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Date: Tue, 22 Aug 2000 23:18:21 +0000
From: Lawrence de Martin
Subject: Re: [CB] [Contra Digest]Andrew Stiller wrote:
> >Small children can hear as low as 10 Hz., but I never heard of an
> >adult who could actually hear an 8-Hz pitch. Of course, at high
> >volumes one can *feel* such pitches, and you can also hear any high
> >overtones that peak with the fundamental--but what you're hearing
> >there is not the fundamental pitch, but 16th-notes in march tempo!Staccato notes have frequency components from the starting and stopping that
is clearly audible well below the supposed hearing limit of 20Hz. Say if you
play a BBb quarter note at 218 bpm, the note is only eight cycles long. This
is within normal technique on five string bass guitar, I haven't recorded
brass or reeds yet.If you do a Fourier analysis, you will find that a series of such notes has a
strong frequency of 3.64Hz (BBBBBb). I have found that this frequency is
"heard" at normal listening levels by 100% of my test subjects.Conventional bass speakers have resonances in the lower octaves and roll off
the bass above this hearing range so that the pitch and rhythm of staccato
notes is audibly distorted. For this reason either the low frequency content
or dynamics are limited in 99% of all recordings.I have been searching for recordings with extreme low bass of a percussive
nature. This sound was nearly impossible to capture on vinyl, but is well
within CD technology - it just doesn't match commercially available speakers.
It can be heard through good closed-ear headphones made by Sennheiser, Sony,
Koss and Beyerdynamic which have response beolw 10Hz.There is also a limit of conventional microphones, because of either
capacitors or transformers in the signal path which roll off bass at 20-30Hz.
Can anybody recommend extreme bass acoustic recordings, or is anyone near
Greenwich, CT, interested in making some? (I just got a microphone that is
flat to 10Hz)Larry de Martin
---------------------------------------------------------
Date: Tue, 22 Aug 2000 23:22:14 +0000
From: Lawrence de Martin
Subject: Re: [CB] [Contra Digest]LeliaLoban wrote:
> I've never
> heard (of felt) the 64' diaphone, which I believe has been dismantled for
> decades, but it's an actual speaking rank, not a resultant. I think there's
> only one other real 64' speaking rank in the world, in Australia.I thought someone on the list previously mentioned that the Christian Science Mother Church in
Boston has a 64' rank. My aunt said it was still in service, although she has never played it.Larry de Martin
---------------------------------------------------------
Date: Wed, 23 Aug 2000 13:59:01 +0200
From: "Klaus Bjerre"
Subject: Re: [CB] 78rpm recordings
----------
>From: Lawrence de Martin
>
> Conventional bass speakers have resonances in the lower octaves and roll off
> the bass above this hearing range so that the pitch and rhythm of staccato
> notes is audibly distorted. For this reason either the low frequency content
> or dynamics are limited in 99% of all recordings.An old musician, guitar and accordeon, born around 1910 once told me of his
work in the recording studios around the WWII era.The recording was done directly to a wax master. After finishing the take of
a dance tune or pop song all musicians had to sit on their chairs until an
engineer by means of a magnifying glass had made sure that no low frequecy
sound had damaged the spiralled groove by making it join itself at any given
point (bad wording, but I can=B9t do it better).If the groove was damaged, the engineer by experience could tell rather
precisely where in the tune the too low and loud frequency had caused the
too heavy amplitude. The offending instrumental part was then written up an
octave at that point. And a new recording attempt was done.Going very unserious I will add this anecdote about another transposition:
A leading trombone soloist of that age once in a radio show told of a studio
session going wrong again and again. Control listening revealed a moaning or
sighing sound always occuring at the same place of the song.The sound did not come from an instrument, so no explanation could be found
until the engineer made live control listenings sitting among the musicians.It turned out that the sound came from the double bass player. He had a
thyroid condition. At the critical point of the song he had a high note
passage demanding him to bow forward over the bass. Causing some air to
escape through his mouth in an unpleasantly noisy way.In this case the offending passage was transposed an octave down.
