Re: The Damping Effect of Scotch Tape


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Posted by Jim Andrada on April 17, 2003 at 15:32:26:

In Reply to: The Damping Effect of Scotch Tape posted by Rick Denney on April 16, 2003 at 17:28:07:

Have you ever run the experiment on a fiberglass vs a brass Sousaphone?

(Not the banging on it experiment, but the playing on it experiment!)

Also, Lee Stofer recommended that I put a piece of plastic tube around the recording bell on the Conn to damp extraneous harmonics. Any comment on how that would affect the results. Although I think this might have been more related to eliminating audible "ringing" from the large bell than to modifying the sound quality itself.

I've noticed that when playing it seems like different notes are emanating from different locations. I think I'm probably hearing resonance from differing sets of valve tubing. I'm certain that nobody but me can hear this and it has no effect on the sound of the horn as heard by others, but it might be a key to why players, who are pretty tightly coupled to the instruments, preceive differences in lacquered vs unlacquered horns etc, namely that we hear all kinds of resonance effects that are unrelated to the sound that others hear, and this "noise" and "feel" affects our perceptions of how the horn is playing.

Sort of like passengers in a plane feeling all kinds of vibrations and turbulence while landing even though a ground based observer sees the aircraft flying smoothly.

Or maybe like a patient in a dentist's chair hearing all kinds of terrible noises while the dentist appears unfazed.

Maybe we need to learn to think differently about how we hear ourselves play.


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