directory radio-browser.info. Stations are run by their own operators, so some may be offline or refuse to play in a browser.

Directory stations are listening-only: they cannot enter studio decks, recordings or RTMP output. Free TV and web-based receivers open on their operators’ websites, not inside embedded viewers.

3The Now Playing radio

When a station is playing, a small radio appears with the station's logo, name and controls. While the catalog is open on a wide screen, it sits in C — Station details, directly below the live sound equalizer; otherwise it floats over the page. The full monitor remains on the main screen and is not part of Stations. Phones retain their full-screen now-playing radio.

• ◄◄ / ►► tune to the previous or next station. SCAN steps through stations automatically.
• Presets 1–12: tap a number to play it; press and hold a number to save the current station there.
• The round buttons at the top add the station to favourites, dock, minimise, go full screen, or close the radio.
• Stop all sound in the Menu stops playback.

4Voice Control Center

Open it with the 🎤 Voice button. It has three cards across the top, then the voice changer and the soundboard.

5Voice changer

Pick one of the 18 voices:

NaturalDeepGiantKidChipmunkHeliumRobotAlienDemonGhostTelephoneOld RadioMegaphoneWalkie-TalkieCaveCathedralStadiumUnderwater

Fine-tune it with the sliders: Pitch, Robot, Wobble, Distortion, Brightness, Echo and Reverb.

Choose what it changes, in the row Change the sound of:

• 🎙 Microphone — your live voice.
• 🎛 Soundboard pads — every pad you play.
• ✨ Apply voice to recorded take — the take in the recorder. Undo puts it back.

Changer on switches all effects on or off. Natural voice resets everything.

6Soundboard

Four banks of 16 pads: SFX, Jingles, Dark and My Sounds (empty, for your own audio).

Your own sounds: click an empty pad and choose an audio file, or drag a file onto any pad. Only use audio you have the right to broadcast.

Keyboard (with Keys on): 1 2 3 4 Q W E R A S D F Z X C V fire the 16 pads row by row; Esc stops everything.

7Recording and sharing

Studio decks and the broadcast Music channel accept local audio files you choose from your device. Use only files you have permission to record and broadcast. Microphone audio and generated pads remain available. Directory streams are excluded, and screen sharing does not capture system or tab audio.

1. Record a take in the Voice Control Center. It includes your processed voice, the voice changer and any pads you played.
2. In the voice changer, find Export — vertical video for social and pick the platform: Instagram Reels, YouTube Shorts, TikTok, Snapchat Spotlight, Facebook Reels, Likee, Clapper, RedNote, Lemon8 or Twitch.
3. Type an optional caption and press Make video from take. Making the video takes as long as the take itself; keep the tab in front.
4. Press Share to app on a phone or tablet, or Download on a computer and upload the file in the app.

The video is 1080 × 1920 (vertical) and works on every platform listed. Each platform sets its own maximum length, so check it before you post.

8Using your voice in other apps

To use your changed voice and soundboard live in Twitch, OBS, Discord, Zoom and similar apps:

1. Install a virtual audio cable on your computer (for example VB-CABLE on Windows or BlackHole on Mac).
2. Connect your microphone in the Voice Control Center.
3. In the voice changer, under Live — use this voice in other apps, choose the cable as the output and press Send voice to this output.
4. In the other app, choose the same cable as its microphone.

9Licence and donations

Share Frequency X. Choose Share Frequency X to open your device's share menu, pick a social platform or copy the public tour link for any app. An optional reminder appears when you follow a same-tab link out of the app, or move the mouse toward the browser's top edge after listening for a while. Choose Continue to your destination, close it or press Escape to leave without sharing. Browser tab closing and the Back button cannot reliably show a reminder. Sharing never posts automatically, changes playback or unlocks features.

• 100% free. Every feature is free for everyone, with no trial, no expiry and no card. Nothing is withheld for not paying, because there is nothing to unlock.
• Getting in. Choose Enter FREQUENCY X on the home page or open /app/. No account login is required. Existing site-account holders may choose the optional Log in button.
• Donations. The header's gold Donate button opens the existing one-time donation payment link directly in a new tab, without an extra consent screen. Its outline flashes gently three times, then rests; reduced-motion settings disable the animation. A yellow Donate — Help improve the app link is also available across the app's screens, including Live listeners, so you can keep listening while the donation page opens in a new tab. It stays out of the licence-agreement and PIN screens. Giving supports Frequency X and its improvements, not the individual station playing; every feature remains free. The community-support screen (under Menu → More → Donate & licence, or the tour's Donate tab) shows the app price as $0, separate Monthly and One time cards, a Choose one-time amount button and a Share on X link. Flexible monthly giving is planned and clearly marked coming soon; it does not take recurring payments. Choose your own one-time donation amount in US dollars on Stripe, not in the app. No donation is required to use the app, and donating does not unlock extra features. OBEINSON ENTERPRISE LLC is a limited liability company, not a charity: a donation is not tax-deductible and no tax receipt is issued.
• Older keys. Supported before, or hold a key from an older version? The Donate screen’s Enter it here (or Licence in the Menu) still accepts it and shows the Supporter badge.
• Refer a friend (in the Menu under More, after you enter the app) shows your share link and code. A friend who joins through your link gets $10 off their first donation, and you get $10 off yours when they donate. Each person can be referred only once, and you can't use your own code.

The full terms are in the Software Licence Agreement.

10Troubleshooting

Still stuck? Email info@obeinsonenterprise.com or call (631) 278-1887.

11Credits

• Station directory. Station listings come from radio-browser.info, a free, community-contributed database.
• Streams. Each station's stream belongs to its own operator and plays under that operator's terms.
• Third-party software. Third-party licences and notices identify the software components used by this site.
• Trademarks. Third-party names, logos and trademarks belong to their respective owners. References identify independent services and do not imply affiliation, endorsement or permission to redistribute their content.