Shepard Tone

An auditory illusion of a tone that continuously descends, while not getting any lower.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shepard_...

Audio: Shepard tone (http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia...)
Image: Pensore Stairs (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penrse_s...)

• Category

  Science & Technology

[TheBrblebrble]

Think of a spinning barber pole. It seems like each red stripe is going lower and lower. Everytime a stripe reaches the bottom of the pole, it jumps back upto the top of the pole...but you don't notice this because of the greater effect of several stripes all going down at the same time...making it seem like the stripes are always going lower and lower. The same effect happens here only with descending music. Seems like the music gets lower and lower but theres a lower limit like a barber pole.

[caterpillarmatch]

Continuosly descending ? You can hear where it jumps from a lower pitch back to a higher pitch and just loops. Poor example of a Shepard tone.

[cubedable]

Pretty crazy.

[Michael Dable]

I dare you to open four of these and play them all at once. You won't 

[sirmentio]

It's not descending Forever for me, It's more of a falling and an occasional Thump on then ground then Fall Once More.

[runfunmc64]

This sound is in the game osmos

[xxxxisap]

Mantovani used propably this with his cascading strings-effect, I would guess. Listen to Mantovani's Charmaine

[Jay Flippen]

The end of Pink Floyd's "Echoes" has a smooth ascending version.

[EndangeredHominid]

Kashmir, by Led Zeppelin, does this.

[shadowboy201012]

Vsauce sent me hear

[Steven Simard]

You win.

[proclementsgaming]

THUMBS UP IF YOU WHERE SENT HERE BY VSAUCE!!!