Smallpipe bass drones: 2 segments or 3? Any difference?
Posted: Sat Dec 07, 2013 8:07 am
I think there is a thread somewhere in the archive here that drifted onto this topic, but I can't find it now. In any case, I have seen debates about alleged differences between the sound characteristics of 2-segment vs. 3-segment bass drones for smallpipes. My Garvie set has a 3-segment bass drone. I've never played or heard in person a set with a 2-segment bass. I wouldn't expect the sound to differ much.
This article from Mark Huckvale's lab at University College London suggests that the number of tuning chambers (one vs. two) might actually make a difference in the intonation:
http://www.phon.ucl.ac.uk/home/mark/vowels/
A tube with internal features like a 2-segment drone (one chamber), when sounded with a single-tongue reed, gives a sound resembling the vocal vowel sound "IH" (a soft i, as in "bit"). A tube with internal features like a 3-segment drone (two chambers), gives a sound resembling the vowel sound "oo". The two tubes described in the article differ in length (16 vs 18 cm), so that might contribute somewhat to the difference in sound. Although an 8/9 length ratio is not a very big difference, and I would expect to see that much difference among bass drones on different sets.
I thought this might be of interest to someone since I saw it debated in an older thread.
This article from Mark Huckvale's lab at University College London suggests that the number of tuning chambers (one vs. two) might actually make a difference in the intonation:
http://www.phon.ucl.ac.uk/home/mark/vowels/
A tube with internal features like a 2-segment drone (one chamber), when sounded with a single-tongue reed, gives a sound resembling the vocal vowel sound "IH" (a soft i, as in "bit"). A tube with internal features like a 3-segment drone (two chambers), gives a sound resembling the vowel sound "oo". The two tubes described in the article differ in length (16 vs 18 cm), so that might contribute somewhat to the difference in sound. Although an 8/9 length ratio is not a very big difference, and I would expect to see that much difference among bass drones on different sets.
I thought this might be of interest to someone since I saw it debated in an older thread.