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Journal of the Acoustical Society of America

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Jun 1977

Volume 61, Issue S1, pp. S1-S96

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back to top Session J. Musical Acoustics II: Acoustics of Percussion Instruments
Invited Papers
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Acoustics of mallet percussion instruments (A)

Thomas D. Rossing

J. Acoust. Soc. Am. Volume 61, Issue S1, pp. S20-S21 (1977); (2 pages)

Online Publication Date: 11 Aug 2005

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Mallet percussion instruments generally employ tuned bars with free ends as sound sources. These bars vibrate in many modes, emitting overtones which are generally not harmonic of the fundamental, thus giving mallet percussion instruments their distinctive timbres. Glockenspiel or orchestra bells employ rectangular steel bars, and striking them with hard mallets excites both flexural and torsional modes. Xylophone bars, of rosewood or epoxy, are commonly shaped so that the first overtone is a musical twelfth above the fundamental. Bars of marimbas and vibes, in the low and midrange, have their first overtone tuned two octaves above the fundamental. Marimbas, xylophones, and ribes are usually fitted with tubular resonators which increase the efficiency of sound radiation at the fundamental frequency. Chimes or tubular bells are designed to ring with a bell‐like timbre. Triangles, because of their many audible overtones, are usually characterized as having an indefinite pitch. Modes of vibration and sound spectra of each of these instruments are discussed in detail.
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What is a bell tone? (A)

F. H. Slaymaker

J. Acoust. Soc. Am. Volume 61, Issue S1, pp. S21-S21 (1977); (1 page)

Online Publication Date: 11 Aug 2005

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The partials in a bell tone are, in general, not harmonically related. But the spectrum of a bell tone is made up of discrete partials and is not the continuous spectrum we associate with white noise. Only a few specially shaped structures have normal modes with haromonically related resonant frequencies. When any of the infinite variety of other structures are excited into vibration by an impulse, the tones will sound belt‐like if the decay rates of the various partials are relatively slow. Only the bells designed for playing music in harmony, such as cast carillon bells and the hand bells used by bell choirs, have standarized relationships between the partials. Tapes will be played demonstrating the tone of cast bell carillons and also synthetic tones in which the partials are stretched from the harmonic relationship by a factor ns, where n is the harmonic number, or shifted arithmetically by adding or subtracting a constant number from the frequency of each partial. As the frequencies of the partials are changed from the simple harmonic relationship the tones become more bell‐like.
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Suppression of bell warble (A)

R. Perrin and T. Charnley

J. Acoust. Soc. Am. Volume 61, Issue S1, pp. S21-S21 (1977); (1 page)

Online Publication Date: 11 Aug 2005

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The causes and possible methods of suppression of warble in bells are reviewed. The results of applying a new technique, recently proposed by the authors, are reported.
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Innovation and experimentation in percussion instruments (A)

Stacey Bowers, Garry Kvistad, and Allen Otte

J. Acoust. Soc. Am. Volume 61, Issue S1, pp. S21-S21 (1977); (1 page)

Online Publication Date: 11 Aug 2005

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Percussion instruments, man's oldest musical instruments (with the exception of the human voice), have recently experienced a new surge of interest and popularity. Many novel percussion instruments instruments have been built, and novel ways to perform on existing ones developed. A number of innovations will be described and demonstrated.
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Variable timbre in mallet percussion instruments (A)

Garry Kvistad and Thomas D. Rossing

J. Acoust. Soc. Am. Volume 61, Issue S1, pp. S21-S21 (1977); (1 page)

Online Publication Date: 11 Aug 2005

Full Text: | Download PDF

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Marimbas, xylophones, and vibes make use of tuned resonators to amplify their fundamental tone. However, throughout much of their range, the first overtone of each bar is tuned to one of the harmonics (3rd in the case of xylophones, 4th in the case of maribas and vibes) in order to generate the customary timbre [C. Rose and T. D. Rossing, J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 58, S131 (A) (1975)]. Tuning a second set of resonators to the first overtone makes it possible to vary the timbre (this can be extended to higher overtones as well). A marimba with variable timbre will be described and demonstrated.
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