Recent content by calvinrose

I've never heard that term before, but the way it is used in the article I referenced at http://circularscience.com/about-drums it means the first overtone where the drum head vibrates in half

The picture of drum head overtones was taken from the following reference: http://circularscience.com/about-drums It paints a pretty ugly picture of how a drum head sounds without dampening the overtones. Just try and play all those notes on a piano and see how it sounds.

Harmonics are integer multiples of the fundamental while Overtones are not necessarily integer multiples. Harmonics = Overtones, but Overtones are not necessarily Harmonics. So in your example 880 Hz is both an Overtone and a Harmonic of 440 Hz, but 1,000 Hz is an Overtone of 440 Hz, but not a...

I know the decay time of a vibraphone changes when you add or remove the tubes under the bars. I never modeled why, but would guess it's more complicated than just adding or subtracting acoustical resistance.

Thank you! Overtones as you know aren't harmonics, so they don't sound very good. In fact they beat against each other making the tone even worse. I tried to attach a file with a naked drum head (full overtones) and one that is partially dampened using the technique I described, but this...

Hi All, I considered filing a patent for this invention, but instead decided to publish it so people could use it to advance the state-of-the-art in drums. You don't need to add tape or pillows to your drum heads to muffle the overtones. Using tape or pillows also kills the strike of the...

Hi All, I just noticed this forum and I wrote the 1978 paper on pitch bend in drum heads referenced in my friend Thomas Rossing's book. If you want to try something really cool and useful, put some open cell foam (preferably 1" thick) on the inside of your tom-tom, bass drum, or snare rims...