Sounds of Music C

[Micker]

What about a marimba? We did a marimba last year but we used oak since it was cheap. We are thinking of doing a maple marimba this year for better resonance. We did have some trouble with registering pitches, so a percussion based instrument may not be a great move, but it is relatively easy to build and tune. I have 3 other build events and a couple test events to work on this year, so I don't want to spend a ridiculous amount of time building and tuning an instrument while I need to work on other events. Anyone else thinking about a marimba or have ideas for fixing problems with pitches getting registered?

By a marimba, do you mean that you will include pipes as specialized resonators? If so, it may be difficult to set up such an instrument, because the range of pitches in the rules this season is very wide, meaning you'll need many pipes, and they'll probably have to be very long to reach F₃. (All instruments must fit in a 100 cm by 60 cm by 60 cm box when you arrive to the event, but they can be bigger when set up.) If you make a xylophone or glockenspiel (i.e. no pipes), that could produce nice pitches that are stable over time while also consuming less time than a marimba.

To be honest, I don't really know why some tuners can't pick up some instruments even when they play loudly enough. It may be due to overtones of the instrument interfering with the tuner's measurement of the fundamental. Resonator pipes, as in a marimba, might reduce interference. You could also carve off the bottom of the bars so they are shaped like arches instead of boxes to get nice integer-multiple harmonics, but this may not be best for you in terms of time since you said you want plenty of time for you other events. And of course, since I don't know why tuners fail for some instruments, this paragraph could be completely wrong.

I recently competed at UChicago’s invitational for sounds of music and the proctor didn't have a microphone for pitch testing and his computer wasn’t picking up a pitch regardless of how close my instrument was. Luckily, I brought my own microphone to tune during the tuning period and the proctor was ok with connecting my microphone to his computer so that it could pick up the pitch. I’d recommend that you bring your own microphone to the event just in case something like this ever happens.

[Micker]

Hello,
Yesterday we competed at the MIT invitational for sounds of music and we were pretty unlucky because the microphone didn’t pick up half the notes on our instrument. We built a copper and conduit pipe xylophone and the microphone was only registering the overtones for half the notes. Does anyone have an idea on how to amplify the sound while reducing the overtones? Also does anyone know what model microphone they’ll be using at nats? The proctor told me they were using the same model they’re using at nats but I couldn’t find it anywhere online.

[mastersuperfan]

Hello,
Yesterday we competed at the MIT invitational for sounds of music and we were pretty unlucky because the microphone didn’t pick up half the notes on our instrument. We built a copper and conduit pipe xylophone and the microphone was only registering the overtones for half the notes. Does anyone have an idea on how to amplify the sound while reducing the overtones? Also does anyone know what model microphone they’ll be using at nats? The proctor told me they were using the same model they’re using at nats but I couldn’t find it anywhere online.

You can find it on the Sounds of Music page on soinc.org (https://www.soinc.org/sounds-music-c) if you click on the Event Supervisor Guide—the microphone is the Neewer USB Condensor model.

[builderguy135]

Hello,
Yesterday we competed at the MIT invitational for sounds of music and we were pretty unlucky because the microphone didn’t pick up half the notes on our instrument. We built a copper and conduit pipe xylophone and the microphone was only registering the overtones for half the notes. Does anyone have an idea on how to amplify the sound while reducing the overtones? Also does anyone know what model microphone they’ll be using at nats? The proctor told me they were using the same model they’re using at nats but I couldn’t find it anywhere online.

You can find it on the Sounds of Music page on soinc.org (https://www.soinc.org/sounds-music-c) if you click on the Event Supervisor Guide—the microphone is the Neewer USB Condensor model.

Were you the guy that proctored sounds yesterday at MIT?

[gz839918]

Hello,
Yesterday we competed at the MIT invitational for sounds of music and we were pretty unlucky because the microphone didn’t pick up half the notes on our instrument. We built a copper and conduit pipe xylophone and the microphone was only registering the overtones for half the notes. Does anyone have an idea on how to amplify the sound while reducing the overtones? Also does anyone know what model microphone they’ll be using at nats? The proctor told me they were using the same model they’re using at nats but I couldn’t find it anywhere online.

I'm sorry to hear that sounds of music didn't go as you would have liked, although it's worth noting that the fundamental frequency is not the same as the pitch. The pitch of an instrument is the note that you actually hear. However, that note happens to consist of multiple frequencies; the fundamental just happens to be the lowest frequency of the bunch. So, when your event supervisor uses an app to measure pitch, that app is actually measuring the most prominent of the frequencies*, and if overtones are more prominent than the fundamental, then the overtones are what the pitch app will pick up. In fact, it's possible for an instrument to play in the overtones without even playing the fundamental. And if the fundamental isn't playing, there's not much an event supervisor can do, no matter what microphone he or she uses.

If you need to amplify the sound of the fundamental, I'd suggest adding specialized resonator tubes that resonate at the fundamental frequency of the copper pipes—that is, you'd be converting your instrument from a glockenspiel into a vibraphone. You may also be interested in building something to damp the higher overtones somehow. It's actually possible to build special boxes around each bar that capture and stifle higher overtones, but I'm not sure of how to execute it in practice.

And to retweet mastersuperfan, the Neewer Condensor will appear at nationals as stated in the ES Guide.

*This is actually a drastic oversimplification, but it does happen to be true for glockenspiels. And I know you said your instrument a xylophone, but due to the bizarre nature of instrument names, your instrument is actually known as a glockenspiel because it's made out of metal ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[builderguy135]

Hello,
Yesterday we competed at the MIT invitational for sounds of music and we were pretty unlucky because the microphone didn’t pick up half the notes on our instrument. We built a copper and conduit pipe xylophone and the microphone was only registering the overtones for half the notes. Does anyone have an idea on how to amplify the sound while reducing the overtones? Also does anyone know what model microphone they’ll be using at nats? The proctor told me they were using the same model they’re using at nats but I couldn’t find it anywhere online.

