Shepard Tone
When trying to come up with a few ideas for my portfolio project I came across an audio technique that I really want to use called a shepard tone. What is Shepard Tone? It is an auditory illusion of continuous swelling sound, which can build tension or suspense. While researching this I watched a video on Vox that perfectly described the mechanics behind the Shepard tone. The way that it works is that the tone is a sound that comprises multiple sine waves separated by an octave and layered on top of each other to give off the effect of an ever-rising sound. If you are interested, hear it for yourself on this video of a dark Shepard tone.
Why is it called a Shepard tone you may ask? Roger Shepard invented this acoustic illusion in 1964. His basic idea was as follows: When the pitch rises one step, the harmonic composition is altered (a little less high, a little more low harmonics).
Case Study - Dunkirk
In Hans Zimmers score for Dunkirk there is a start of ticking which is a central theme within his work like Sherlock Holmes. He creates the Shepard tone with three octaves the first and highest octave going higher and higher, the second going at a constant frequency, and the bottom one slowly becoming audible. When looped together it sounds like a scale going on for infinity. A Shepard Reset Glissando is when the Shepard tone is repeated continuously.
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