How does gravity affect drum tone
- Thread starter bryanmurr
- Start date
topgun2021
Gold Member
It has less to with gravity and more to do with matter.
If you hit a drum in a vacuum, there will be no sound.
Gravity does not effect sound.
If you hit a drum in a vacuum, there will be no sound.
Gravity does not effect sound.
MikeM
Platinum Member
I think the heavier your drum tone, the harder it will hit the ground and it won't travel as far (heavier sound molecules and all!).
Seriously, sound is just a vibration of air molecules (there are no sound molecules!). It's a propagation of that vibration through the medium (air) that reaches your ears. In space, there is no medium, so while your drum head and shell will still vibrate, they won't have any medium to transfer that energy to, which is why you'd never hear it. At the other end of the spectrum, if you hit a drum under water where the water molecules are way closer together than air, that speed of the vibration transfer is much faster.
But if you want to do a little experiment, take any of your drums or cymbals, play them upside down and note the difference. If gravity were playing any role, then you should be able to hear a difference, right?
How come when you play in front of a mirror the reflected sound doesn't sound backwards?
Seriously, sound is just a vibration of air molecules (there are no sound molecules!). It's a propagation of that vibration through the medium (air) that reaches your ears. In space, there is no medium, so while your drum head and shell will still vibrate, they won't have any medium to transfer that energy to, which is why you'd never hear it. At the other end of the spectrum, if you hit a drum under water where the water molecules are way closer together than air, that speed of the vibration transfer is much faster.
But if you want to do a little experiment, take any of your drums or cymbals, play them upside down and note the difference. If gravity were playing any role, then you should be able to hear a difference, right?
How come when you play in front of a mirror the reflected sound doesn't sound backwards?
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Pocket-full-of-gold
Platinum Member
In space, no-one can hear you scream..........nor can they hear you drum.
DrumEatDrum
Platinum Member
What would happen is everything would sound like the equivalent of a whole note rest.
All your quarter notes, eighth notes, 16th notes, and triplets would be be converted to whole note rests.
John Cage, in fact, wrote a piece of music around this phenomenon called 4'33"
bobdadruma
Platinum Member
Drumhead vibrations are not affected by gravity, they are affected by the resistance of the earths atmosphere that is around them.
MikeM
Platinum Member
Actually, I think there might be something to this. If you're playing in space where there's no medium to carry the sound pressure front, there isn't any drum tone that you can hear because it all got "lost". Our atmosphere (the medium through which we hear things) only exists because of earth's gravity holding it there at a fairly evenly distributed density at the surface, which has losses associated with it.
As a thought experiment, if you could, say, double earth's mass, then the atmosphere at the surface would become much more dense (how much more I don't know) and there would be fewer losses in sound and it would travel faster (same principal as being underwater). That could, at least in theory, have the effect of adding richness to the tone you hear (it was always there, just now you can hear it).
But then again, this is less about gravity and more about a medium's density and ability to conduct a sound pressure front.
Might be cool to record drums in a highly pressurized iso booth, but you'd have to wear a pressure suit!
As a thought experiment, if you could, say, double earth's mass, then the atmosphere at the surface would become much more dense (how much more I don't know) and there would be fewer losses in sound and it would travel faster (same principal as being underwater). That could, at least in theory, have the effect of adding richness to the tone you hear (it was always there, just now you can hear it).
But then again, this is less about gravity and more about a medium's density and ability to conduct a sound pressure front.
Might be cool to record drums in a highly pressurized iso booth, but you'd have to wear a pressure suit!
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That would be a treat. Normally I hear a lot of screaming when I play!
MikeM
Platinum Member
Train #1 rear-ends train #2 with a 20 mph impact!
DrumEatDrum
Platinum Member
A drummer playing a Mapex kit starts playing Mustang Sally at 116 BPM, while another drummer playing a DW kit starts playing Brown Eyed Girl at 140, at what point will their snare drum line up?
Bo Eder
Platinum Member
bonhamdrummer123
Senior Member
I always thought your name was bopadadrum for some reason
Ground Pounder
Member
... I would assuredly be on the slower train...
The Gedge
Member
I imagine gravity would affect the way the stick moves in your hand, and perhaps the vibration (sound waves are ALWAYS in a medium made of matter, which is usually affected by gravity).
If you go outside the ship nobody will hear you play.
It would probably be hard to play if you and your kit kept floating off as well...
If you go outside the ship nobody will hear you play.
It would probably be hard to play if you and your kit kept floating off as well...
jornthedrummer
Silver Member
Gravity and vacuum is not the same thing.