More Chimes

More on Chimes
This chime is constructed of 2 1/2" diameter aluminum tubing. The longest tube is 42" long. Just to the right is a chime made from 7/8" diameter aluminum.
	This chime is made from 3/8" diameter aluminum. The longest tube on it is 6 3/4" long.
The chime in the next four pictures is based on the pentatonic scale -- similar in sound to five consecutive black keys on the piano. This chime is approximately 56 inches in length (from the ring at the top to the bottom of the pendant). The longest tube on it is 32 inches long. It is constructed from 7/8" aluminum tubing with poplar & cedar wood, stained green, and finished with a polyurethane coat. The unusual shape of the chime's pendant is based on the initials 'R' and 'L' -- the first initials of the persons who are going to receive it.
	View from the top
Another view from the top
	Bottom view Hear this chime
The way I design chimes is like this: I pick the length of the longest tube to be used. This is arbitrary. I have no way of knowing what 'note' or frequency a tube will ring at. But, by picking one tube and forcing it to a certain length, I can mathematically scale all others tubes with a computer program. The program does not suggest various tunings either. I have to determine these. Once I decide on the notes, the computer will calculate the lengths of the tubes. The computer also plays a series of notes depicting the relationship between the notes -- not the actual notes but a transposed version. It also warns me when certain length to diameter ratios are not met which can cause the intonation to be off on the shortest tubes. There are twelve equally tempered notes in any chromatic scale. Woodstock Chimes' famous 'Olympos' chime is based on the notes 0,1,5,7,8,12. 0 would be the first note, the next tube is up a half-step, the third tube is up five half-steps from tube 0, and etc. A Gregorian chime would be 0,2,3,5,7,9,10,12. The key of C would be 0,2,4,5,7,9,11,12. The combinations are virtually infinite. The magic formula used to figure all of this out is ((2^(n/12))^.5) which is the square root of 2 raised to the power of n divided by twelve. 'n' is figured by the chart below: The note of C is arbitrarily assigned to start the scale.

0	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12
C	C#	D	D#	E	F	F#	G	G#	A	Bb	B	C

If you want a chime with notes that will sound like the pentatonic chime above you want to look at numbers 0, 2, 5, 7, and 9. Pick an arbitrary length of the first tube, say 32.00 inches. The next tube length is calculated by taking 2^(2/12) = 2^(1/6) or 2 raised to the power of one-sixth which is approximately 1.122. Take the square root of 1.122 which is 1.059. Take 32.00 and divide it by 1.059 which equals 30.20 inches. Repeat the process for the other three tubes with n=5, 7, and 9. Clicking the link below will show all tube calculations for this windchime. Mounting holes are based empirically on .227 times the length of the tube.

Screen shot

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