Hz to metal

Thanks, Carl. I have a lamentable inability to learn on beginner
projects and am almost completely ignorant about this subject on the
Hz end, but am a little familiar with metalsmithing. There are so
many variables and I am at a total loss even where to start with this
project. It will depend on the type of metal, length, and gauge, but
so many other things as well. Wire or tubing, twisted or flat? Open
or soldered closed? Shape? Straight, even width or varied width?
There are a zillion other considerations, too, I'm sure.

Unfortunately, the metal I want to use is too expensive to just
experiment with and a trial run with a different metal would give
different results, so I'm reduced to doing as much figuring as I can
on paper. I have looked and looked online and just am not going
anywhere.

I expect there are formulas one can use to at least obtain a starting
point, which is more than I have right now - I lack even a basis for
guessing about these things.

Any suggestions or ideas where to start? A website where I could find
elementary-enough information for a "toddler"? Any ideas, pointers,
suggestions, anything at all would be deeply appreciated.

Thanks so much!
Sandi

What kind of sound are you after?

Hollow metal is (can be) deep, solid metal is usually high regardless of
the size.

Finding a physicist wouldn't be a bad idea.

https://www.msu.edu/~carillon/batmbook/chapter4.htm

http://www.geocities.com/teeley2/chimeart.html

As always google is your friend

--- In tuning@yahoogroups.com, "Sandi" <adnissi02@...> wrote:
>
> Thanks, Carl. I have a lamentable inability to learn on
> beginner projects and am almost completely ignorant about
> this subject on the Hz end, but am a little familiar with
> metalsmithing. There are so many variables and I am at a
> total loss even where to start with this project. It will
> depend on the type of metal, length, and gauge, but so
> many other things as well. Wire or tubing, twisted or flat?
> Open or soldered closed? Shape? Straight, even width or
> varied width? There are a zillion other considerations,
> too, I'm sure.

The type of metal may affect the absolute Hz. but shouldn't
change the relationships. That is, if you make a perfect
set in steel and then make a replica in titanium, the
'concert pitch' of the titanium set may differ, but the
intervals should be the same. I think. So you could
prototype in a cheap metal and then shave a single bar of
the final metal until you get the right pitch, and then
fab the final set of bars according to that scaling and
you should be OK. Actually I think the densities of the
metals (which you can look up on wikipedia) will give the
scaling pretty well but there are others here who are more
knowledgeable than I.

Shape is much more important. It can change the pitch
and timbre radically. If you tell us more about what
you're trying to build we can give better advice.

> I expect there are formulas one can use to at least obtain
> a starting point, which is more than I have right now - I
> lack even a basis for guessing about these things.
>
> Any suggestions or ideas where to start?

You're at one of the best places. I'll chip in with the
one rule of thumb I've heard, which is that the pitch of
strings and such scales linearly with length, while the
pitch of bars/tubes scales quadratically. So like, an
octave is a 2:1 frequency relationship. For a pair of
strings, one will be half the length of the other whereas
for or a pair of bars one will be 1/4 the length of the
other. That's what I'm remembering anyway.

> A website where I could find elementary-enough
> information for a "toddler"? Any ideas, pointers,
> suggestions, anything at all would be deeply appreciated.

The microtonalists I know of who make metallophones do
a lot of trial and error. That goes for all instruments
come to think of it.

-Carl