Shepherd Tone

fred-slocombe wrote on 11/30/2017, 10:47 AM

I recently learned about the Shepherd Tone, which is a short series of notes which, when repeated, creates the illusion of infinite scale. See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shepard_tone

I created a new midi object within Music Maker and attempted to recreate the shepherd tone. Playing it nearly crashed the program. The playback cursor skipped randomly across the object. I tried rendering it to a .WAV

I didn't even come close to the desired effect, but it wrecked during playback. Here's what I created: https://soundcloud.com/spfldnet/fred201711291600-v001

Does anyone know more about shepherd tones?

Comments

johnebaker wrote on 11/30/2017, 12:34 PM

Tried this one a few months ago - not easy!

. . . . I didn't even come close to the desired effect . . .

That sounds like (pun intended) you have only a single note playing at any given time.

As a starting point see this explanation of the Shepherd effect

Note: links to external websites do not appear to be working - copy link above and paste into your web browser - explanation is from 0m 33 sec to 1m 21s.

Using the MIDI Editor makes the process easier, adding the notes and adjusting the relative volumes to achieve the effect.

HTH

John EB