
Recreating the THX Deep Note - nkurz
http://www.earslap.com/instruction/recreating-the-thx-deep-note
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flycaliguy
The song Spaced by Beaver & Krause made this sound before THX, in 1970 on the
album Wild Sanctuary

3:10 at
[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2xKO3KAtDZ0](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2xKO3KAtDZ0)

Edit: additional wikipedia searching reveals this unsourced fact

"A variation of the end of their track "Spaced" from the Wild Sanctuary album
became the inspiration for dual gliding synthesizer soundtrack for the copied
THX Sound Logo in movie theaters, also for which neither Beaver or Krause were
compensated."

([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beaver_%26_Krause](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beaver_%26_Krause))

~~~
computer
Iannis Xenakis' song Metastasis got there first as far as I know, in 1953 with
a full orchestra. It has a slightly different (less harmonic) end:

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SZazYFchLRI](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SZazYFchLRI)
(mostly the first minute)

It's one of my favorite songs, mostly for when I want to be left alone in a
room.

~~~
flycaliguy
Makes you wonder how things would have played out if Dr Dre's Lolo sampled
Iannis Xenakis instead of THX's sound. Would placing the sample at the
beginning of a record the way Deep Note is placed in a movie have been a
violation of THX's trademark?

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FatalLogic
Here's a working link to the THX 'Deep Note' theme sound (the link on the page
seems to be dead):
[http://www.uspto.gov/trademarks/soundmarks/74309951.mp3](http://www.uspto.gov/trademarks/soundmarks/74309951.mp3)

~~~
mef
In comparison, the modern "quintessential" Deep Note which (by my ear) is a
lot more intense
[http://www.thx.com/consumer/movies/8286511](http://www.thx.com/consumer/movies/8286511)

~~~
drippingfist
This one is great. How do I get a copy of this one?

~~~
sillysaurus3
Here you go:
[https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/231528979/thx.mp3](https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/231528979/thx.mp3)

It came out kind of quiet, but I think the quality is the same. May be able to
just run it through a gain filter.

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curtisullerich
I appreciate the level of detail the author goes to in describing the creation
process. Very informative. I did this myself once, but using a patch I made in
Max/MSP for drawing and listening to line segments on a pitch vs time plane.
For this particular use case, I generated the input score with a Python script
rather than drawing them manually. I found that detuning the sustained tones
made the biggest difference in matching the original sound, which the article
author mentions. Here's a video of my patch:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xl4C4zsy9LY](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xl4C4zsy9LY)

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TallGuyShort
I use Deep Note as the sound for my alarm clock. It's perfect.

~~~
furyg3
The first half of it is a bit too creepy for me during Deep Sleep ;)

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BillyParadise
Shrek version was better.

[http://www.thx.com/consumer/movies/8286492](http://www.thx.com/consumer/movies/8286492)

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stuartmemo
I made a version in JavaScript based on this description. You can hear it here
- [http://stuartmemo.com/thx-deep-note-in-
javascript/](http://stuartmemo.com/thx-deep-note-in-javascript/)

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aye
The ChucK version is worth checking out as well:

[https://lists.cs.princeton.edu/pipermail/chuck-
users/2009-Ap...](https://lists.cs.princeton.edu/pipermail/chuck-
users/2009-April/004133.html)

Thanks to ahmetkizilay in the comments.

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drippingfist
It reminds me of the score from There Will Be Blood.

~~~
PeterWhittaker
I expect Greenwood was as influenced by that sound growing up as the rest of
us - the bits of the TWbB score that echo DN are probably homage.

~~~
jimbosis
I think that both Greenwood and Moorer were influenced by the compositions of
Iannis Xenakis and others, as noted in the article.

~~~
anigbrowl
I've gotta say, making a sound like this is one of the very obvious things to
do with any synthesizer that has more than one oscillator (which is most of
them) and which allows pitch modulation (again, most of them). I made it by
accident some 20 years ago when I was learning to program my first analog
synth and didn't know about the similarity to the THX sound until someone
pointed it out to me (I grew up outside the US and had never been to an Imax
presentation at that time).

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pscsbs
And who can forget The Simpsons' THX introduction?

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nu0R96OZy6w](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nu0R96OZy6w)

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rch
Anyone ever try this with an analog synth?

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tommydiaz
Well that was well worth my time. Awesome.

~~~
tommydiaz
I'm guessing the down votes are because people think I'm being sarcastic?? I'm
not.

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linker3000
Seriously, why?

~~~
kristopolous
hobby.

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braum
The only part of this "deep note" that I like is the very end; top of the
crescendo. The first part has always creeped me out worse than watching Hostel
for the first time.

~~~
hamiltonkibbe
Without the first part, a whole orchestra's worth of sawtooth oscillators
playing octaves is pretty boring. The effect of the beginning is to build
tension, which is released at the point when all the oscillators converge on
the single note. Tension and release is the basis for most (if not all) music.
Whether its in the form of a V7->I cadence, which builds tension harmonically
with a tritone that "wants" to resolve to the root. Or the "riser" before the
drop in electronic music, just a single note with it's pitch going up and up
and up or a filter sweeping through white noise up and up and up with drums
doing more and more subdivisions until a second of silence and then boom...the
main theme. In and of itself it may be interesting but only within the context
of it being the release of tension built up previously does it have that
profound effect.

~~~
braum
I wasn't trying to get fucked by the deep note, a tickle would have sufficed.

