The story
Dear PianoBook-Community
I created a kontakt instrument to demonstrate the illusion of the “shepard scale”. For this i sampled three octaves from the piano in my classroom with a zoom H6. After a while of experimenting with the right volume i think I found the right balance to deceive our ears.
To hear the effect, just play any scale and you’re not gonna realize that you always stay in the same octave.
And because a scale is called ladder in german, I named the instrument “Jacobs ladder – an endless scale”
Beside the possibility to demonstrate this phenomenon the sound is also useful as a piano-hit for all kind of music styles.
I hope you have fun with it.
P.S. There is also a rotary effect on the modwheel.
Reviews for Jacobs Ladder – An endless Scale
- Sound
- Character
- Playability
- Inspiration
- GUI
Leave a review to let others know what you thought of the instrument!
I am not sure what I am supposed to do with this
While I love the movie, I am a little split when it comes to this instrument. The idea is based around the "Shepard Tone" effect, which is the illusion of a sound where its pitch feels that it is constantly rising, when it really doesn't. This is done by stacking and overdubbing notes from lower and higher octaves, and that's what is going on with this instrument. It's really just one octave. It's cool, it has minimal noise, fake velocity dynamics, and a modwheel that adds an effect with a cool GUI design. It's an interesting phenomenon, though I am not sure how this can be used musically more than just a few times.
Interesting but not very useful
With only one octave of practical range, and an extremely hard-hitting piano sound that's doubled in octaves, it's not easy to imagine where you might use this. I think if you wanted an intentionally gritty and lo-fi piano sample to use in a dance track, this might have a place. Other than that, it's more of a curiosity than something practical.
Cool concept but not useful for me
i dont really know what im supposed to do with this. im not familiar with this endless scale concept and this instrument is kind of fun to play around with but i dont really see a practical application for this in my work. The piano itself is pretty bright and honky which i know some people like but ive always been into more dark and warm pianos. I like the imagery behind this but maybe im missing something. I just dont really understand what this instrument is providing.
