Waves and Music
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Load more
Recommended publications
-
Lab 12. Vibrating Strings
Lab 12. Vibrating Strings Goals • To experimentally determine the relationships between the fundamental resonant frequency of a vibrating string and its length, its mass per unit length, and the tension in the string. • To introduce a useful graphical method for testing whether the quantities x and y are related by a “simple power function” of the form y = axn. If so, the constants a and n can be determined from the graph. • To experimentally determine the relationship between resonant frequencies and higher order “mode” numbers. • To develop one general relationship/equation that relates the resonant frequency of a string to the four parameters: length, mass per unit length, tension, and mode number. Introduction Vibrating strings are part of our common experience. Which as you may have learned by now means that you have built up explanations in your subconscious about how they work, and that those explanations are sometimes self-contradictory, and rarely entirely correct. Musical instruments from all around the world employ vibrating strings to make musical sounds. Anyone who plays such an instrument knows that changing the tension in the string changes the pitch, which in physics terms means changing the resonant frequency of vibration. Similarly, changing the thickness (and thus the mass) of the string also affects its sound (frequency). String length must also have some effect, since a bass violin is much bigger than a normal violin and sounds much different. The interplay between these factors is explored in this laboratory experi- ment. You do not need to know physics to understand how instruments work. In fact, in the course of this lab alone you will engage with material which entire PhDs in music theory have been written. -
The Science of String Instruments
The Science of String Instruments Thomas D. Rossing Editor The Science of String Instruments Editor Thomas D. Rossing Stanford University Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics (CCRMA) Stanford, CA 94302-8180, USA [email protected] ISBN 978-1-4419-7109-8 e-ISBN 978-1-4419-7110-4 DOI 10.1007/978-1-4419-7110-4 Springer New York Dordrecht Heidelberg London # Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2010 All rights reserved. This work may not be translated or copied in whole or in part without the written permission of the publisher (Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, 233 Spring Street, New York, NY 10013, USA), except for brief excerpts in connection with reviews or scholarly analysis. Use in connection with any form of information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed is forbidden. The use in this publication of trade names, trademarks, service marks, and similar terms, even if they are not identified as such, is not to be taken as an expression of opinion as to whether or not they are subject to proprietary rights. Printed on acid-free paper Springer is part of Springer ScienceþBusiness Media (www.springer.com) Contents 1 Introduction............................................................... 1 Thomas D. Rossing 2 Plucked Strings ........................................................... 11 Thomas D. Rossing 3 Guitars and Lutes ........................................................ 19 Thomas D. Rossing and Graham Caldersmith 4 Portuguese Guitar ........................................................ 47 Octavio Inacio 5 Banjo ...................................................................... 59 James Rae 6 Mandolin Family Instruments........................................... 77 David J. Cohen and Thomas D. Rossing 7 Psalteries and Zithers .................................................... 99 Andres Peekna and Thomas D. -
Electric & Acoustic Guitar Strings: a Recording of Harmonic Content
Electric & Acoustic Guitar Strings: A Recording of Harmonic Content Ryan Lee, Graduate Researcher Electrical & Computer Engineering Department University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign In conjunction with Professor Steve Errede and the Department of Physics Friday, January 10, 2003 2 Introduction The purpose of this study was to analyze the harmonic content and decay of different guitar strings. Testing was done in two parts: 80 electric guitar strings and 145 acoustic guitar strings. The goal was to obtain data for as many different brands, types, and gauges of strings as possible. Testing Each string was tested only once, in brand new condition (unless otherwise noted). Once tuned properly, each string was plucked with a bare thumb in two different positions. For the electric guitar, the two positions were at the top of the bridge pickup and at the top of the neck pickup. For the acoustic guitar, the two positions were at the bottom of the sound hole and at the top of the sound hole. The signal path for the recording of an electric guitar string was as follows: 1994 Gibson SG Standard to ¼” input on a Mark of the Unicorn (MOTU) 896 to a computer (via firewire). Steinberg’s Cubase VST 5.0 was the software used to capture the .wav files. The 1999 Taylor 410CE acoustic guitar was recorded in an anechoic chamber. A Bruel & Kjær 4145 condenser microphone was connected directly to a Sony TCD-D8 portable DAT recorder (via its B&K preamp, power supply, and cables). Recording format was mono, 48 kHz, and 16- bit. -
