[Earlee]

I have a project that requires a glockenspiel, but used in a very special
way: I need to sustain its tone without decay and resmacking the bars. Is
there any way to do this?

Thank you,
Earlee

[William Sommerwerck]

Can't you just sample the sound and "loop" it?

"A maiden or a pretty little wife is Papageno's wish..."

[Scott Dorsey]

In article ,
Earlee wrote:
I have a project that requires a glockenspiel, but used in a very special
way: I need to sustain its tone without decay and resmacking the bars. Is
there any way to do this?

Live or in the studio?

I bet you could put piezo buzzers on the bars, connect them all in parallel
up to an amp, connect it to a microphone. You'd have some trouble arranging
things so it doesn't break out into constant oscillation and you may have
to have someone riding the gain, but you could get one note to last for hours
I suspect.

Like a mechanical E-bow, sort of. It would be ugly.

The other alternative would be to use a vibraphone and unplug it... plenty
of sustain. Even more if you mike it and compress the crap out of it.
--scott
--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."

[Don Pearce[_3_]]

On Wed, 16 Feb 2011 11:40:58 -0500, "Earlee"
wrote:

I have a project that requires a glockenspiel, but used in a very special
way: I need to sustain its tone without decay and resmacking the bars. Is
there any way to do this?

Thank you,
Earlee

There is a guitar pedal by electro-harmonix called Freeze. Press the
button at the point you want to hold, and it produces a note or chord
that sustains as long as you want it to.

d

[Ethan Winer[_3_]]

On Feb 16, 11:53 am, (Scott Dorsey) wrote:
I bet you could put piezo buzzers on the bars ... Like a mechanical E-bow, sort of.

LOL, I love it.

But looping the Wave file as Bill suggested is surely easier. I use a
program called Seamless Looper that helps find loop points
automatically. But if the OP only needs to do this once, with a single
pitch, it's not terrible difficult to do manually.

--Ethan

[philicorda[_9_]]

On Wed, 16 Feb 2011 11:40:58 -0500, Earlee wrote:

I have a project that requires a glockenspiel, but used in a very
special way: I need to sustain its tone without decay and resmacking the
bars. Is there any way to do this?

Thank you,
Earlee

You could try using a reverb that has an 'infinite' or 'hold' setting.
Electro Harmonix make a pedal called 'freeze' that does the same kind of
thing.
It wont be as fun or versatile as a mechanical way of making it sustain
though.

[geoff]

Earlee wrote:
I have a project that requires a glockenspiel, but used in a very
special way: I need to sustain its tone without decay and resmacking
the bars. Is there any way to do this?

Thank you,
Earlee

Sampler. Hardware or software.

geoff

[Audio1]

On 2/16/2011 11:40 AM, Earlee wrote:
I have a project that requires a glockenspiel, but used in a very
special way: I need to sustain its tone without decay and resmacking the
bars. Is there any way to do this?

Thank you,
Earlee

I've seen xylophone players 'bow' the ends of the bars with a bass bow,
you don't get the same attack but you do get long sustain.

[Audio1]

On 2/16/2011 2:43 PM, Audio1 wrote:
On 2/16/2011 11:40 AM, Earlee wrote:
I have a project that requires a glockenspiel, but used in a very
special way: I need to sustain its tone without decay and resmacking the
bars. Is there any way to do this?

Thank you,
Earlee

I've seen xylophone players 'bow' the ends of the bars with a bass bow,
you don't get the same attack but you do get long sustain.

Oops, make that 'vibes players'.

[Bill Graham]

Ethan Winer wrote:
On Feb 16, 11:53 am, (Scott Dorsey) wrote:
I bet you could put piezo buzzers on the bars ... Like a mechanical
E-bow, sort of.

LOL, I love it.

But looping the Wave file as Bill suggested is surely easier. I use a
program called Seamless Looper that helps find loop points
automatically. But if the OP only needs to do this once, with a single
pitch, it's not terrible difficult to do manually.

