Metal working question

Hello all,

Through a friend I have access to a metal working shop that mostly deals
with aluminum - especially chunks of it. While I do have Cris Foster's
Musical Mathematics I have been scouring the internet without success so
far for guidance on shaping metal to produce interesting sounds. The
closest I get is the manufacture of cymbals and gongs which yields some
great information though I'm thinking not too applicable working in
aluminum. Does anyone know of a resource beyond what I have access to
already?

Thanks for your time,

Chris

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

My first metalophones were 1/2" galvanized conduit electrical pipes, which we cut to lengths based on listening and a tuning device. They sounded terrific in 31 equal. I also made some out of brass tubes, brass flats, and aluminum. I just started cutting and listening, and hoping for the best. The key for longer bars is including an acoustic resonator tube tuned to the fundamental frequency of each of the lower notes. Otherwise the enharmonic overtones are too prominent.

I wouldn't expect to be able to predict all the overtones of a bar, but someone may have done this work. I'd take a look at a vibraphone and start by matching what someone else has done.

What I've found is that the amount of material you shave off the middles affects the fundamental, but has less effect on the first few overtones. In other words, if you start with a bar that plays a440 Hz, with overtones at 1220 Hz and higher, then shave off some of the middle, the fundamental drops to perhaps 400 Hz, but the overtone stays close to 1220 Hz. Keep shaving off the middle until you end up with a fundamental at 305 Hz, and the 1220 Hz overtone is now two octaves higher than the fundamental, and the sound is sweet. The overtones do drift around in unpredictable ways, though. And they move down as the fundamental drops, but slower. The idea is to have them move closer to an integral relationship to each other. Measure, write down what you find, change the bar more in some manner, measure again, and repeat until you understand the material and how changes affect it.

Prent Rodgers

--- In MakeMicroMusic@yahoogroups.com, Chris Vaisvil <chrisvaisvil@...> wrote:
>
> Hello all,
>
>
> Through a friend I have access to a metal working shop that mostly deals
> with aluminum - especially chunks of it. While I do have Cris Foster's
> Musical Mathematics I have been scouring the internet without success so
> far for guidance on shaping metal to produce interesting sounds. The
> closest I get is the manufacture of cymbals and gongs which yields some
> great information though I'm thinking not too applicable working in
> aluminum. Does anyone know of a resource beyond what I have access to
> already?
>
> Thanks for your time,
>
> Chris
>
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>

Hi Prent,

Thanks for the experience - Jacob and Andrew have a tube set which I can't
remember the tuning (14 edo perhaps) - I think what I want to do is to make
things as inharmonic as possible. I'm looking for new sound which to sample
or use stretched by Paul's Extreme Sound Stretch to use as a "pad" or
"wash" (whatever term is current :-)

What I do have in my hands (which is NOT the bell I mentioned) is the
deadest piece of aluminum I have ever heard. It was a shock that I could
create a piece of metal that sounded like cardboard. I need to post some
pictures.

Chris

On Tue, Aug 21, 2012 at 3:29 PM, prentrodgers <prentrodgers@...>wrote:

> **
>
>
> My first metalophones were 1/2" galvanized conduit electrical pipes, which
> we cut to lengths based on listening and a tuning device. They sounded
> terrific in 31 equal. I also made some out of brass tubes, brass flats, and
> aluminum. I just started cutting and listening, and hoping for the best.
> The key for longer bars is including an acoustic resonator tube tuned to
> the fundamental frequency of each of the lower notes. Otherwise the
> enharmonic overtones are too prominent.
>
> I wouldn't expect to be able to predict all the overtones of a bar, but
> someone may have done this work. I'd take a look at a vibraphone and start
> by matching what someone else has done.
>
> What I've found is that the amount of material you shave off the middles
> affects the fundamental, but has less effect on the first few overtones. In
> other words, if you start with a bar that plays a440 Hz, with overtones at
> 1220 Hz and higher, then shave off some of the middle, the fundamental
> drops to perhaps 400 Hz, but the overtone stays close to 1220 Hz. Keep
> shaving off the middle until you end up with a fundamental at 305 Hz, and
> the 1220 Hz overtone is now two octaves higher than the fundamental, and
> the sound is sweet. The overtones do drift around in unpredictable ways,
> though. And they move down as the fundamental drops, but slower. The idea
> is to have them move closer to an integral relationship to each other.
> Measure, write down what you find, change the bar more in some manner,
> measure again, and repeat until you understand the material and how changes
> affect it.
>
> Prent Rodgers
>
>
> --- In MakeMicroMusic@yahoogroups.com, Chris Vaisvil <chrisvaisvil@...>
> wrote:
> >
> > Hello all,
> >
> >
> > Through a friend I have access to a metal working shop that mostly deals
> > with aluminum - especially chunks of it. While I do have Cris Foster's
> > Musical Mathematics I have been scouring the internet without success so
> > far for guidance on shaping metal to produce interesting sounds. The
> > closest I get is the manufacture of cymbals and gongs which yields some
> > great information though I'm thinking not too applicable working in
> > aluminum. Does anyone know of a resource beyond what I have access to
> > already?
> >
> > Thanks for your time,
> >
> > Chris
> >
> >
> > [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
> >
>
>
>

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]