Breedlove Owner's Manual
1 BREEDLOVE Owner’s MANUAL Breedlove Owner’s Manual TABLE OF CONTENTS A Note From Kim Breedlove 4 How To Experience Breedlove 7 Humidity, Temperature and Solid Wood Instruments 8 Neck Truss Rod Adjustment 10 Breedlove Bridge Truss 12 Adjustment Bolt Sizes for Breedlove Instruments 14 Steel-String Acoustic Guitar Set Up Specifications 15 Changing Strings on your Breedlove Guitar 16 Breedlove Mandolins 17 Electronics Configurations for Acoustic Guitars 19 Cleaning Your Breedlove Instrument 19 Breedlove Factory String Specifications 22 Breedlove Warranty 22 Keep a record of your Breedlove Guitar 25 5 THANK YOU Thank you for purchasing your new Breedlove instrument. You are now the caretaker of a fine stringed instrument. Every instrument we produce is special to us and we hope it will bring you many years of enjoyment. To preserve the remarkable tone and playability of your Breedlove we have some simple suggestions to help ensure that your instrument will be making beautiful music for years to come. Should you ever have questions or concerns please send us an email at: [email protected] Sincerely, Kim Breedlove 5 DISTINCTIVELY CRafted SOUND. We love what we do. After all, it’s in our name. We are master luthiers who create instruments of true distinction. It’s in our DNA to push the boundaries of design and craftsmanship. Being different is never the easy path. But in our view, it has far greater rewards. And while we respect tradition, we simply choose not to make instruments of yesterday. Imagination compels us to make instruments of tomorrow. 7 Welcome to the Breedlove family where you are about to experience the highest quality craftsmanship, customer service and an unmatched passion for music and fine instruments. -
Antonio Stradivari "Servais" 1701
32 ANTONIO STRADIVARI "SERVAIS" 1701 The renowned "Servais" cello by Stradivari is examined by Roger Hargrave Photographs: Stewart Pollens Research Assistance: Julie Reed Technical Assistance: Gary Sturm (Smithsonian Institute) In 184.6 an Englishman, James Smithson, gave the bines the grandeur of the pre‑1700 instrument with US Government $500,000 to be used `for the increase the more masculine build which we could wish to and diffusion of knowledge among men.' This was the have met with in the work of the master's earlier beginning of the vast institution which now domi - years. nates the down‑town Washington skyline. It includes the J.F. Kennedy Centre for Performing Arts and the Something of the cello's history is certainly worth National Zoo, as well as many specialist museums, de - repeating here, since, as is often the case, much of picting the achievements of men in every conceiv - this is only to be found in rare or expensive publica - able field. From the Pony Express to the Skylab tions. The following are extracts from the Reminis - orbital space station, from Sandro Botticelli to Jack - cences of a Fiddle Dealer by David Laurie, a Scottish son Pollock this must surely be the largest museum violin dealer, who was a contemporary of J.B. Vuil - and arts complex anywhere in the world. Looking laume: around, one cannot help feeling that this is the sort While attending one of M. Jansen's private con - of place where somebody might be disappointed not certs, I had the pleasure of meeting M. Servais of Hal, to find the odd Strad! And indeed, if you can manage one of the most renowned violoncellists of the day . -
Extracting Vibration Characteristics and Performing Sound Synthesis of Acoustic Guitar to Analyze Inharmonicity
Open Journal of Acoustics, 2020, 10, 41-50 https://www.scirp.org/journal/oja ISSN Online: 2162-5794 ISSN Print: 2162-5786 Extracting Vibration Characteristics and Performing Sound Synthesis of Acoustic Guitar to Analyze Inharmonicity Johnson Clinton1, Kiran P. Wani2 1M Tech (Auto. Eng.), VIT-ARAI Academy, Bangalore, India 2ARAI Academy, Pune, India How to cite this paper: Clinton, J. and Abstract Wani, K.P. (2020) Extracting Vibration Characteristics and Performing Sound The produced sound quality of guitar primarily depends on vibrational char- Synthesis of Acoustic Guitar to Analyze acteristics of the resonance box. Also, the tonal quality is influenced by the Inharmonicity. Open Journal of Acoustics, correct combination of tempo along with pitch, harmony, and melody in or- 10, 41-50. https://doi.org/10.4236/oja.2020.103003 der to find music pleasurable. In this study, the resonance frequencies of the modelled resonance box have been analysed. The free-free modal analysis was Received: July 30, 2020 performed in ABAQUS to obtain the modes shapes of the un-constrained Accepted: September 27, 2020 Published: September 30, 2020 sound box. To find music pleasing to the ear, the right pitch must be set, which is achieved by tuning the guitar strings. In order to analyse the sound Copyright © 2020 by author(s) and elements, the Fourier analysis method was chosen and implemented in Scientific Research Publishing Inc. MATLAB. Identification of fundamentals and overtones of the individual This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution International string sounds were carried out prior and after tuning the string. The untuned License (CC BY 4.0). -