--Ethan

You can (learn to) do this with a horn by what they call, "circular
breathing". You produce the sound temporarily just by using the air
available in yiour mouth while you breathe more air into your lungs through
your nose, and then refill your mouth with air from your lungs to repeat the
process. It takes a while to be able to do it smoothly without a noticeable
break in the sound, however. Also, with a horn, any electronic enhancement
to your sound must necessarily be accompanied by the sound that eminates
directly from the instrument itself, unless you are in a soundproof booth.

[John Williamson]

Bill Graham wrote:
Ethan Winer wrote:
On Feb 16, 11:53 am, (Scott Dorsey) wrote:
I bet you could put piezo buzzers on the bars ... Like a mechanical
E-bow, sort of.

LOL, I love it.

But looping the Wave file as Bill suggested is surely easier. I use a
program called Seamless Looper that helps find loop points
automatically. But if the OP only needs to do this once, with a single
pitch, it's not terrible difficult to do manually.

--Ethan

You can (learn to) do this with a horn by what they call, "circular
breathing". You produce the sound temporarily just by using the air
available in yiour mouth while you breathe more air into your lungs
through your nose, and then refill your mouth with air from your lungs
to repeat the process. It takes a while to be able to do it smoothly
without a noticeable break in the sound, however. Also, with a horn, any
electronic enhancement to your sound must necessarily be accompanied by
the sound that eminates directly from the instrument itself, unless you
are in a soundproof booth.

Wonders if he should point out that a glockenspiel is a percussion
instrument.

--
Tciao for Now!

John.

[Bill Graham]

John Williamson wrote:
Bill Graham wrote:
Ethan Winer wrote:
On Feb 16, 11:53 am, (Scott Dorsey) wrote:
I bet you could put piezo buzzers on the bars ... Like a mechanical
E-bow, sort of.

LOL, I love it.

But looping the Wave file as Bill suggested is surely easier. I use
a program called Seamless Looper that helps find loop points
automatically. But if the OP only needs to do this once, with a
single pitch, it's not terrible difficult to do manually.

--Ethan

You can (learn to) do this with a horn by what they call, "circular
breathing". You produce the sound temporarily just by using the air
available in yiour mouth while you breathe more air into your lungs
through your nose, and then refill your mouth with air from your
lungs to repeat the process. It takes a while to be able to do it
smoothly without a noticeable break in the sound, however. Also,
with a horn, any electronic enhancement to your sound must
necessarily be accompanied by the sound that eminates directly from
the instrument itself, unless you are in a soundproof booth.

Wonders if he should point out that a glockenspiel is a percussion
instrument.

I know what a glockenspiel is, but we were talking about looping. (I
thought) Looping can be done in many ways, both mechanically and
electronically, with almost any instrument.

[William Sommerwerck]

I know what a glockenspiel is, but we were talking about looping
(I thought). Looping can be done in many ways, both mechanically
and electronically, with almost any instrument.

It's not immediately clear to me how one would mechanically "loop" a
percussion instrument.

[Bill Graham]

William Sommerwerck wrote:
I know what a glockenspiel is, but we were talking about looping
(I thought). Looping can be done in many ways, both mechanically
and electronically, with almost any instrument.

It's not immediately clear to me how one would mechanically "loop" a
percussion instrument.

Yes. I don't know if he wants a repeated strike at some frequency, or a
continuous ringing without diminishing volume from one strike of the
instrument. If the latter, then I don't know how to do this mechanically,
although bowing with some sort of rotary "bow" device might work.

[Scott Dorsey]

William Sommerwerck wrote:
I know what a glockenspiel is, but we were talking about looping
(I thought). Looping can be done in many ways, both mechanically
and electronically, with almost any instrument.

It's not immediately clear to me how one would mechanically "loop" a
percussion instrument.

Instead of hitting it with a mallet, you use an angle grinder on it.
--scott
--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."

[William Sommerwerck]

It's not immediately clear to me how one would
mechanically "loop" a percussion instrument.

Instead of hitting it with a mallet, you use an angle
grinder on it.

Would a Dremel with a grinding wheel work?