I'm sorry to hear that sounds of music didn't go as you would have liked, although it's worth noting that the fundamental frequency is not the same as the pitch. The pitch of an instrument is the note that you actually hear. However, that note happens to consist of multiple frequencies; the fundamental just happens to be the lowest frequency of the bunch. So, when your event supervisor uses an app to measure pitch, that app is actually measuring the most prominent of the frequencies*, and if overtones are more prominent than the fundamental, then the overtones are what the pitch app will pick up. In fact, it's possible for an instrument to play in the overtones without even playing the fundamental. And if the fundamental isn't playing, there's not much an event supervisor can do, no matter what microphone he or she uses.

If you need to amplify the sound of the fundamental, I'd suggest adding specialized resonator tubes that resonate at the fundamental frequency of the copper pipes—that is, you'd be converting your instrument from a glockenspiel into a vibraphone. You may also be interested in building something to damp the higher overtones somehow. It's actually possible to build special boxes around each bar that capture and stifle higher overtones, but I'm not sure of how to execute it in practice.

And to retweet mastersuperfan, the Neewer Condensor will appear at nationals as stated in the ES Guide.

*This is actually a drastic oversimplification, but it does happen to be true for glockenspiels. And I know you said your instrument a xylophone, but due to the bizarre nature of instrument names, your instrument is actually known as a glockenspiel because it's made out of metal ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I have been getting the same issue as Micker when practicing with pascioly.org/sounds at home, especially for one note in particular (E5). Audacity shows the overtones pretty clearly so I'm not really surprised that this happens though. Any suggestions for fixing it?

[mastersuperfan]

Hello,
Yesterday we competed at the MIT invitational for sounds of music and we were pretty unlucky because the microphone didn’t pick up half the notes on our instrument. We built a copper and conduit pipe xylophone and the microphone was only registering the overtones for half the notes. Does anyone have an idea on how to amplify the sound while reducing the overtones? Also does anyone know what model microphone they’ll be using at nats? The proctor told me they were using the same model they’re using at nats but I couldn’t find it anywhere online.

You can find it on the Sounds of Music page on soinc.org (https://www.soinc.org/sounds-music-c) if you click on the Event Supervisor Guide—the microphone is the Neewer USB Condensor model.

Were you the guy that proctored sounds yesterday at MIT?

Yeah, I was the one who wrote the exams and proctored the written. Hiya! From the look of your sig it seems like you’re from WWPN?

[itsDerk]

Was wondering if anyone recognized any of the songs from the MIT aural section of the test?

In the video's intro I thought I recognized some really familiar Anime OST but I couldn't put my finger on it's name.

First song was pretty chill, and the second and third songs were honestly kinda hype, like some VGM type thing.

All in all that section was really interesting. Would've liked a bit more time with the questions, but all in all (somewhat) a nice suprise.

[builderguy135]

You can find it on the Sounds of Music page on soinc.org (https://www.soinc.org/sounds-music-c) if you click on the Event Supervisor Guide—the microphone is the Neewer USB Condensor model.

Were you the guy that proctored sounds yesterday at MIT?

Yeah, I was the one who wrote the exams and proctored the written. Hiya! From the look of your sig it seems like you’re from WWPN?

Yep, I am! Thanks for proctoring and writing the test yesterday btw. It was really well written and proctored. The test was obviously extremely hard and I don't think we even got 50% lol. Will you be releasing a score distribution?

Was wondering if anyone recognized any of the songs from the MIT aural section of the test?

In the video's intro I thought I recognized some really familiar Anime OST but I couldn't put my finger on it's name.

First song was pretty chill, and the second and third songs were honestly kinda hype, like some VGM type thing.

All in all that section was really interesting. Would've liked a bit more time with the questions, but all in all (somewhat) a nice suprise.

I don't remember the first song but the second song (the one in 7/4 time?) felt like some kind of vgm to me as well. Kinda sounded like some kind of boss fight music to me.

I think the exit music was Mozart's first variation on twinkle twinkle though?

[Apple5775]

When I was initially building my instrument, I had a lot of internal debate on this too. I think your initial interpretation is right? You should be able to use F3-D4 for the song, considering C4 and D4 qualify as “additional pitches within the scale’s skipped range.” (Assuming additional means adding onto the scale lol)

That’s what I did, after all. My scale is C3, D3, E3, F3, G4, A4, B4, C5, and I made A3 and G3 so I could play the song in one octave, using “additional pitches within the skipped range.” Both comps I’ve been to so far have accepted this, so I think I’m good?

If anyone wants to corroborate what I’ve said by all means go for it, since this obviously is not an official ruling lol

Thanks for the answer! Sounds like I should be fine using F3-D4 for the song.

Hello,
Yesterday we competed at the MIT invitational for sounds of music and we were pretty unlucky because the microphone didn’t pick up half the notes on our instrument. We built a copper and conduit pipe xylophone and the microphone was only registering the overtones for half the notes. Does anyone have an idea on how to amplify the sound while reducing the overtones? Also does anyone know what model microphone they’ll be using at nats? The proctor told me they were using the same model they’re using at nats but I couldn’t find it anywhere online.

That is one of the biggest obstacles for these xylophones.
Maybe try experimenting with the striker? Often harder strikers (metal) will be louder but also bring out the overtones more. A softer striker will be quieter but may register the fundamental better.