Batphone Beep?

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Mark Racop
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Batphone Beep?

Post by Mark Racop »

Do we have any audiophiles on the board? I am not and could use some help for an upcoming project. I am thinking the batphone beep was a combination of two frequencies. Does anyone happen to know what the frequency (or frequencies) might be?
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Batfanman
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Re: Batphone Beep?

Post by Batfanman »

Mark,

Based upon this audio file here: http://www.66batman.com/audio/batphone.mp3 - which purports to be the real Batphone tone, here's an analysis I performed on it that shows it in the 1187 to 1405 hz range. If I have a chance later today, I'll try and re-create it.

Edit: I don't have the DVDs to verify, but does anyone know if the car phone and the Gordon/Wayne phones had different tones?
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Batphone Tone - Freq Analysis.jpg
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1966.batmobile
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Re: Batphone Beep?

Post by 1966.batmobile »

As a musician, I can tell you the main note you hear is the note "D".

D6 to be exact, the second highest D on a standard 88 note keyboard.

I will have to check the blu rays when I have time, I think the batmobile and batcave use the same tone.
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Mark Racop
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Re: Batphone Beep?

Post by Mark Racop »

Thanks for the responses, guys. The same beep was used for the different bat phones as well as for many other devices throughout the show.
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weirdkorey
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Re: Batphone Beep?

Post by weirdkorey »

The batphone in the batcave, the study & commissioner gordon's office were all the same tone. However the batphone in the batmobile was completely different. Watch the pilot episode when they get a call from the riddler just before they climb up the wall of the Peale Art Gallery. The batmobile batphone is a much faster beep & a different pitch.
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Mark Racop
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Re: Batphone Beep?

Post by Mark Racop »

You're absolutely right that the pilot Batmobile batphone beep was faster than the other batphones. The speed of the beeps matched the speed at which a stagehand could plug and unplug the AC power cord for the lights in each of the Batphones.
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Batfanman
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Re: Batphone Beep?

Post by Batfanman »

Mark, here's the wave comparative I spoke of in our off-board discussion. Keep in mind bottom tone is just a quick reference to show analog vs. digital differences.

For those following the thread, I've been discussing with Mark how there's more to re-creating this tone than just finding the correct frequency. There are also audible subtleties related to the electric circuits that activated & deactivated the tone and also how the room-tone environment of the studio can affect the sound, giving it a unique quality that adds additional "color" to the tone.
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Bat tone COMPARISON.jpg
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Mark Racop
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Re: Batphone Beep?

Post by Mark Racop »

Fascinating! That makes sense as to why I thought it was two frequencies originally--the 'build up' and 'come down.' Now...how to recreate those properties digitally using sound chips...
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Batman65
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Re: Batphone Beep?

Post by Batman65 »

Interesting thread. Being a musician myself, and Scott can probably attest to this, synthesizers are amazing instruments. My 2 synths have hundreds of sounds in them. It was probably some tone created from somebody fooling around. I find it hard to believe they would have went out of their way to layer tones. It just seems to me like a lot of work for a silly beep. If one really knew what they used, it's probably something really simple. One never knows for sure. That's what makes it so interesting.
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