[vdubreeze]

On Feb 16, 7:07*pm, "William Sommerwerck"
wrote:
It's not immediately clear to me how one would
mechanically "loop" a percussion instrument.
Instead of hitting it with a mallet, you use an angle
grinder on it.

Would a Dremel with a grinding wheel work?


I think that's definitely the way to go. But the problem is that a
glockenspiel's bars are small and not as meaty as a vibraphone's. I
remember from marching band days that they are suspended somewhat so
they'll sustain when struck but they're so light and small vibrating
them would likely vibrate them into the support and not in freer
space. What I mean is, they don't have the physical resistance that a
vibes bar has to vibrate in place. Certainly worth a try, though.
Maybe very slightly, barely touching it, would dispel that negative
theory and make a soft sustained sound.

Reminds me of a recording of a prepared piano piece decades ago I was
assigned to, which seemed like it was going to sound awesome, and it
sort of did, if you liked the sounds of the drills and other string
exciters that were unintentionally completely overshadowing the
strings : )

[William Sommerwerck]

Would a Dremel with a grinding wheel work?

I think that's definitely the way to go. But the problem is that a
glockenspiel's bars are small and not as meaty as a vibraphone's. I
remember from marching band days that they are suspended somewhat so
they'll sustain when struck but they're so light and small vibrating
them would likely vibrate them into the support and not in freer
space. What I mean is, they don't have the physical resistance that a
vibes bar has to vibrate in place. Certainly worth a try, though.
Maybe very slightly, barely touching it, would dispel that negative
theory and make a soft sustained sound.

I can't tell whether you're joking, but I'll assume you're not. How about a
/rubber/ wheel? (I am, of course, ignoring the racket that the MotoTool
itself makes.)

[Richard Kuschel]

On Feb 17, 11:26*am, vdubreeze wrote:
On Feb 16, 7:07*pm, "William Sommerwerck"
wrote:

It's not immediately clear to me how one would
mechanically "loop" a percussion instrument.
Instead of hitting it with a mallet, you use an angle
grinder on it.

Would a Dremel with a grinding wheel work?

I think that's definitely the way to go. *But the problem is that a
glockenspiel's bars are small and not as meaty as a vibraphone's. * I
remember from marching band days that they are suspended somewhat so
they'll sustain when struck but they're so light and small vibrating
them would likely vibrate them into the support and not in freer
space. *What I mean is, they don't have the physical resistance that a
vibes bar has to vibrate in place. * Certainly worth a try, though.
Maybe very slightly, barely touching it, would dispel that negative
theory and make a soft sustained sound.

Reminds me of a recording of a prepared piano piece decades ago I was
assigned to, which seemed like it was going to sound awesome, and it
sort of did, if you liked the sounds of the drills and other string
exciters that were unintentionally completely overshadowing the
strings *: * )

A lot of this depends how the glockenspiel is laid out. If it is in
marching band style (Bell Lyra) t would be easy to bow, but most
Glockenspiels are "Orchestral Bells" in a wooden case then some
improvisation wold be in order.

The idea of using a motor with a wheel on it would work, but I would
use a motor that is slow and a felt or leather wheel with rosin on it
to keep the note excited. This would be along the lines of a Hurdy
Gurdy.

[Steve King]

"vdubreeze" wrote in message
...
On Feb 16, 7:07 pm, "William Sommerwerck"
wrote:
It's not immediately clear to me how one would
mechanically "loop" a percussion instrument.
Instead of hitting it with a mallet, you use an angle
grinder on it.

Would a Dremel with a grinding wheel work?


I think that's definitely the way to go. But the problem is that a
glockenspiel's bars are small and not as meaty as a vibraphone's. I
remember from marching band days that they are suspended somewhat so
they'll sustain when struck but they're so light and small vibrating
them would likely vibrate them into the support and not in freer
space. What I mean is, they don't have the physical resistance that a
vibes bar has to vibrate in place. Certainly worth a try, though.
Maybe very slightly, barely touching it, would dispel that negative
theory and make a soft sustained sound.

