Bell plate and tubular chime combinations

Some tuned bell plates in Bronze and Aluminium plus some unusual Aluminium bass chimes. www.mattnolancustom.com/
© 2015 Matt Nolan

[@sengaaknom]

I knew one second into the sound of the instrument that this must be the crazy guy who built the Gameleste for Björk :D

[@yipman1000]

Brilliant Matt-Such Beautiful Tones. Cheers!

[@rateeightx]

I Like How The Sound Kinda Lingers After You Hit It, I Imagine It'd Be Cool To Have Some Big Piece, And You Hit These To Have The Sound There, Re-Hitting Them Every Once In A While So They Don't Go Away, And As The Main Music Gets More Intense, You Hit More And More Of Them.

[@MattNolanCustom]

There's a requiem piece by Arvo Part with a single tubular bell which is a little like that

[@Soundvermont]

That was awesome!

[@shonnyno]

Bravo! great sound of bass tubular bells! never seen a tubular horizontal suspended! (bell plates: heavy bronze is good, but alluminium is not good).

[@fancloudy]

That sounds great ! ^^

[@craigjackson4424]

Gorgeous

[@nicolasollivier4648]

Hello, we are part of a traditional orchestra in France and we are interested in making bell plate. Do you know where we could find the dimension and thickness to get the DO(C) rating on an aluminum plate? thank you for your reply.

[@arirupabeda9120]

Brilliant!

[@BurningtunaDC]

Brilliant!!

[@justinehughes3929]

Wow, thats amazing . thanks

[@Lyaksej]

Hi! Can I ask you what is the thickness of the aluminium bells you have here?

[@MattNolanCustom]

6mm thick for these aluminium bell plates. 2 inch outer diameter on the aluminium tubular bells

[@Lyaksej]

Awesome, thanks! I want to create a set of bell plaets which can be used in the drumming circles. Something similar to this: kzbin.info/www/bejne/f6m1iYWJns6SgJI

[@Lyaksej]

@@MattNolanCustom btw, what is the thickness of the brass ones?

[@MattNolanCustom]

@@Lyaksej They are bronze and 3mm

[@KarlSheen]

how does aluminium compare to normal brass for the chimes, due to the ridiculous costs of tubular bells i was concidering making a 20 tube set out of 38.1mm x 3.2mm ( 1 1/2"od x 10swg ) Al tubing. Apparently Al is harder yet less dense than brass so how does that compare on tone. The other thing i wanted to ask is what is the purpose of the endcap on standard chimes as i noticed yours dont have them. sorry to bombard you with questions. thanks!

[@MattNolanCustom]

Karl Sheen the chimes need to be longer in Aluminium than Brass for the same note. The tone is determined very much by the thickness of the tube wall: thicker = brighter, thinner = more mellow, too thin = dead and/or plinky. I haven't tried Alu chimes at 1.5" yet, but my guess would be that you will need thicker wall than 10swg. 3/16" or 1/4" more likely. The thickness will also affect the length needed for each note. Slightly shorter when the wall is thicker and vice versa. End caps serve 3 purposes. The first is to prevent / dampen "bell modes" of vibration (i.e. oval vibration of the tube cross-section) which sound like scaffolding and not chimes. The second is to add a little extra mass at the far end of the chime which stretches the overtones out a bit, helping them get a little closer to a harmonic series. The third is to provide a nice spot for the mallet to hit. You can use a less precise mallet technique if there is a radiused cap or rim at the top of the tube. My chimes here do have plugs in the top end and were slightly un-finished. A rim was added later and the tuning was micro-adjusted to account for it.

[@KarlSheen]

Aha...thanks for the reply. Would it make much of a difference if I used the 1/4" without a end cap as my acess to tools is very limited?

[@MattNolanCustom]

Karl Sheen my guess is that you might be OK at lower dynamics. At higher dynamics you might start to hear a bit of scaffold tone coming in. Try to get a short length of 1" solid alu bar. If you're lucky, it will just slide inside the 1.5" x 1/4" wall tube and you can cut a 1 or 2" long piece to plug the top end of each chime. Stick it in with a structural epoxy (JB Weld, or stronger). If you are less lucky and it is too tight to fit, then you could put your little plugs in the deep freeze for a while (so they shrink slightly) and gently blowtorch the end of the tubes (so they expand slightly) and then see if you can slide them in (wear gloves!). As everything comes back to room temperature, the plugs will be clamped tightly in place.

[@KarlSheen]

sorry for the delay! thanks everso much for the advice. In the end ive made a set of ridiculously long bass bells for the brass band out of 2" Al Tube, got a short lenght of solid 1.5" rod and jambed it into the tops by flame torching the tubes and freezing the plugs. I can see what you mean by diffence in tone as without the plugs you get a unusual vibrato effect, once the plug is in the tone settles to a straighter sound. I have made 6 so far Eb (below mid C) Bb and high Eb for 1812 and great gate of kiev, low G and mid C symphonie fantastique. and very low D for Danse Macabre and Night on bare Mountain. I use 2 old woodworking trestles to support them horizontally, the audience are always baffled as they can never see them but they can hear them ringing very loud

[@KarlSheen]

OH...forgot to ask, what prices do the bell plates range from

[@GALLERYARTCURATION]

😊 interesting

[@roshanreynolds7037]

I came across your videos because I’m trying to find out what instrument starts the Top Gun soundtrack - I’d never heard of a bell plate before but could it be one of those? Help please!

[@MattNolanCustom]

Sounds to me like a keyboard synthesiser version of a tubular bell. Very much like a stock sound from the Yamaha DX-7 or similar.

[@roshanreynolds7037]

@@MattNolanCustom thanks for replying

[@nativeenglishteacherbudape5916]

Beautiful! What thickness is the brass bell plate?

[@MattNolanCustom]

The bronze plates in this video are 10 gauge

[@nativeenglishteacherbudape5916]

@@MattNolanCustom thanks 🙏

[@GALLERYARTCURATION]

😊😊🎉

[@blasphemer]

[@Xogroroth666]

Why is it, that nigh all people know of tubular bells (the instrument), but not ONE song can be found that's played on the damn thing???? Even aliens are not THAT hidden/inexistent!!!!

[@MattNolanCustom]

Futurama theme tune

[@Xogroroth666]

@@MattNolanCustom I said: music... :P

[@MattNolanCustom]

@@Xogroroth666 :) you said song. Most tubular bell sets have a very limited compass of notes and, by their nature, they are somewhat discordant / dissonant. This is why they are not generally used for melodies and are used mostly for colour and punctuation, suggesting jubilation, or funerals, etc.

[@Xogroroth666]

@@MattNolanCustom Then we need to find out dissonant music, you mean? :P But, the thing is, it sounds brilliant. Been thinking to make one with a keyboard, like a piano. Let's call it a Tubuano... It will be driven by the same mechanics as a piano, with metal hammers, and a pedal driven cloth for softer tones. Or well, someone can use this idea, I do not mind. This instrument would be used, obviously, in very tiny rooms. No wait... I mean in large, very large rooms... XD I love it's clear sound, I find it underappreciated...?

[@ecsciguy79]

Here are a few I know of: kzbin.info/www/bejne/ponJf3qImKmMpq8 kzbin.info/www/bejne/iYemaKN-aMuUgac kzbin.info/www/bejne/mmLElHiMotOJnqs And like Matt said, these chimes don't play melodies