acoustic & transducers

low frequency cymbal entrainment (2025)

Inspired by the settleing period of cymbals whereby it changes sound 1-2 days after completion I experimented with settling it into a vibratory regime. Initially, a large bass cab was used to resonate a cymbal using a low frequency sine wave. Certain cymbals changed how they sound after 12h of entrainment. Later developments included shaking the cymbal stand using bass shakers which produced eben more dramatic differences.

condenser cymbal (2023)

Akin to the idea below it might be possible to make a cymbal itself be a condenser microphone. The idea is to have a ride cymbal on top of a splash with a thin insulation layer such that the two plates act as a condenser. Still untested concept.

drum head coil (2022)

Thinking about avoiding acoustical energy transfer between drum and microphone I came up with the idea to combine the two membranes. Glueing a coil to the drumhead and putting it in a strong magnetic field made the head become the microphone membrane. Somewhat experimental but very unsable recordings can be made.

floating plate reverb/cymbal (2020)

Thinking about possible suspensions for an experimental plate reverb it seemed a good challenge to disregard this problem by having a floating plate. This can be acheived by an active magnetic system that compensates for the forces acting on the plate, keeping it in place, as much as possible. The electronic compensation signal becomes a useful audio signal making this setup a potential floating electronc cymbal. Changing the magnetic flux using another electromagnet also excites the plate making it an experimental plate reverb effect.

botanical passive panning (2018)

Peculiar properties of passive summing mixers can be mimicked by using various plant leaves. By puncturing them with electrodes some variety in audio transfer can be achieved. A fresh aloe vera leaf has almost flat response with a slight high frequency roll-off and some harmonics produced in response to bass frequencies. As the leaf dries and gently retracts from the electrodes, the transfer gets worse. In this way one can control the fidelity of this passive botanical mixer. Different arrangement of electrodes and careful layering can yield passive panning of multiple sound sources.

warm sound (2000)

Rather difficult to reproduce without the needed setup, nevertheless a remarkable early invention worth documenting, is the warm sound. Two long strings were stretched to yield around 4 ohm DC resistance such that AC currents can be driven with audio amplifiers. Placed in a permanent magnetic field these strings faintly reproduce the audio signal they receive. Stronger currents induce heat and placement of the strings in a pipe with a hole makes that hole the origin of warm sound. It can be argued that there is the heat waves are modulated by the acoustic signal. The sensation for the ear resembles gentle earwax melting.