mrzinj Posted February 12, 2013 Share Posted February 12, 2013 (edited) Is it common knowledge (or even true) that at the 4:45 mark of the studio version of No Quarter, Jimmy and the production team employed the use of an "ascending" Shepard tone? After multiple listens, that segment sounds like a true tonal ascension but the master of the knowledge universe, Wikipedia, suggests it's an auditory illusion - a Shepard tone. After reading this at Wiki, I read about Shepard tones and listened to a few. Very cool concept and technique. Anyway thought you guys might like to check it out. Sorry if this is common knowledge - before I get yelled at, I did a forum search and couldn't find this topic. Edited February 12, 2013 by mrzinj Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hecube Posted February 12, 2013 Share Posted February 12, 2013 That's an awful good question if you ask me and thank you very much for teaching me something I had never heard of. And I thought I knew a lot in music theory! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dallas Knebs Posted February 12, 2013 Share Posted February 12, 2013 (edited) The sound at 4:45 is produced by manually moving the lever on the tape delay machine from a longer delay to a shorted delay (played back in reverse)- the input to the tape delay machine is a theramin. Shepard Tone (coined in 1964 by its name sake) is a phenomenon used as early as the late nineteenth century in orchestral works. Other variations have also been produced. For example, Jean Claude Risset has produced a rhythmic variant in which tempo appears to increase (or decrease) continuously. Edited February 12, 2013 by Dallas Knebs Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hecube Posted February 12, 2013 Share Posted February 12, 2013 This thread gets better. I attended a composition master class with Risset back in 2000 in Montréal... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dallas Knebs Posted February 12, 2013 Share Posted February 12, 2013 JCR is the shizzz... let's talk about inverted 11ths and mutations- hope he told the class stories about his days at Bell Labs Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kingzoso Posted February 12, 2013 Share Posted February 12, 2013 Is it common knowledge (or even true) that at the 4:45 mark of the studio version of No Quarter, Jimmy and the production team employed the use of an "ascending" Shepard tone? After multiple listens, that segment sounds like a true tonal ascension but the master of the knowledge universe, Wikipedia, suggests it's an auditory illusion - a Shepard tone. After reading this at Wiki, I read about Shepard tones and listened to a few. Very cool concept and technique. Anyway thought you guys might like to check it out. Sorry if this is common knowledge - before I get yelled at, I did a forum search and couldn't find this topic. As far as I know, Jimmy Page was the "production team" on every Led Zeppelin album. I will admit that I do not know what a "Shepard tone" is, but I will say that Jimmy Page is/was the Master Producer (not Executive Producer, as someone has stated on another thread, the Executive Producer on all of Led Zeppelin albums was Peter Grant), that, I believe, is very common knowledge among Led Zeppelin afficionados. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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