Reminds me of a recording of a prepared piano piece decades ago I was
assigned to, which seemed like it was going to sound awesome, and it
sort of did, if you liked the sounds of the drills and other string
exciters that were unintentionally completely overshadowing the
strings : )

We've all probably excited a sustained tone from a crystal goblet by running
a dampened finger around the edge. Would that work?

Steve King

[Bill Graham]

William Sommerwerck wrote:
It's not immediately clear to me how one would
mechanically "loop" a percussion instrument.

Instead of hitting it with a mallet, you use an angle
grinder on it.

Would a Dremel with a grinding wheel work?

Probably. But I would replace the "grinding" wheel with one made of cloth
that you could impregnate with rosin like a violinist's bow. Ohe3rwise, you
would be destroying your inswtrument as you used it...

[Gareth Magennis]

"Earlee" wrote in message
...
I have a project that requires a glockenspiel, but used in a very special
way: I need to sustain its tone without decay and resmacking the bars. Is
there any way to do this?

Thank you,
Earlee


What you want is a large electromagnet gaffa taped to the beater, fed from a
power amp fed with a signal from a mic over the glockenspiel.


Perhaps.

[Bill Graham]

William Sommerwerck wrote:
Would a Dremel with a grinding wheel work?

I think that's definitely the way to go. But the problem is that a
glockenspiel's bars are small and not as meaty as a vibraphone's. I
remember from marching band days that they are suspended somewhat so
they'll sustain when struck but they're so light and small vibrating
them would likely vibrate them into the support and not in freer
space. What I mean is, they don't have the physical resistance that
a vibes bar has to vibrate in place. Certainly worth a try, though.
Maybe very slightly, barely touching it, would dispel that negative
theory and make a soft sustained sound.

I can't tell whether you're joking, but I'll assume you're not. How
about a /rubber/ wheel? (I am, of course, ignoring the racket that
the MotoTool itself makes.)

I think that the machine noise could be reduced or eliminated by using a
slower speed, and bigger diameter wheel. I used to have one with a variable
speed motor, and I could slow it down until it was almost silent, but still
had reasonable torque.

[Bill Graham]

Steve King wrote:
"vdubreeze" wrote in message
...
On Feb 16, 7:07 pm, "William Sommerwerck"
wrote:
It's not immediately clear to me how one would
mechanically "loop" a percussion instrument.
Instead of hitting it with a mallet, you use an angle
grinder on it.

Would a Dremel with a grinding wheel work?


I think that's definitely the way to go. But the problem is that
a glockenspiel's bars are small and not as meaty as a vibraphone's. I
remember from marching band days that they are suspended somewhat so
they'll sustain when struck but they're so light and small vibrating
them would likely vibrate them into the support and not in freer
space. What I mean is, they don't have the physical resistance that a
vibes bar has to vibrate in place. Certainly worth a try, though.
Maybe very slightly, barely touching it, would dispel that negative
theory and make a soft sustained sound.

Reminds me of a recording of a prepared piano piece decades ago I was
assigned to, which seemed like it was going to sound awesome, and it
sort of did, if you liked the sounds of the drills and other string
exciters that were unintentionally completely overshadowing the
strings : )

We've all probably excited a sustained tone from a crystal goblet by
running a dampened finger around the edge. Would that work?

Steve King

There is an instrument that does that with multiple rotating glasses of
different sizes, on a table. The player stands over them, dips his fingers
in a small bowl of water, and then touches them to the edge of the different
rotating glasses to make the sounds. Using both hands, he can produce two
notes at a time like a violinist can. It produces very interesting sounds,
but a bit weak in volume, but I suppose that could be boosted
electronically.

[Gareth Magennis]

"Gareth Magennis" wrote in message
...


"Earlee" wrote in message
...
I have a project that requires a glockenspiel, but used in a very special
way: I need to sustain its tone without decay and resmacking the bars.
Is there any way to do this?

Thank you,
Earlee


What you want is a large electromagnet gaffa taped to the beater, fed from
a power amp fed with a signal from a mic over the glockenspiel.


Perhaps.







Ooops, scratch that. Glockenspiel bars are, I believe, non ferrous?