The Physics of Sound 1
The Physics of Sound 1 The Physics of Sound Sound lies at the very center of speech communication. A sound wave is both the end product of the speech production mechanism and the primary source of raw material used by the listener to recover the speaker's message. Because of the central role played by sound in speech communication, it is important to have a good understanding of how sound is produced, modified, and measured. The purpose of this chapter will be to review some basic principles underlying the physics of sound, with a particular focus on two ideas that play an especially important role in both speech and hearing: the concept of the spectrum and acoustic filtering. The speech production mechanism is a kind of assembly line that operates by generating some relatively simple sounds consisting of various combinations of buzzes, hisses, and pops, and then filtering those sounds by making a number of fine adjustments to the tongue, lips, jaw, soft palate, and other articulators. We will also see that a crucial step at the receiving end occurs when the ear breaks this complex sound into its individual frequency components in much the same way that a prism breaks white light into components of different optical frequencies. Before getting into these ideas it is first necessary to cover the basic principles of vibration and sound propagation. Sound and Vibration A sound wave is an air pressure disturbance that results from vibration. The vibration can come from a tuning fork, a guitar string, the column of air in an organ pipe, the head (or rim) of a snare drum, steam escaping from a radiator, the reed on a clarinet, the diaphragm of a loudspeaker, the vocal cords, or virtually anything that vibrates in a frequency range that is audible to a listener (roughly 20 to 20,000 cycles per second for humans). -
The Musical Kinetic Shape: a Variable Tension String Instrument
The Musical Kinetic Shape: AVariableTensionStringInstrument Ismet Handˇzi´c, Kyle B. Reed University of South Florida, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Tampa, Florida Abstract In this article we present a novel variable tension string instrument which relies on a kinetic shape to actively alter the tension of a fixed length taut string. We derived a mathematical model that relates the two-dimensional kinetic shape equation to the string’s physical and dynamic parameters. With this model we designed and constructed an automated instrument that is able to play frequencies within predicted and recognizable frequencies. This prototype instrument is also able to play programmed melodies. Keywords: musical instrument, variable tension, kinetic shape, string vibration 1. Introduction It is possible to vary the fundamental natural oscillation frequency of a taut and uniform string by either changing the string’s length, linear density, or tension. Most string musical instruments produce di↵erent tones by either altering string length (fretting) or playing preset and di↵erent string gages and string tensions. Although tension can be used to adjust the frequency of a string, it is typically only used in this way for fine tuning the preset tension needed to generate a specific note frequency. In this article, we present a novel string instrument concept that is able to continuously change the fundamental oscillation frequency of a plucked (or bowed) string by altering string tension in a controlled and predicted Email addresses: [email protected] (Ismet Handˇzi´c), [email protected] (Kyle B. Reed) URL: http://reedlab.eng.usf.edu/ () Preprint submitted to Applied Acoustics April 19, 2014 Figure 1: The musical kinetic shape variable tension string instrument prototype. -
Journal of the Violin Society of America, Volume XVI, No
Journal of the Violin Society of America, Volume XVI, No. 2 Proceedings of the 25th Annual National Convention New Designs and Modern Violins Saturday, November 8, 1997, 2:00 pm Albert Mell: From early childhood Guy Rabut has been very much in- volved with art and drawing, and this interest has been maintained throughout his career. After working in the Français shop under René Morel for a number of years, Guy opened his own shop on 28th Street in Manhattan, where he is concerned primarily with making new instruments. If you are in New York Iʼm sure he would be glad to see you. Since 1995 Guy has been working on what seems to be a new face of the violin. These are violins which are built acoustically according to traditional methods, but incorporate new design ideas to create an aesthetic interest. I give you Guy Rabut. Guy Rabut: Good afternoon. I would like to thank Phil Kass and the VSA for inviting me to speak today. I attended my first VSA meeting in 1980 when it was at Hofstra University. I have been to several since, and have always enjoyed myself and learned a great deal. For several years I have been pursuing traditional violin making. But always in the back of my mind I wanted to expand the aesthetic envelope and try some new designs and ideas within the parameters of violin mak- ing. As they evolved, the ideas went from non-traditional decorations on a traditional playing instrument to completely new forms and surface treat- ments on the acoustic skeleton of the traditional violin. -
