[sdiy] Tubular Bells

[Glen]

At 02:02 PM 12/15/04 , Peter Grenader wrote:

>If you can afford it, titanium tubes are terrific for this as they are hard
>as nails (actually, harder) and sustain wonderfully. Plus they can be
>purchased as either straight gage or double butted, meaning the walls get
>thinner in the center of the pipe by about 2 mils - perfect for ringing.  I
>know this for a fact because I've got a bicycle frame made out of the stuff
>and the frame builder has made some really interesting wind chimes in his
>spare time, one tuned to microtones.  He really got into it for a while.

I thought that if the walls of the tube weren't of uniform thickness, it
resulted in a "beating" sound in the tone of the bell, which some people
object to? I believe I read that on a web page describing the mechanics and
theories of old church carillons.

There is one other detail I remember, which might be worth passing on.
Deagan used tubes which were closed on one end. This changed the ratio of
the resonant pitch of the air column, with respect to the resonant pitch of
the metal tube itself. It was claimed to result in a more pronounced strike
tone, and a more melodic sound when played with other instruments, if I'm
not mistaken. The wind chimes that I mentioned earlier are open at both
ends. Then again, they aren't engineered to play well with other
instruments.  :)

Does anyone know the harmonic details of English, Flemish, Celeste, and
Harp chimes? I'm ideally looking for a chart that plots the frequency and
amplitude of all the partials produced by each chime.


take care,
Glen  (who is also looking into bells and chimes, if you hadn't noticed.)