A New Tone Source for Electronic Carillons
Frank H. Slaymaker · The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America · 1954
All electronic carillons which produce a given musical note by striking a single metal rod have common difficulties. The lower two components in the tone do not fall on the same note as the apparent pitch of the carillon tone, and may differ from the nearest octave of the apparent pitch by as much as a minor or major third. In more familiar types of tones, such as one made up of a fundamental and a series of harmonics, the first and second harmonics do fall on the same note of the musical scale as the apparent pitch. Often there is only one component in an electronic carillon tone that does agree with the apparent pitch. The result is a confusion in pitch that makes most listeners believe the carillon is out of tune. When the tone is generated by striking a bar having a precisely controlled rectangular cross section, however, the two lower components can be made to fall on octaves of the apparent pitch. Demonstrations will be given comparing the tones of real bells, more conventional types of electronic carillons, and the new rectanglar bar electronic carillon.