Overview Guitar Models
14.04.2011 HOHNER - HISTORICAL GUITAR MODELS page 1 [54] Image Category Model Name Year from-to Description former retail price Musima Resonata classical; beginners guitar; mahogany back and sides Acoustic 129 (730) ca. 1988 140 DM (1990) with celluloid binding; 19 frets Acoustic A EAGLE 2004 Top Wood: Spruce - Finish : Natural - Guitar Hardware: Grover Tuners BR CLASSIC CITY Acoustic 1999 Fingerboard: Rosewood - Pickup Configuration: H-H (BATON ROUGE) electro-acoustic; solid spruce top; striped ebony back and sides; maple w/ abalone binding; mahogany neck; solid ebony fingerboard and Acoustic CE 800 E 2007 bridge; Gold Grover 3-in-line tuners; shadow P7 pickup, 3-band EQ; single cutaway; colour: natural electro-acoustic; solid spruce top; striped ebony back and sides; maple Acoustic CE 800 S 2007 w/ abalone binding; mahogany neck; solid ebony fingerboard and bridge; Gold Grover 3-in-line tuners; single cutaway; colour: natural dreadnought western guitar; Gruhn design; 20 nickel silver frets; rosewood veneer on headstock; mahogany back and sides; spruce top, Acoustic D 1 ca. 1991 950 DM (1992) scalloped bracings; mahogany neck with rosewood fingerboard; satin finish; Gotoh die-cast machine heads dreadnought western guitar; Gruhn design; rosewood back and sides; spruce top, scalloped bracings; mahogany neck with rosewood Acoustic D 2 ca. 1991 1100 DM (1992) fingerboard; 20 nickel silver frets; rosewood veneer on headstock; satin finish; Gotoh die-cast machine heads Top Wood: Sitka Spruce - Back: Rosewood - Sides: Rosewood - Guitar Acoustic -
Experiment 12
Experiment 12 Velocity and Propagation of Waves 12.1 Objective To use the phenomenon of resonance to determine the velocity of the propagation of waves in taut strings and wires. 12.2 Discussion Any medium under tension or stress has the following property: disturbances, motions of the matter of which the medium consists, are propagated through the medium. When the disturbances are periodic, they are called waves, and when the disturbances are simple harmonic, the waves are sinusoidal and are characterized by a common wavelength and frequency. The velocity of propagation of a disturbance, whether or not it is periodic, depends generally upon the tension or stress in the medium and on the density of the medium. The greater the stress: the greater the velocity; and the greater the density: the smaller the velocity. In the case of a taut string or wire, the velocity v depends upon the tension T in the string or wire and the mass per unit length µ of the string or wire. Theory predicts that the relation should be T v2 = (12.1) µ Most disturbances travel so rapidly that a direct determination of their velocity is not possible. However, when the disturbance is simple harmonic, the sinusoidal character of the waves provides a simple method by which the velocity of the waves can be indirectly determined. This determination involves the frequency f and wavelength λ of the wave. Here f is the frequency of the simple harmonic motion of the medium and λ is from any point of the wave to the next point of the same phase. -
Separating Sound from Source: Sonic Transformation of the Violin Through Electrodynamic Pickups and Acoustic Actuation
Separating sound from source: sonic transformation of the violin through electrodynamic pickups and acoustic actuation Laurel S. Pardue Kurijn Buys Michael Edinger Design and Media Technology Centre for Digital Music MusikLab.dk / Centre for Digital Music Queen Mary University of Lyngby, Denmark Aalborg University / QMUL London [email protected] Copenhagen / London London, UK [email protected] [email protected] Dan Overholt Andrew P. McPherson Institute for Architecture, Centre for Digital Music Design and Media Technology Queen Mary University of Aalborg University London Copenhagen, Denmark London, UK [email protected] [email protected] ABSTRACT 1. INTRODUCTION When designing an augmented acoustic instrument, it is of- Two common motivations for designing augmented instru- ten of interest to retain an instrument's sound quality and ments are to extend the sonic capabilities of an existing nuanced response while leveraging the richness of digital instrument, or to repurpose the player's existing skill and synthesis. Digital audio has traditionally been generated technique on a traditional instrument. In contrast to tra- through speakers, separating sound generation from the in- ditional acoustic instruments, where sound production is strument itself, or by adding an actuator within the instru- inherently tied to physical construction and energy input ment's resonating body, imparting new sounds along with from the player, it is common with developing digital or the original. We offer a third option, isolating the play- augmented instruments to segment the design into separa- ing interface from the actuated resonating body, allowing ble modules: interface, processing, sound output. us to rewrite the relationship between performance action Most commonly, processing is done on a computer with and sound result while retaining the general form and feel sound then output to a speaker or public address system, of the acoustic instrument.