shepard tone with samples
Posted: Fri Apr 10, 2009 8:14 am
I just tried to do shepard tone with samples, to simulate an engine sound continuously going up.. and it doesn't really work. Just a quick review, shepard tones are bunch of osc tuned in octaves, and as you turn the pitch up, the "roll over", sort of like barber shop spirals, causing an illusion of a tone that is continuously going up. Thing is, the trick works well with pure tones, but not with complex samples.
After messing with the parameters, it turns out that shepard tones only work when the rate of change is pretty slow, and the range of pitch movement isn't too great. So, basically, the "illusion" only works when the overall changes in parameters are slow.
Oh well, interesting experiment nonetheless. I can't post the results at the moment, but will try to if enough people are interested. Also, I made the patch in reaktor.. not bad, that thing. I like how I can break apart any module and edit it. Like editing the sample player to just use frequencies rather than a root note number and pitch mod.
After messing with the parameters, it turns out that shepard tones only work when the rate of change is pretty slow, and the range of pitch movement isn't too great. So, basically, the "illusion" only works when the overall changes in parameters are slow.
Oh well, interesting experiment nonetheless. I can't post the results at the moment, but will try to if enough people are interested. Also, I made the patch in reaktor.. not bad, that thing. I like how I can break apart any module and edit it. Like editing the sample player to just use frequencies rather than a root note number and pitch mod.