7 ms·

Phone Tones in Musical Notation

63 points by zdw 5y ago

kgwxd 5y ago
Every time I dial a phone, I get the song Devo did on Yo Gabba Gabba[1] stuck in my head. I'm not sure if the tones in the song are accurate to real phone tones, but the (fake?) instrument suggests it was at least inspired by phone tones. [1]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fvtwTi_oC78 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fvtwTi_oC78
- NiagaraThistle 5y ago
  I had forgotten how weirdly addictive this show was. (kids have long outgrown it)
  - kgwxd 5y ago
    The music was top-notch and not just the guest songs.
BeFlatXIII 5y ago
Spoiler alert: 3 has the widest interval and * has the smallest. Time to write a phone-inspired composition.
modeless 5y ago
It's possible to decode DTMF in your head if you have a good ear for tones. You don't even need perfect pitch in many cases. Not very useful, but fun party trick I guess. Listen to someone dial a number and tell them what they dialed.
devin 5y ago
It's not great but I play part of Mary Had a Little Lamb like: 3 2 1 2 333 222 3 99 3 2 1 2 333 222 3 2 1
- ummwhat 5y ago
  Hello butcher shop how may I help you?
- krallja 5y ago
  We had a very early touch tone phone that would silence one of the tone generators if you held down two buttons in the same row/column, so you could get pure-tone music out of it by dialing 3+6, 2+5, 1+4, 2+5, 3+6 3+6 3+6…
  - greenyoda 5y ago
    Yes, the classic Model 2500[1] touch tone phones would do this. It allowed you to play a more musically pleasing version of "Mary Had a Little Lamb", without the dissonance you got when pressing single keys. This was a side-effect of how the old, mechanical keypads were built. You can see what the keypad looked like in the first minute of this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JfEUxHIDzPE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JfEUxHIDzPE [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Model_500_telephone#Model_2500 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Model_500_telephone#Model_2500
    - krallja 5y ago
      That’s the one! I had no idea it had its own Wikipedia page.
NiagaraThistle 5y ago
Although it's interesting how the author breaks this down, I didn't think it was necessarily unknown that phone key tones could be used to make basic melodies. When i get stuck in a freezer, I know that I can hack my phone (or a pocket calculator) to play certain songs with the key tones to alert my robot friend to save me. Thanks Johnny!
- elvis70 5y ago
  For reference: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=euhipRI6bJ0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=euhipRI6bJ0
nayuki 5y ago
DTMF is by far the most popular system. Apparently Adobe Audition (formerly Cool Edit Pro) includes DTMF and another set of tones called "MF Signals (CCITT R1)", which I'll assume is quite obscure. The "MF Signals" could be used in creative exploration. Example: https://fun--tutorial.blogspot.com/2012/02/create-dtmf-telephone-tone.html https://fun--tutorial.blogspot.com/2012/02/create-dtmf-telep...
ceroxylon 5y ago
Vital (the free wavetable software synth) has a preset that has all the phone tones, including dial tone and call tone. I have spent an embarrassing amount of time playing with it.
wnoise 5y ago
Doesn't have the fourth column, at 1633 Hz.
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]

63 points by zdw 5y ago

Every time I dial a phone, I get the song Devo did on Yo Gabba Gabba[1] stuck in my head. I'm not sure if the tones in the song are accurate to real phone tones, but the (fake?) instrument suggests it was at least inspired by phone tones. [1]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fvtwTi_oC78 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fvtwTi_oC78

NiagaraThistle 5y ago
I had forgotten how weirdly addictive this show was. (kids have long outgrown it)
- kgwxd 5y ago
  The music was top-notch and not just the guest songs.

BeFlatXIII 5y ago

Spoiler alert: 3 has the widest interval and * has the smallest. Time to write a phone-inspired composition.

modeless 5y ago

It's possible to decode DTMF in your head if you have a good ear for tones. You don't even need perfect pitch in many cases. Not very useful, but fun party trick I guess. Listen to someone dial a number and tell them what they dialed.

devin 5y ago

It's not great but I play part of Mary Had a Little Lamb like: 3 2 1 2 333 222 3 99 3 2 1 2 333 222 3 2 1

ummwhat 5y ago
Hello butcher shop how may I help you?
krallja 5y ago
We had a very early touch tone phone that would silence one of the tone generators if you held down two buttons in the same row/column, so you could get pure-tone music out of it by dialing 3+6, 2+5, 1+4, 2+5, 3+6 3+6 3+6…
- greenyoda 5y ago
  Yes, the classic Model 2500[1] touch tone phones would do this. It allowed you to play a more musically pleasing version of "Mary Had a Little Lamb", without the dissonance you got when pressing single keys. This was a side-effect of how the old, mechanical keypads were built. You can see what the keypad looked like in the first minute of this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JfEUxHIDzPE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JfEUxHIDzPE [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Model_500_telephone#Model_2500 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Model_500_telephone#Model_2500
  - krallja 5y ago
    That’s the one! I had no idea it had its own Wikipedia page.

NiagaraThistle 5y ago

Although it's interesting how the author breaks this down, I didn't think it was necessarily unknown that phone key tones could be used to make basic melodies. When i get stuck in a freezer, I know that I can hack my phone (or a pocket calculator) to play certain songs with the key tones to alert my robot friend to save me. Thanks Johnny!

elvis70 5y ago
For reference: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=euhipRI6bJ0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=euhipRI6bJ0

nayuki 5y ago

DTMF is by far the most popular system. Apparently Adobe Audition (formerly Cool Edit Pro) includes DTMF and another set of tones called "MF Signals (CCITT R1)", which I'll assume is quite obscure. The "MF Signals" could be used in creative exploration. Example: https://fun--tutorial.blogspot.com/2012/02/create-dtmf-telephone-tone.html https://fun--tutorial.blogspot.com/2012/02/create-dtmf-telep...

ceroxylon 5y ago

Vital (the free wavetable software synth) has a preset that has all the phone tones, including dial tone and call tone. I have spent an embarrassing amount of time playing with it.

wnoise 5y ago

Doesn't have the fourth column, at 1633 Hz.

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]