Dirk Veulemans - Composer
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1/15  Setup of 4 loudspeaker whistles old version (2004-2006)
 

2/15  Setup of 4 loudspeaker whistles old version (2004-2006)
 

3/15  Loudspeaker whistles old version just before dismantling in 2019
 

4/15  Loudspeaker whistles old version half dismantled in 2019
 

5/15  Construction of new version of loudspeaker whistles (2019)
 

6/15  Construction new version of loudspeaker whistles (2019)
 

7/15  Whistles for new loudspeaker whistles (2019)
 

8/15  Legs for new loudspeaker whistles (2019)
 

9/15  Six finished new loudspeaker whistles (2019)
 

10/15  Old and new side by side
 

11/15  View of a quadraphonic recording in the studio
 

12/15  Laptop running Max/MSP and 2 speaker whistles (2016)
 

13/15  35-Tone organ connected to laptop running Max/MSP and 2 loudspeaker whistles (2016)
 

14/15  Laptop running Max/MSP for controlling the organ and loudspeaker whistles (2016)
 

15/15  Two loudspeaker whistles (old version) with flute and with organ pipe (2016)
 

Instrument builder

I used to love building musical instruments and took a course in this field. The pleasure of woodworking and making tempts me to explore the acoustic sound world. I feel like an instrument builder by nature. This love of building has come to the surface again in recent years with the building of my pipe organs.

On the other hand, I am also constantly alert to the world of sound that surrounds me. There are often sounds that I find interesting because of their character and that inspire me in my own search for sound. Initially, this was on an analogue synthesiser. Now, this search usually takes place on the computer, for which I then make software. That is also instrument building, but then virtual. Without matter. Recently, I have also felt the need to extend this search to the physical world of sound.

Bass reflex

At the back of my studio speakers there is a bass reflex. That one time, there were quite low basses playing and I was standing right behind a speaker and it felt like someone was blowing in my face. I was amazed at how much air was flowing in and out of that bass reflex. This made me wonder whether this air displacement could blow a flute.

Indeed it could. I put a piece of foam rubber in that airway, made a hole in it and put the mouthpiece of a tin whistle in it. In order not to have to wait until some bass tones happened to appear in this music, I made a programme with Max/Msp - Max/Msp is a visual programming language for programming all kinds of electronic sounds - which produces bass tones. It worked well, beyond expectation.

Bass cabinets

To avoid overloading my good speakers with these extreme basses, I made a small bass cabinet with an opening in which I can insert a whistle. That first version I made in a hurry and in an unsuitable space. Also the speakers I used for it were hardly suitable for this bass work. They worked for a while but have now become unusable.

Therefore, in 2019, I made a second version that was better constructed and had small subwoofers with a rubber suspension. The result is much better.

Software makes everything work

I can have my software make the cone of each of these 8 speaker whistles go up and down as desired. I do this by sending a sinusoidal sound signal through the amplifier to the loudspeaker. At its slowest, this is 3x per second (3Hz). As it moves backwards, the cone pushes the air out of the bass cabinet. This air flows along the hole made, into the flute which then emits a short whistling sound.

While moving the cone forward it sucks the air back into the cabinet along the same path. Because the air now moves in the opposite direction, the flute does not make a sound. At its slowest, the flute will blow 3 times per second. By increasing the volume of the signal going into the speaker, the speaker cone moves further and more forcefully forwards and backwards. This makes the whistles sound louder and they may even over-blow. The whistles also have a fixed pitch because the finger holes are sealed with tape.

More complex sounds

When I use my software to send two different sine-wave signals to the same loudspeaker, I get an irregular stroke and a more complex blowing of the whistles. This gives surprising sounds.

Frogs

I made the first version of these speaker whistles just after the Maulwerke project and I was still fascinated by the possibilities of the voice and the vocal organs. By analogy with how a flute player has to learn to be aware of the use of his diaphragm when blowing his flute, I then titled this construction "Electromechanical diaphragm".

Later, during an installation of it at Karin Borghouts' exhibition "In a Japanese Garden" at Croxhapox in Ghent, a Japanese sculptor who also participated in this exhibition, said that the sound of it reminded him of frogs in a rice field. This remark certainly helped to ensure that the speaker whistles were rebuilt as an installation and integrated into the installation/concert "How beautiful is the future?" during "The night of the imagination" in Ghent in 2019.

Between rhythm and tone

If the cone of a loudspeaker moves up and down at 3 Hz (3 times per second), it produces a rhythmically blown tone on the whistle. The speed can be increased so that the speaker cones move at a speed of, for example, 10 Hz, 20 Hz, 50 Hz, 100 Hz, etc. The surface of the speaker itself causes the tone to rise. The surface of the loudspeaker itself makes the air in the surrounding space vibrate, also moving back and forth. From 25 Hz onwards, this oscillation also becomes audible as a low bass tone.

As the frequency rises, an interesting question arises: the tempo of the blowing begins to form a tone, and the pulsed fixed pitch of the flute sounds at the same time. How do these two tones interact?

laatste update: 2021.12.12


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  Elektromechanisch middenrif
  Kaeru ga tanbo ni iru
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