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Introduction to Acoustics

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ertheless describe the overall pitch as being high or low.<br />

For example, a side drum has a higher overall pitch than<br />

a bass drum and a triangle higher than a large gong. From<br />

an acoustical point of view, we will be particularly interested<br />

in the lower-frequency quasi-harmonic modes.<br />

However, one must never forget the importance of the<br />

higher-frequency inharmonic modes in defining the initial<br />

transient, which is very important in characterising<br />

the sound of an instrument.<br />

Nonlinear effects arise in drums in much the same<br />

wayasinstrings(Sect.15.2.2). The increase in tension,<br />

proportional <strong>to</strong> the square of the vibrational amplitude,<br />

leads <strong>to</strong> an increase in modal frequencies. In<br />

addition, nonlinearity can result in mode conversion<br />

(Sect. 15.2.2) and the transfer of energy from initially<br />

excited lower-frequency modes with large amplitudes <strong>to</strong><br />

higher partials. Although the pitch of a drum is raised<br />

when strongly hit, this may <strong>to</strong> some extent be compensated<br />

by the psychoacoustic effect of a low-frequency<br />

note sounding flatter as its intensity increased. Changes<br />

in perceived pitch of a drum with time can often be emphasised<br />

by the use of digital processing, <strong>to</strong> increase the<br />

frequency of the recorded playback without changing<br />

the overall envelope in time (audio ).<br />

Air Loading and Radiation<br />

The above description of the vibrational states of a membrane<br />

neglects the induced motion of the air on either<br />

Musical <strong>Acoustics</strong> 15.4 Percussion Instruments 643<br />

Table 15.7 Ideal and measured frequencies of the modal frequencies of a timpani drum head normalised <strong>to</strong> the acoustically<br />

important (11) mode before and after mounting on the kettle, and the internal air resonances of the kettle. The arrows<br />

indicate the sense of the most significant perturbations of drum head frequencies and the asterisks indicate the resulting<br />

quasi-harmonic set of acoustically important modes (adapted from Fletcher and Rossing)<br />

Mode Ideal membrane Drumhead in air Coupled internal<br />

air resonances<br />

side of the drum skin. At low frequencies, this adds<br />

amass≈ 8 3 ρa3 <strong>to</strong> the membrane (Fletcher and Rossing<br />

[15.5], Sect. 18.1.2), approximating <strong>to</strong> a cylinder of<br />

air with the same thickness as the radius a of the drum<br />

head. The added mass lowers the vibrational frequencies<br />

relative <strong>to</strong> those of an ideal membrane vibrating<br />

in vacuum. The effect is largest at low frequencies,<br />

when the wavelength in air is larger than or comparable<br />

with the size of the drumhead. For higher-frequency<br />

modes, with a number of wavelengths λ across the width<br />

of the drumhead, the induced air motion only extends<br />

a distance ≈ λ2π(≪ a) from the membrane. Air loading<br />

therefore leaves the higher-frequency modes relatively<br />

unperturbed.<br />

Drums can have a single drum skin stretched over<br />

a hollow body, such as the kettle drum of the timpani,<br />

or two drum heads on either side of a supporting<br />

cylinder or hollowed out block of wood, like the side<br />

drum and southern Indian mrdanga (Fletcher and Rossing<br />

[15.5], Sect. 18.5). By stretching the drum head<br />

over a hollow body, the sound radiated from the back<br />

surface is eliminated, just like mounting a loudspeaker<br />

cone in an enclosure. At low frequencies, the drum<br />

then acts as a monopole source with isotropic and<br />

significantly enhanced radiation efficiency. This is illustrated<br />

by the much reduced 60 dB decay time of<br />

the (11) dipole mode of a stretched timpani skin,<br />

when the drum skin was attached <strong>to</strong> the kettle –<br />

Drumhead<br />

on kettle<br />

01 0.63 82 Hz 0.53 (0,1,0) 385 Hz 127 Hz 0.85 ↑<br />

(0,1,1)<br />

11 1.00 160 1.0 (1,1,0) 337 Hz 150 1.00 ↓ ***<br />

(1,1,1) 566 Hz<br />

21 1.34 229 1.48 (2,1,0) 537 Hz 227 1.51 ↓ ***<br />

(2,1,1) 747 Hz<br />

02 1.44 241 1.55 (0,1,0) (0,2,0) 252 1.68 ↑<br />

31 1.66 297 1.92 (3,1,0) (3,1,1) 298 1.99 ***<br />

12 1.83 323 2.08 (1,2,0) (1,2,1) 314 2.09 ↓<br />

41 1.98 366 2.36 366 2.44 ***<br />

22 2.20 402 2.59 401 2.67<br />

03 2.26 407 2.63 (0,1,0) 418 2.79 ↑<br />

51 2.29 431 2.78 434 2.89<br />

32 2.55 479 3.09 448 2.99 ***<br />

61 2.61 484 3.12 462 3.08<br />

Part E 15.4

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