Comments on: The sound that shouldn’t be

By: Kevin

Kevin — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 12:28:25 +0000

By: Gob Bluth

Gob Bluth — Wed, 16 Mar 2011 19:09:12 +0000

I am surprised that it took so long for the anti-science folks to pipe up. Must be THA LAWD!

By: xavieronassis

xavieronassis — Thu, 16 Dec 2010 11:05:51 +0000

Wirewehear said
“Could be that a ‘scientist’ isn’t always right.”

This is heresy, and I applaud you for it!

By: guest

guest — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 05:28:19 +0000

wow…the sound is soooo eerie. Thanks for posting, it’s quite interesting how this sound can be made, hoping to read some more of this article.

By: Matt

Matt — Sat, 27 Mar 2010 05:11:51 +0000

I haven’t read through the whole comment list yet, but there’s a couple of misconceptions that need a little clearing up.

The biggest one seems to be the confusion between a subharmonic and a combination tone. A subharmonic is an individually generated natural pitch that is lower in tone than the vibrating membrane (no jokes please). A combination tone is a pitch that is created by two separate tones summing together to create an audible tone at the sum point or difference point. A third form of pitch generation can involved rapidly played percussive elements where the speed at which the percussive sounds occur determine the perceived pitch. There is a famous harpsichord that demonstrates this effect (so famous I can’t remember what it’s called).

Another point of confusion seems to be that of sympathetic vibrations. A sympathetic vibration is when a sound vibrates a membrane with harmonically related length. In other words, if you strike the low A on a piano, the A on the next octave will vibrate as well. Through this, one can mute the low A, and from the remaining vibrating strings our ear may infer the fundamental tone (the low A), we do not actually hear that pitch.

A few people mentioned lightly touching a string instead of fretting it. This produces a harmonic tone – which is one octave above the fret point. Basically, it mutes the fundamental tone and allows the next harmonic up to be heard clearly.

Hearing a sound clip, I can also say that this is not a “wolf” tone either – which is the tone of the body resonance combining with the fundamental tone being played.

Lastly, there is mention of the bow itself producing the tone. Bow hair is drawn taught and coated in Rosin. What little vibrations would translate to the bow would die out in milliseconds.

Mari is an exceptionally skilled violinist, and an exciting composer. My only personal problem I have with this whole subharmonics thing is that it often becomes the focal point in discussing Mari – distracting from her music, and her compositional techniques.

By: Learning violin

Learning violin — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 17:41:56 +0000

Very interesting article and a great blog overall. I would like to track new posts from the blog, is there any way I can subscribe to that? Thank you, keep up the good work.

By: danielsan

danielsan — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 13:07:14 +0000

Could this be the same effect that happens when playing one note on a loud guitar and then, as you bend the next lower string up to the same pitch, you hear a corresponding lower pitch descending as the two higher pitches come together? Or on Blind Willie Johnson’s “Let it Shine”, halfway through his meek tenor is joined by an UNDERtone, an octave lower, as if an evil Jehovah was singing along as an ominous warning… fascinating, I’ve always wondered if all of these things were explainable in physics. Does anyone know yet? peas out, tubers in…

By: poopoo

poopoo — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 04:08:09 +0000

From her site, Mari Kimura gets to hang out with Max Matthews. Apparently he was sampling the sound. He is definitely a top scientist.

By: randy

randy — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 01:45:43 +0000

who are these “top scientists” in the US? Who are these scientists in Norway? Upon what do they (allegedly) base that this should not be possible?

Oh, and there’s now an update promising to explain “the physics behind it” so I guess the “mystery” has been solved, eh?

What a stupid, sensationalist post.

By: Jato

Jato — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 23:16:23 +0000

The technique boils down to basically ‘crunching’ the bow down, isn’t it?

There have been times where I’ve simulated bad violin playing and (in my case involuntary) ‘farts’ like that to accompany the sound of enthusiastic cat mating are not exactly rocket science to ‘play’ on the violin.

To do it in a controlled way is another skill you have to master though, kudos to her but methinks it’s not a huge mystery.