Fun idea though.

[PStamler]

Exactly how long a sustain do you need? And is this for live work, or
a recording?

Peace,
Paul

[Shaun]

"Earlee" wrote in message
...
I have a project that requires a glockenspiel, but used in a very special
way: I need to sustain its tone without decay and resmacking the bars. Is
there any way to do this?

Thank you,
Earlee

Keep your glockenspiel in your pants man!! :-))

[Bill Graham]

Gareth Magennis wrote:
"Gareth Magennis" wrote in message
...


"Earlee" wrote in message
...
I have a project that requires a glockenspiel, but used in a very
special way: I need to sustain its tone without decay and
resmacking the bars. Is there any way to do this?

Thank you,
Earlee


What you want is a large electromagnet gaffa taped to the beater,
fed from a power amp fed with a signal from a mic over the
glockenspiel.


Perhaps.







Ooops, scratch that. Glockenspiel bars are, I believe, non ferrous?

Fun idea though.

You could probably make one using alnico bars......

[Arny Krueger]

"Ethan Winer" wrote in message


On Feb 16, 11:53 am, (Scott Dorsey)
wrote:

I bet you could put piezo buzzers on the bars ... Like a
mechanical E-bow, sort of.

LOL, I love it.

But looping the Wave file as Bill suggested is surely
easier. I use a program called Seamless Looper that helps
find loop points automatically. But if the OP only needs
to do this once, with a single pitch, it's not terrible
difficult to do manually.

Right. This is a canonical operation in digital editing. Clearly the
easiest way to accomplish the task at hand given that you have even just
minimal digital editing resources and experience.

[vdubreeze]

On Feb 16, 11:59*am, Ethan Winer wrote:
On Feb 16, 11:53 am, (Scott Dorsey) wrote:

I bet you could put piezo buzzers on the bars ... Like a mechanical E-bow, sort of.

LOL, I love it.

But looping the Wave file as Bill suggested is surely easier. I use a
program called Seamless Looper that helps find loop points
automatically. But if the OP only needs to do this once, with a single
pitch, it's not terrible difficult to do manually.


The problem with making a loop from a glockenspiel, as opposed to a
sax or violin, is that it's a one way street with no loitering, so to
speak. The only way to get a loop is to take such a small section of
the waveform that you end up practically just taking a few single
cycles, and it doesn't sound any better than if you just took one.
There would be many cycles to choose from but you can't use much else
in either direction. So you have this static sound like an organ so
you give it the attack you want (you could use the original) and then
the rest of the ADSR, and you've ended up recreating, resynthesizing,
something to resemble the characteristics of the original instrument
you took it from. I guess it depends how much it has to sound like a
sustained glockenspiel, or just a sustained kind of glock-like sound.
Or if it's for a concert and the idea is to not have the musician
pushing their index finger down on a synth keyboard.

[Bill Graham]

vdubreeze wrote:
On Feb 16, 11:59 am, Ethan Winer wrote:
On Feb 16, 11:53 am, (Scott Dorsey) wrote:

I bet you could put piezo buzzers on the bars ... Like a mechanical
E-bow, sort of.

LOL, I love it.

But looping the Wave file as Bill suggested is surely easier. I use a
program called Seamless Looper that helps find loop points
automatically. But if the OP only needs to do this once, with a
single pitch, it's not terrible difficult to do manually.


The problem with making a loop from a glockenspiel, as opposed to a
sax or violin, is that it's a one way street with no loitering, so to
speak. The only way to get a loop is to take such a small section of
the waveform that you end up practically just taking a few single
cycles, and it doesn't sound any better than if you just took one.
There would be many cycles to choose from but you can't use much else
in either direction. So you have this static sound like an organ so
you give it the attack you want (you could use the original) and then
the rest of the ADSR, and you've ended up recreating, resynthesizing,
something to resemble the characteristics of the original instrument
you took it from. I guess it depends how much it has to sound like a
sustained glockenspiel, or just a sustained kind of glock-like sound.
Or if it's for a concert and the idea is to not have the musician
pushing their index finger down on a synth keyboard.

