Re: Shepard tone

[Mech <mech@m3ch.net>]

At 2:36 PM -0600 11/6/07, Daryl Shawn wrote:
>Perhaps most people are familiar with this, but this blows my 
>mind...a "Shepard tone", created of a particular combination of sine 
>waves, which makes it seem as if the tone is continuously descending 
>without ever reaching bottom. A loop that simply repeats, while only 
>APPEARING to evolve...awesome.
>
>here's a direct link to a nicely done clip on Wikipedia:
>http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/61/DescenteInfinie.ogg

Relatedly, check out Oli Larkin's "Endless Series" VST effect bundle 
( http://www.olilarkin.co.uk/index.php?p=eseries ) which features 
effects based upon practical applications of the Shepard/Risset tones 
-- endless flanging, phasing, pitch shifting, etc.  I haven't tried 
them out yet (just found this info myself last week on kvr-vst.com) 
but they look pretty interesting on paper.

Another good example of Shepard tones is in "Loom", the last song 
from Yellow Magic Orchestra's 1981 release 'BGM' (whick, along with 
'Technodelic', also happens to be quite possibly one of their two 
finest albums, IMNSHO).  The first minutes of the song are based 
primarily around a rising Shepard tone series.  Additionally, the 
Wikipedia entry mentions that this song is a reworking of "The 
Infinite Space Octave" -- a tune released by their computer programer 
Hideki Matsutake.  That last fact was news even to me.

(Okay, so I'm feeling a bit like "meaningless-trivia-r-us" today...)

        --m.
-- 
_____
"I want to keep you alive so there is always the possibility of 
murder... later"