For the benchmarking part of this project, I took a snapshot of the 3rd Line Bb and the Low Bb in the opening of Mahler 5 from the "I Play Yamaha" video with Tom Hooten. What I liked about those last two notes in the Mahler excerpt is that it is possible to look at several dynamics on the same note and get a good picture of the shape of a player's sound using Spectral Analysis. I'm sure that if Tom Hooten were to record this same excerpt directly into the Audacity software using a built-in microphone, the plot would look a little different than using the speakers on my computer to capture the sound. The character of his sound, though, will still generally be the same.
This is what the end of the opening excerpt to Mahler 5 looks like with the printed music and with the Stereo Audio Track for the Left Channel (Upper) and Right Channel (Lower) in the Audacity software of Tom Hooten's recording:
The next group of three pictures shows the Low Bb at three different dynamics viewed through Spectral Analysis.
In the upper right corner of the plot I have shown the image of the recorded sound (stereo audio track) along with the printed music from the end of the Mahler except. You can clearly see the 3rd line Bb articulated triplet in the blue image and then the fortissimo part of the low Bb that then decrescendos to the piano dynamic. I have marked about a half second of the first part of the note around 24 seconds and this is represented by the "Spectral Analysis" plot.
The purple spike on the far left side of the plot is the frequency of the Low Bb (about 205 Hz) and the spike just to the right of this is the Bb an octave above the Low Bb (about 412 Hz). The overtone series continues up from there showing that the strong majority of the overtones have a magnitude greater than about -48 dB [which is the strength of the Low Bb (fundamental)]. When the overtones are stronger than the fundamental in the most sensitive area of human hearing (2,000 Hz to 5,000 Hz), the sound is heard clearly at the back of the hall.
Fortissimo Low Bb
Mezzo Forte Low Bb
Piano Low Bb
At this point, you should be able to see that the character of a Low Bb varies with the dynamic of the note. If you have already participated in the TH Sonic Signature project for Low Bb and have documented your own "Baseline" Low Bb, you should compare your mf note to the "Benchmark" mezzo forte Low Bb from Tom Hooten.
I will open a folder soon for the TH Sonic Signature (3rd Line Bb) that will be the next phase of this project. I have provided two plots of Tom Hooten's 3rd line Bb at two different dynamics.
Forte 3rd Line Bb
Mezzo Forte 3rd Line Bb
Since these plots are one octave higher than the Low Bb, there are fewer overtones from about 412 Hz up to around 10,500 Hz where I cut off the plot, and for that reason, it looks more "spread out" than the Low Bb. The important thing to look for is the general shape of the sound. The fundamental is not as strong as the first 12 overtones in the mf plot and the first 19 overtones in the forte plot. Look at all of that energy above 2,000 Hz that is stronger than the fundamental (the horizontal blue line on the plots)! Wow! (No Red Rainbows here). The general shape of a quality orchestral sound is what is described in TH Sonic Signatures (Analysis) and is shown in these plots.
I will continue to add "Benchmark" plots in this folder for several others recordings of prominent Principal players and add the Bb above the staff (from Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 4). _________________ Derek Reaban
Tempe, Arizona
Tempe Winds / Symphony of the Southwest
Last edited by Derek Reaban on Fri Feb 08, 2019 8:35 pm; edited 1 time in total
This is a request for Steve A. Here is a 3rd Line Bb from the Rafael Mendez recording of the Arban Tonguing Exercises. Very few Bbs to choose from, but there was a good one in exercise 37 on Page 36. It happens between 13:48 and 13:49 in the youtube recording. I'm guessing it is a forte dynamic, but it may be between mf and f. Just a guess on my part. Look at the strength in the overtones all the way up to 7,000 Hz! This is that very characteristic shape with the fundamental (3rd Line Bb) showing less energy than the many overtones up to 7,000 Hz. Thanks for asking for this example! He wasn't on my list for this project, but clearly he belongs in the benchmark folder!
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