Klaus
---------------------------------------------------------From: LeliaLoban
Date: Wed, 23 Aug 2000 10:09:22 EDT
Subject: [CB] Bass sax sighting!I just discovered a nifty "extra" at the end of the movie "No Way Out"
(1950), which I taped off American Movie Classics TV at 2:45 in the morning
on Monday. The bonus is a 10-minute black and white short subject, "Duke
Ellington and His Orchestra, 'Bundle of Blues.'" This 1933 short wasn't
announced in the TV listings. It's filler at the end of the movie, before
the scheduled start of the next movie. Florence Hill and Bessie Dudley do a
spirited, amusing and harmlessly naughty dance performance on the third of
three numbers. I think it's a delightful short.The bass sax plays very little -- nothing but a few notes of "Stormy
Weather," sung by Ivy Anderson (with some early special effects on the film).
It's interesting, though, that someone decided the bass sax should stand
right next to Ellington's piano, as an impressive and photogenic display
throughout the three numbers. All the sax players double on more than one
sax or on other winds. The bass sax player, seated, plays alto sax most of
the time, but keeps the bass on a stand to his right. He leaves his alto
hanging on a strap around his neck while he cranes over to play the bass.
His posture is so awkward that it's clear he couldn't have been using the
bass often or for difficult parts."Bundle of Blues" is a "UM&M TV Presentation," copyrighted 1933. I couldn't
read all of the credits on the TV screen, but it appears to be the type of
short subject that used to be shown in theaters before the main feature, that
has been re-packaged for TV. The logo, which is clearly newer film than the
print of the performances, is in 1950s style, and looks as if the company
might have revived this short for TV in the 1950s; but it could also be a
new, "retro" restoration for modern cable TV oldies stations.Lelia
~~~~~~~~~~~
Anything not nailed down is a cat's toy.
~~~~~~~~~~~
---------------------------------------------------------From: Opusnandy
Date: Wed, 23 Aug 2000 11:35:13 EDT
Subject: Re: [CB] [Contra Digest]>I thought someone on the list previously mentioned that the Christian Science Mother Church in
>Boston has a 64' rank.That was I who said that. A tour guide at the church told me it was a "64
foot pipe". I don't know if she ment speaking rank, diaphone, actual pipe
length, or if she even knew the difference. All I know is that the center
pipe was the most gigantic I have ever seen in person. Another list member
replied that this was incorrect and that it was only a 32 foot pipe. My
visual guess would have been that it was bigger than that, but who knows if I
can judge that acurately. 32 feet is still big!Jon Carreira
---------------------------------------------------------From: Heliconman
Date: Wed, 23 Aug 2000 12:32:39 EDT
Subject: Re: [CB] [Contra Digest]In a message dated 8/23/00 11:39:47 AM Eastern Daylight Time, Opusnandy writes:
<<
That was I who said that. A tour guide at the church told me it was a "64
foot pipe". I don't know if she ment speaking rank, diaphone, actual pipe
length, or if she even knew the difference. All I know is that the center
pipe was the most gigantic I have ever seen in person. Another list member
replied that this was incorrect and that it was only a 32 foot pipe. My
visual guess would have been that it was bigger than that, but who knows if I
can judge that acurately. 32 feet is still big!
>>
Perhaps I could check that out. There is a card file in the music collection
at the Boston Public Library that catalogs various pipe organs in the New
England area with references to books and magazines that refer to the
specific instrument. Just happened on it one day while researching Patrick
Gilmore and the old Boston Music Hall (now the Orpheum). I've never actually
taken the Mother Church tour and I make it a point to play tourist on
occasion in my own hometown. Who needs to travel to go sightseeing?!! I hear
the stain glass Maparium at the Mother Church is quite a spectacle! More
later......
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