Tone Death Music Producers in Advertising

Nothing bugs me more than a broadcast commercial that airs with a music bed and then ends with a music tag (a.k.a. music sting) in a completely different key. I am a musician, so this really bugs me in a big way.

To illustrate this, think of the Taco Bell ‘bong’. The bong is actually a harmonic sound containing multiple tones. Still, at least one primary tone key, such as C, has some faint undertones of F or G. The advertising agency will produce a music bed and a completely opposing diatonic key, such as F#.

Another company that is using a similar horrible tonal mismatch is Nissan. At the end of every Nissan commercial, the Nissan logo is animated with a music sting.

The Taco Bell “bong” sound, a staple of the brand’s advertising since 1989, is a harmonically complex FM synthesis patch created on the Yamaha DX7 using the ROM-2B “T.Bl-Expa” preset. Its metallic, bell-like timbre arises from frequency modulation (FM) synthesis, where two sine-wave oscillators interact to generate rich overtones. Here’s a breakdown of its musical and technical characteristics:

• • Carrier: Sine wave (100% volume).
  • Modulator: Sine wave pitched +22 semitones (2 octaves + a major third) above the carrier, with 75% FM modulation depth. This creates a dense harmonic series, including intervals like C (fundamental) with overtone emphasis on F/G due to the modulator’s pitch ratio.
  • Fast attack (0 ms), short decay (~1900 ms), and no sustain to mimic a struck bell’s sharp transient and decay
  • Subtle pitch wobble (slow LFO) and large reverb enhance the sound’s ethereal, resonant quality.

While the bong’s fundamental pitch is often C, its overtone-rich profile allows it to blend into diverse musical keys. Ad campaigns sometimes pair it with diatonically opposing keys (e.g., F?) for creative contrast. For example:

•  The clash between the bong’s C/F/G harmonics and an F? music bed can create tension that grabs attention, a common tactic in advertising audio.
• Taco Bell’s music team (led by Deutsch LA’s Chip Herter) emphasizes adaptability, using the sound across genres and keys while maintaining recognizability.

# Tone Death Music Producers in Advertising
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