Scott T. Miller

How do I make the ‘censor’ bleep tone?

The often heard ‘bleep’ of a censor is simply a 1000 Hz sine wave.

1000 Hz is used as it has the ability to completely mask any underlying frequencies. It is also used for various alarm frequencies and other functions for this reason.

The 1000 Hz tone has been used in many scientific and brain studies for years.

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To create your own censor tone, you can use any audio editing program.

In the free program Audacity, simply click on Generate > Tone. Then adjust the frequency to 1000.

Here is an example clip I did in Audacity:

 

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Another short passage like ones heard on Ghost Whisperer and other similar style shows.
Violins (only) and piano.

 

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Check out this piano improv:

 

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Even though in real life computers do not make blips and beeps, for some reason TV show sound designers and composers put in cheesy blips and beeps when things fly across the screen.

There are old programs like this one, but this sounds too ‘old’ now.

Coming soon: how to make computer screen sound effects.

Let me run that through the database *beep beep blip beepy beep beep*…

It’s a little tricky to try and set down some licks on a mono synth. To your ear, it may come out nice and fine while playing. But when you look at the midi track it may look like crap. The problem is that the mono instrument doesn’t read when you accidentally hit two or more keys at once.

A good way to demonstrate this out is to try and play one line from a Bach invention which is only recording on that mono synth. Whenever keys rub, the midi looks like barf. Behold some barf, especially when ornaments are involved:

 

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Holy cow I just went to see SFSO do Mahler 2. Amazing! The best concert I have ever been to. MTT does takes some liberties with tempo and dramatic pauses, but in a very tasteful way that outlines or further emphasizes the musical moment. The First movement tempo seemed to begin very slow, but then you could quickly see where MTT was taking the movement and the overall pace of the piece.

Each phrase, each lick was important. It almost seemed that attention was given to each person’s part with a fine comb to make it just so. This worked extremely well with such a detail oriented piece.

And thank you for programming it as so:

Concert Program

Mahler Symphony No ___
(No intermission)

End.

No light fluff Mozart opener, don’t try to do some kind of piano concerto from Haydn to mix with your Mahler 5. Don’t try to make it a 5 hour marathon. And no intermission – w00t!
Thank you SF Symphony.

Brass were incredible. The strings played true ppp. Woodwinds had an incredibly uniform woodwind ‘wall’ of sound. The symphony chorus + organ at Davies Hall was a monumental experience. Great concert, musicians.

Logic with an Intel Core i5 is amazing! This pictured project has over 50 sampled tracks and it’s as if I was only running Firefox. Ok now I have no more excuses…

This track is a sort of funky beat with lots of electronics.

 

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Strings – yes more strings.

 

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