You might glue a pietzo crystal to the underside of each bar in the
glockenspiel, and then feedback the audio signal from each bar to the
crystal of that particular bar, creating a sort of combined electrical and
mechanical reedback, which, if properly adjusted could sustain the sound
indefinitely.

[Peter Larsen[_3_]]

Bill Graham wrote:

You might glue a pietzo crystal to the underside of each bar in the
glockenspiel, and then feedback the audio signal from each bar to the
crystal of that particular bar, creating a sort of combined
electrical and mechanical reedback, which, if properly adjusted could
sustain the sound indefinitely.

I do not recall having seen it explained whether this is for live or
recorded use, for recorded use a digital stretch - available in Audition so
must be in the competing products too - could have reasonable mileage.

For live use the simplest seems to be the suggested pedal and amplication,
possibly just a 2" driver and horn combination. Would be a noise hazard, but
so is the instrument itself! Lots of treble and no bass is bad, because with
no bass the hearings own protection mechanism fails to trigger.

I recorded music with glockenspiel recently, Rutters Requiem, it took
multiband compression to get the 12 kHz from the glockenspiel in line with
the choir and the ensemble in a manner that made it playable on consumer
equipment. Respect to the guys that could make it appear reasonable on
vinyl, of course the analog tape would have helped them!


Kind regards

Peter Larsen

[Bill Graham]

Peter Larsen wrote:
Bill Graham wrote:

You might glue a pietzo crystal to the underside of each bar in the
glockenspiel, and then feedback the audio signal from each bar to the
crystal of that particular bar, creating a sort of combined
electrical and mechanical reedback, which, if properly adjusted could
sustain the sound indefinitely.

I do not recall having seen it explained whether this is for live or
recorded use, for recorded use a digital stretch - available in
Audition so must be in the competing products too - could have
reasonable mileage.
For live use the simplest seems to be the suggested pedal and
amplication, possibly just a 2" driver and horn combination. Would be
a noise hazard, but so is the instrument itself! Lots of treble and
no bass is bad, because with no bass the hearings own protection
mechanism fails to trigger.
I recorded music with glockenspiel recently, Rutters Requiem, it took
multiband compression to get the 12 kHz from the glockenspiel in line
with the choir and the ensemble in a manner that made it playable on
consumer equipment. Respect to the guys that could make it appear
reasonable on vinyl, of course the analog tape would have helped them!


Kind regards

Peter Larsen

Any way you look at it, a sustained glockenspiel tone is not natural, so you
might as well use a synth keyboard, like several made by Roland and Yamaha.

[Don Pearce[_3_]]

On Fri, 18 Feb 2011 23:00:20 -0800, "Bill Graham"
wrote:

Peter Larsen wrote:
Bill Graham wrote:

You might glue a pietzo crystal to the underside of each bar in the
glockenspiel, and then feedback the audio signal from each bar to the
crystal of that particular bar, creating a sort of combined
electrical and mechanical reedback, which, if properly adjusted could
sustain the sound indefinitely.

I do not recall having seen it explained whether this is for live or
recorded use, for recorded use a digital stretch - available in
Audition so must be in the competing products too - could have
reasonable mileage.
For live use the simplest seems to be the suggested pedal and
amplication, possibly just a 2" driver and horn combination. Would be
a noise hazard, but so is the instrument itself! Lots of treble and
no bass is bad, because with no bass the hearings own protection
mechanism fails to trigger.
I recorded music with glockenspiel recently, Rutters Requiem, it took
multiband compression to get the 12 kHz from the glockenspiel in line
with the choir and the ensemble in a manner that made it playable on
consumer equipment. Respect to the guys that could make it appear
reasonable on vinyl, of course the analog tape would have helped them!


Kind regards

Peter Larsen

Any way you look at it, a sustained glockenspiel tone is not natural, so you
might as well use a synth keyboard, like several made by Roland and Yamaha.

