HW3 Problem 1 I took a snippet of each individual note given in the UM gender sound recording and used Audacity

to analyze the frequencies for each snippet. The scale is indeed broken up into 5 pitches in an octave. One can see that in the difference in frequencies between snippet #1, at 118 Hz, and snippet #6, at 236 Hz, which have the exact 2:1 ratio characteristic of octaves. It should be noted, however, that not all of the octaves have the exact 2:1 frequency ratio. For example, snippet #2 and snippet #6, which sound like octaves, have a small discrepancy in their frequency ratio (274:136). It is quite close to the 2:1 ratio but does not exactly hit it. Problem 2 We made two gender bars, the lower pitched one having a final fundamental frequency of 362 Hz and the higher pitched bar having a fundamental freq. of 708 Hz. It was evident in the recording or our teams bars that the higher resonance frequencies were much louder and had much longer decay than the fundamental frequency. In fact, the peaks located at the fundamental frequencies for both bars in the MATLAB graphs were very small compared to most of the other prominent peaks. That could partly be explained by the fact that we used a plastic mallet in the recording to strike the bars. Using plastic easily excites the higher frequencies more than the lower frequencies. Pictured at left is the graph of a recording of a single snippet from the UM gender. Notice the one prominent peak at about 207 Hz that has a long decay. The higher frequencies decayed rather quickly, leaving the fundamental pretty much all alone to ring loudly for a long time. In comparison, our teams bars, which are pictured on the next page, have decay times were longer for the higher frequencies for both bars. Our fundamental decayed relatively quickly compared to the UM genders fundamental. Snippet 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Frequency (Hz) 118 136 157 180 207 236 274 317 374 417 475 550

HW3 (Pictured at left is the Lower Pitched Bar) We did most of our grinding on the lower pitched bar to lower its fundamental, but as evidenced by the cluttered graph to the right, our way of grinding did little to reduce the prominence of the higher resonance frequencies. Some of these higher frequencies decayed after about 0.5 seconds. Others, like at about 1600 Hz or 3200 Hz, lasted quite long.

(At right is the higher pitched bar) This particular graph shows that our higher pitch bar didnt excite as many other higher resonance frequencies as the lower bar. Still, the higher frequencies were louder than the fundamental. Again the fundamental frequency was not too prominent and one of the higher partials at 2900 Hz had a very long decay.