Case 1Listen to the drum head being tapped. Banjo head with hand-tightened nuts. Head is pretty loose. The bridge was removed for this case. So the drum head is free to vibrate with no constraints. In the above spectrogram plot, the horizontal axis shows the frequency and the vertical axis shows the loudness in dB. The "Cursor" field shows the frequency at the position of the cursor and the loudness in dB for the left and right channels. (We used only one channel so both are closely matched...) The spectrogram shows that the fundamental resonant frequency is approximately 96.38 Hertz. The cursor marks this frequency. The loudest output however is at the forth harmonic whose frequency is being shown as 397.08 Hertz. We are interested however in the fundamental frequency because that is what the drum head is currently "tuned to". In this case, the banjo head is tuned to approximately G2. Banjo strings in a normal G-tuning from fifth string to first string are G4, D3, G3, B3, D4, or 392, 147, 196, 246, 311 Hertz respectively. |
Case 2Listen to the drum head being tapped. Bridge is still removed. Tightened each nut 1/4 turn from the previous case. The resonant frequency is now approximately 166.55 Hertz or an E3. We came up 9 half-steps from the previous case! |
Case 3Listen to the drum head being tapped. Bridge is still removed. Tightened each nut an additional 1/4 turn. The resonant frequency is now approximately 210.58 Hertz or a G#3. We came up only 4 half-steps from the previous case. |
CASE 4Listen to the drum head being tapped. No additional tightening of the drum head. Bridge was placed onto the head and the banjo was tuned to standard G tuning. Strings were damped for the tap-testing. The resonant frequency is now approximately 241.1 Hertz or approximately a B3. The pressure of the bridge has caused the resonant frequency of the banjo head to increase by 3 half-steps. The magnitude of the change is somewhat surprising. With the strings taut, the bridge is putting significant pressure on the banjo head. |
CASE 5
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CASE 6
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CASE 7
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CASE 8Listen to the drum head being tapped.Drum head retuned iteratively until it reached G#3. Strings were damped for the tap-testing. The resonant frequency is now approximately 206.84 Hertz or approximately a G#3. There is something interesting about this frequency. The decline in amplitude at higher frequencies as shown in the above spectrum seems to be less than for other head tunings. This could result in more volume across the entire range of the instrument. |
Listen to the old tone ring being tapped. Fundamental frequency (first peak above) is about 58 Hz or A#1. |
Listen to the new Huber Tone Ring being tapped. Fundamental frequency (first peak above) is still about 58 Hz or A#1. |
Listen to the drum head being tapped. Fundamental frequency (first peak above) is about 157 Hz or approximately D#2. |
Listen to the drum head being tapped. Fundamental frequency (first peak above) is 196.57 Hz or approximately G3. |
Listen to the drum head being tapped. Fundamental frequency (first peak above) is 185.39 Hz or approximately F#3. |
Listen to the drum head being tapped. Fundamental frequency (first peak above) is about 196.32 Hz or approximately G3. |
Listen to the drum head being tapped. Fundamental frequency (first peak above) is about 207.71 Hz or approximately G#3. |
Listen to the drum head being tapped. Fundamental frequency (first peak above) is about 213.24 Hz or approximately G#3. |
Listen to the drum head being tapped. Fundamental frequency (first peak above) is about 217.43 Hz or approximately A3. This is where I left it. Sounds great set here. |