Upright Bass strings video

Steinberg Lounge
1

Came across this video . It shows a string bass shot in real time ( not slow motion ) but with very high shutter speeds that freezes the waveforms of the strings .

2

Hi Dave

I Was VERY impressed by that video … I’ve seen examples of the DSLR/vidcam crossover, and this one blew me away. Brilliant, and thank you for sharing this.

All the best
Glyn

3

Wow, that’s a great video! :open_mouth:

4

Wibbly Wobbly bass strings… great vid :stuck_out_tongue:

5

Unreal :exclamation:

6

I was looking at the wavelengths and idly wondering what frequency ( roughly ) of harmonics I was seeing . I reasoned something like this ; ( please someone correct me if I go wrong )…

Around the 1 min mark there seems to a wave of a similar length to the width of the player’s hand , let’s say 12.5 cm for convenience .
He is playing the “A” string .
A 3/4 size double bass has a scale of up to 42 inches , let’s say 1 metre for convenience .
Open string tuned to “A” vibrates at 55 Hz with a wavelength of 100 cm .
So a 50 cm wave would be sounding “A” an octave above @ 110 Hz
a 25 cm wave…“A” two octaves @ 220 Hz
a12.5 cm wave… an " A " three octaves above the open string , which is “A” @ 440Hz

So I guess we are seeing the harmonics around 440 Hz being captured .
Does that seem reasonable ?

7

I wonder if those strings are made of cat gut? :laughing:

8

Here’s another video I found , but with wobbly cymbals and stuff ;

9

And another one, no slow motion here, just fast shutter speed:
Imgur

10

I believe the “spaghetti string” effect seen in these videos is an artifact of digital acquisition, as discussed in the extensive comments of the 1st video at the top of this thread. Something about each frame not being captured at once, but rather over time in a vertical wave. But I believe those comments are accurate mainly because I don’t believe the strings move as much as they are depicted in many of these!

11

Don’t forget that the root is only half a wavelength.

12

I noticed this phenomenon or something similar many years ago lying in a sofa, watching TV , playing the guitar with the strings between my eyes and the TV.Just light out of sync, but it looks very cool! :sunglasses: