Tubular Bells

The tubes hanging from the frame, to scale, the struck one bending with its first eight modes at their live amplitudes, exaggerated and slowed down. ▶ mallet, ▬ the damper bar (dark when it presses).

Each mode of the struck tube on a scale of the strike note’s harmonics (the grey lines), its bar as tall as it is loud now. Modes 4, 5 and 6 (gold) lie near the 2nd, 3rd and 4th harmonics of a note that no mode plays: the ear hears that note, an octave below mode 4.

No line at the strike note itself (the dashed marker): the pitch you hear is the one modes 4, 5 and 6 imply. The low modes, below the strike note, barely reach the air.

The high modes radiate their energy away in a second or two, a clang that fades into the long hum of modes 4–6; the damper bar stops them all at once.