Take a look at this Dave Gilmour performance of Shine on you crazy
diamond on acoustic guitar. He uses a rather nice freeze pedal to get
exactly the effect described by the OP.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xPL3O7NmgpI

I'm afraid it has an audience that insists on applauding itself every
time it recognizes a part of the tune.

d.

[Peter Larsen[_3_]]

Don Pearce wrote:

Take a look at this Dave Gilmour performance of Shine on you crazy
diamond on acoustic guitar. He uses a rather nice freeze pedal to get
exactly the effect described by the OP.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xPL3O7NmgpI

+1

I'm afraid it has an audience that insists on applauding itself every
time it recognizes a part of the tune.

+1

d.

Kind regards

Peter Larsen

[William Sommerwerck]

I thought of this a few days ago (which shows how long this thread has gone
on).

Would a sustained glockenspiel tone -- which, of course, would be missing
the initial attack and subsequent decay -- even be recognizable as a
"glockenspiel" sound? If not, what would the point be?

I suspect the OP wanted the sustain /after/ the initial stroke.

[Ethan Winer[_3_]]

This thread has become kinda pointless since it appears the OP has
left the building. But it's still a fun and educational discussion!

On Feb 18, 2:22 pm, vdubreeze wrote:
The only way to get a loop is to take such a small section of
the waveform that you end up practically just taking a few single
cycles, and it doesn't sound any better than if you just took one.

I've looped things like struck bars with success, encompassing several
seconds within the loop to sound more natural. A glock doesn't always
decay in a purely linear fashion. Especially the larger bars. The
Seamless Looper program I mentioned uses a very smart algorithm to
find the loop points. Not just based on zero crossings, but also
"internal" cyclical variations such as vibrato on a cello or violin.

The chance for success also depends on where in the decay you loop. If
the OP was satisfied for the loop to start after five seconds when the
tone had decayed by 10 dB or whatever, at that point the tone is
closer to a pure sine wave. So looping only a few cycle would not
sound so bad or unnatural.

--Ethan

[Nil]

On 19 Feb 2011, "William Sommerwerck"
wrote in rec.audio.pro:

I thought of this a few days ago (which shows how long this thread
has gone on).

Would a sustained glockenspiel tone -- which, of course, would be
missing the initial attack and subsequent decay -- even be
recognizable as a "glockenspiel" sound? If not, what would the
point be?

I suspect the OP wanted the sustain /after/ the initial stroke.

We'll probably never know, since the original poster has declined to
respond to any suggestions or participate in the discussion.

Yet another hit-and-run.

[gjsmo]

On Feb 17, 5:58*pm, "Bill Graham" wrote:
Steve King wrote:
"vdubreeze" wrote in message
....
On Feb 16, 7:07 pm, "William Sommerwerck"
wrote:
It's not immediately clear to me how one would
mechanically "loop" a percussion instrument.
Instead of hitting it with a mallet, you use an angle
grinder on it.

Would a Dremel with a grinding wheel work?

I think that's definitely the way to go. *But the problem is that
a glockenspiel's bars are small and not as meaty as a vibraphone's. *I
remember from marching band days that they are suspended somewhat so
they'll sustain when struck but they're so light and small vibrating
them would likely vibrate them into the support and not in freer
space. *What I mean is, they don't have the physical resistance that a
vibes bar has to vibrate in place. * Certainly worth a try, though.
Maybe very slightly, barely touching it, would dispel that negative
theory and make a soft sustained sound.

Reminds me of a recording of a prepared piano piece decades ago I was
assigned to, which seemed like it was going to sound awesome, and it
sort of did, if you liked the sounds of the drills and other string
exciters that were unintentionally completely overshadowing the
strings *: * )

We've all probably excited a sustained tone from a crystal goblet by
running a dampened finger around the edge. *Would that work?

Steve King

There is an instrument that does that with multiple rotating glasses of
different sizes, on a table. The player stands over them, dips his fingers
in a small bowl of water, and then touches them to the edge of the different
rotating glasses to make the sounds. Using both hands, he can produce two
notes at a time like a violinist can. It produces very interesting sounds,
but a bit weak in volume, but I suppose that could be boosted
electronically.

Glass Harmonica.