I admire your scientific and logical reasoning Ken, but I am happy
merely to accept that bagpipes, through a lucky combination of pitch
selection and volume, carry their notes a long way. This makes them
ideal for letting a large number of excited people know that their
clan chieftain expects them to do something heroic for the duration
of the sound. It is also interesting that the drones (the constant
notes for the uninitiated...) sound similar to the throat music from
Tibetan monks (have I got the country right?).
The pipes are also pretty good for dancing to... :>).
Chris
At 14:47 -0800 12/12/01, Ken N wrote:
Recently I did an audio analysis of bagpipes. Bagpipes are
known for their ability to be heard for miles and miles. The
question was whether it was the volume or the shape of the
waveform?
Actual SPL (sound pressure level) of bagpipes isn't really that
loud. It's the harmonics. In a frequency analysis, the pipes
trigured every harmonic at 1000f the primary sound's volume
all the way up to the sampling limit. I presented my findings
to an audio expert of mine and he said that bagpipes do trigger
the harmonics (nearly full volume) over six octaves out.
Harmonics define the shape of the waveform.
This is also why the old mechanical sirens were "louder" than
today's electronic sirens--even though the SPL of the electronic
ones are 3-4 times louder.
AG (never record bagpipes in a small room) Schnozz
--
<|_:-)_|>
C M I Barker
Cambridgeshire, England.
+44 (0)7092 251126
mailto:imagopus@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
... a nascent photo library.
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