I just got a "Seven Metal Meditation Gong" from Amazon.com and want to determine what note it rings with.

I have tried listening to my Roland FP-4 digital piano and matching the note I'm hearing. What procedure do piano technicians use for this type of thing. I have it narrowed down to approx. the 2nd B up from middle C.

Are you listening to vibrations when getting this matched up with a note. What can I do?

It's not likely any ET note, dead-on. I think most all ETD would give you something like B +27 or whatever cents, but I don't use'em so can't really say...

Probably some funky cosmic tone with lots of weird partials...

That's similar to my drums. The only way I can decide what note it's playing is to hit the drum, hum the note I hear then go to the piano. Like Mr. Morton says, it has lots of partials, but your ears (hopefully coupled to your brain) will decide on one main note.

You could download the demo for Veritune or TuneLab and give that a try just for fun.

Scooter

I'm not Morton...he's probably been dead, like, seventy years...LOL!!

Oh! No!. I see the quote now.

Sorry, JDelmore

Scooter

What is this doing in a Piano Tuner-Technicians forum?

Search the web, I am sure you will find a "Seven Metal Meditation Gong" user group.

Thanks Scooters,

I like your ideas very much.
"The only way I can decide what note it's playing is to hit the drum, hum the note I hear then go to the piano...it has lots of partials, but your ears (hopefully coupled to your brain) will decide on one main note."

I will use that approach and listen. I am finding no single note but lots of partials.

Supply: the reason this is in this forum is the knowledge possessed by piano technicians isn't found in other arenas!!!

Sorry, but your question has nothing to do with piano technology or piano technicians.

Humming a note and looking for it on a piano is not an activity piano techs engage in.

Musicians perhaps, composers perhaps, builders of chimes, marimbas and other instruments perhaps, and others I am sure. That is why I suggest a web search - to find the expertise in the field you are talking about.

oops, sorry about the double post

They're right, you can get better information probably from the manufacturers of gongs or chimes...

What I can tell you is that we purchased a hanging gong in Halifax a couple years ago on a trip, and it rings beautifully. As a percussionist/guitarist, I love the sound. However, it does not actually produce an "in tune" note. I doubt the makers were shooting for reaching an actual pitch...I could use a strobe tuner to dial it in, and the cents adjustment (as mentioned above) to find the actual pitch. But, you won't generally find gongs that ring at exact notes in the western scale.

Jane uses the thing to wake me up in the morning and remind me its time for meditation before our coffee time (meditation and coffee works for me, your mileage may vary!)

Hope some of that helps. If, in the future you ask an acoustic piano related question here, you'll get a better response from more techs...

Enjoy that Gong! RPD

Download a spectrum analyzer program, might be called RTA.

Even a cheap computer mike will probably give you the fundamental frequency and the overtones.

Sounds like this, where the overtones are not in any simple relationship to the fundamental, can be hard to recognize. Our brains are hardwired to assemble overtones into a "pitch" sensation, including when some overtones are missing, or when the fundamental is missing but sufficient overtones exist to reconstruct it. However, this only works when the overtones have a simple musical relationship (harmonicity), like with a wind instrument, or only small inharmonicity, like a piano.

If you want to go low tech, invite a trombone player over, have him move up and down until he matches. Sometimes an infinitely variable pitch is an advantage, sometimes not!