Yet despite its time-defying excellence, bleep is poorly served in terms of compilations: basically, there’s Warp’s Classics double CD, plus out-of-print comps from the original era.
There’s none of the low-resolution cruddiness of sample-and-breakbeat based hardcore, but a glistening thickness of texture and beat that comes from using analog synths and drum machines, and, in some cases, from making the tracks in professional studios rather than using home studio set-ups. What’s striking about bleep listening to it today is how well-produced these tracks sound. Paralleling moves being made in London by ex-B-boy outfits like Shut Up and Dance, but avoiding the use of looped breakbeats, the Warp outfits – Sweet Exorcist, Forgemasters, LFO, Nightmares on Wax – retained acid’s tripnotic compulsion but programmed a skippy syncopation into their drum machine beats that looked ahead to jungle rather than backwards to house. Initially inspired by ‘The Theme’ (which they tried unsuccessfully to license), Sheffield-based Warp quickly became the crucial label. “Bleep” referred to the electro-style pocket-calculator synth-motifs “bass” nodded to the floor-quaking sub-low frequencies. “Bleep ‘n’ bass” was an alternative name for the wave of North of England techno that followed Unique 3. From bleep to 2step, jungle to grime, this country would host mutations that for various reasons were unable to hatch in the more purist and protectionist U.S. In a paradox that would endure and intensify throughout the subsequent evolution of rave, what made it “British” was its incorporation of ideas and “vibe” from Jamaica and Black America. But in 1989, a track called ‘The Theme’, produced by Unique 3 – a Bradford-based crew of B-boys turned ravers – announced the arrival of a fresh UK sound merging Chicago acid with elements from hip-hop and reggae. In 1988-89, DJs had several years backlog of house classics to spin, plus fresh imports from Chicago, Detroit and New York each week the homegrown tracks, mostly inferior imitations, just couldn’t compete. Rave had started out as that strange thing, a subculture based almost entirely around import records. It was the first uniquely British twist on house and techno. It works so well because it has a frequency of 987.77 Hz, which is in a range of our human hearing that is super clear, but still not piercing.Bleep lives right at the heartcore of Energy Flash, my history of rave culture.
There is no rule to use this note, but I have found it to be very common for the classic beep sound.
Step 4 – Set the Amp Envelope to full decay and sustain.Step 3 – Make sure you open up the filter 100%.Step 2 – Set that oscillator to a Sine Wave.Step 1 – Turn on 1 single oscillator on your Synth.
And it should be able to use a single sine wave as an oscillator, because that is the most pure sound you can use, as it lacks annoying and piercing overtones. The classic beep sound used for censoring “bad language” on broadcasts on TV etc.