What is the looooong high-pitched tone in old techno songs called?

June 24, 2010 7:10 PM

In older techno tunes, it was common have a single high-pitched note held for a really long time in songs (sometimes through the entire song). Electronica has a ton of terms, from "amen breaks" to "acid", but is there a word (or are there multiple commonly used words) for that note?
posted by Bugbread to Media & Arts (17 answers total)

Drone, perhaps?
posted by quickasfoxes at 7:18 PM on June 24, 2010

Response by poster: I hadn't thought of it before, but it definitely is a drone (although the music it's used in isn't drone music), but I have a feeling that it doesn't go by that name within the techno/electronica community. Is that feeling off-base?
posted by Bugbread at 7:27 PM on June 24, 2010

What's a track with an example of this? At least tell us what "older techno" means to you - detroit? acid? eurodance?
posted by aubilenon at 7:28 PM on June 24, 2010 [1 favorite]

do you have songs in particular that use this? maybe putting some examples in the thread will get better answers?
posted by nadawi at 7:29 PM on June 24, 2010

"Impact" (actually thinking of the "Impact USA" remix) by Orbital immediately came to mind. Nope, can't say I know of a term for it, though.
posted by kuperman at 7:37 PM on June 24, 2010

Response by poster: Sorry, I was having a hard time finding an example because I don't know what word to search for in finding the music. I found an example, though:

Here

That link should skip straight to the drone part (it's pretty short in this song), but in case it doesn't, it's the part from 1:51 to 2:04.
posted by Bugbread at 7:42 PM on June 24, 2010

Response by poster: Thanks, Kuperman. That's another good example. Of course, being Orbital, they play with it a bit, turning it into a melody at the very end, but the section from 0:15 to 1:00 or so is exactly what I'm thinking of.
posted by Bugbread at 7:48 PM on June 24, 2010

Now, I used to have a button on my Casio Keyboard that would do this.

That button was labeled: "Obligato"

I'm certain that's not what the techno kids call it, but hopefully it can help in your search :)
posted by puddpunk at 7:53 PM on June 24, 2010 [1 favorite]

strings
posted by paradroid at 8:00 PM on June 24, 2010

It's called a pad, specifically a string pad in those examples.
posted by rhizome at 8:06 PM on June 24, 2010

Response by poster: Paradroid, rhizome: Thanks. I realized it was a pad, but didn't realize it was a string pad (I guess I'm more used to the more actually string-like sounding pads of today's synths).

I gather, then, that there's no word/phrase for that specific long-tone holding of it, though? Like dropping out the drums entirely and playing the pad melody is called a "breakdown", or the sound of fiddling around with the modulation wheel on a melody is (was?) called "acid". There's no specific word/phrase for this particular old genre mainstay?
posted by Bugbread at 9:04 PM on June 24, 2010

Just to help you with your terms.

The 'Amen break' is a really specific breakbeat used everywhere. 'Acid' is sort of squelchy noises. Google Ishkur's Guide for more info.

And yeah, you're talking about pads. A producer friend refers to them as 'spheres', since they both sound kind of 'round' and are more part of the background atmosphere than front-and-centre (though this is of course not without its exceptions).
posted by dirtynumbangelboy at 9:39 PM on June 24, 2010

That is a pad, but I've never heard any specific name for that way of using them. Also, a breakdown doesn't always have a pad, and acid has nothing to do with modulation wheels. 303s don't have them.
posted by AlsoMike at 10:38 PM on June 24, 2010

Response by poster: True about the breakdown, that was a slip on my part. As for the acid sound, I always thought it was the mod wheel (that's how I've always made that sound in Reason, but I've never used a 303, so I didn't know they didn't have them). What is fiddled with to get that sound on a 303?
posted by Bugbread at 11:05 PM on June 24, 2010

resonance, largely. when I've played with the 303 in rebirth and other 303 clones anyway.
posted by dirtynumbangelboy at 11:10 PM on June 24, 2010

In music theory, that would be called a pedal tone or a pedal point.
posted by NemesisVex at 7:50 AM on June 25, 2010 [1 favorite]

I know exactly what you mean, but I don't think there's a proper name for it unfortunately. I wouldn't necessarily call it a pad, because I tend to think of pad sounds as the sustained background synths that generally fill up the mid-range (think those slow washes in ambient tracks), and I wouldn't necessarily call it strings anything because they're more often than not they're a melody part. "String pad" is the closest description, but that doesn't really capture the fact that it's a single high pitch sustained note.
posted by iivix at 1:53 PM on June 25, 2010