gender (pronounced with hard "g")

Daniel Wolf wrote,

>>Furthermore, the gender, which is the
>>instrument with which the gamelan smith sets the temperament, has 1/4>
wave
>>tube resonators in the upper octaves, so that the ordinary odd-numbers
>>harmonics are part of the timbre.

to which Paul replied:

>This is a common fallacy. The resonator can do nothing but selectively
>amplify partials already contained in the source of the vibration.
>What's a gender? If it is a struck metallophone, it won't have any
>integer partials, resonantor or not.

Daniel is right here. I have measured the spectrum of many genders
(vibe-like instruments from Java, with resonators) and they usually exhibit both the
spectrum of the bar (f, 2.7f, 5.4f, ...) along with the odd harmonics
(f, 3f, 5f, ...). I think the air column is excited by the percussive hit on the
key. The air column then resonates in its own prefered modes, and these
are often quite loud, compared to the higher partials of the key.

I wrote,

>>This is a common fallacy. The resonator can do nothing but selectively
>>amplify partials already contained in the source of the vibration.
>>What's a gender? If it is a struck metallophone, it won't have any
>>integer partials, resonantor or not.

William Sethares wrote,

>Daniel is right here. I have measured the spectrum of many genders
>(vibe-like instruments from Java, with resonators) and they usually
exhibit both the
>spectrum of the bar (f, 2.7f, 5.4f, ...) along with the odd harmonics
>(f, 3f, 5f, ...). I think the air column is excited by the percussive
hit on the
>key. The air column then resonates in its own prefered modes, and these
>are often quite loud, compared to the higher partials of the key.

OK -- I was thinking of the system as a set of driven harmonic
oscillators. Since the driving mechanism is not steady but dies out
exponentially, the standard solution I was thinking of doesn't apply.
Essentially the phenomena that are usually considered "transient" are
the only ones that matter in this problem. In that case, the air column
being excited by a percussive blow is as important as the bar being
excited so.