Eye of sound (german: Klangauge)

[Erny]

Hi community,

there exists a steel-tongue-drum which, to my mind, has not been mentioned in this section before.

Somehow or other it belongs to the family of "metallic drums (instruments)". It comes with a pentatonic tuning and its sound is very smooth. It can be played with hands or mallets.
A special feature is that the tuning can be changed by varying the position of small lodestones below the tongues and thus modifying the frequency of resonance.(changing the scale from F-major to E-minor). In addition to this C-major, Akebono-minor (japanese scale) and a special scale called "sound of soul", should also be feasible.

According to the manufacturer, the "Klangauge" partly is manufactured in small workshops of disabled persons.

The manufacturer-link:
http://www.klangauge.de/en/news.html

manufacturer-sound-Sample:
http://www.klangauge.de/index-en.html

home-made sound-sample:

Sound of Klangauge.mp3

(1.61 MiB) Downloaded 60 times

There are some videos on youtube available too.

Hope that someone of you will like this information.

Cheers...
...Erny

[Michel]

It comes very close to the hangdrum from Panart. The sound also. Nice.

[michi]

I have one of these, made by a guy in Victoria out of an old 9 kg gas bottle. It sounds nice, very similar to the sound clips on the Klanguage website.

Michi.

[Erny]

Hi guys,

thanks for your feedback.

A friend of mine is playing an original hang from Bern (Switzerland) and the sound of it still differs from the Klangauge. Maybe this is, because the hang creates its sound via vibrating, closed surfaces and not vibrating tongues?

Michi, would you like to give us a short example for the sound of yours as .mp3-file?

On my way through Youtube I found this little vid with the Klangauge and a guy, using it very well. Maybe you´d like to have a look at it:



Cheers...
...Erny

[michi]

Michi, would you like to give us a short example for the sound of yours as .mp3-file?

I'll dig it out over the weekend and post something.

Cheers,

Michi.

[Erny]

Thanks Michi, I´m already curious!

Greetings to Up Over, why shouldn´t we be Down Under?

...Erny

[michi]

Here are two images of my gas bottle version. It doesn't sound anywhere near as clean as the Klanguage (but it costs eighty bucks ).

Gas bottle tongue drum

Gas bottle 1.jpg (22.23 KiB) Viewed 222 times

Gas bottle tongue drum, top view

Gas bottle 2.jpg (18.21 KiB) Viewed 222 times

Here is a sound clip:

Gas bottle tongue drum.mp3

Gas bottle tongue drum - sound sample

(478.32 KiB) Downloaded 78 times

Cheers,

Michi.

[Erny]

Hi Michi,

thank you so much for pictures and the sound-sample. Yes it sounds indeed different rather like a gong and less like a xylophone, but I like it too.

By the way, did you mix the recording with a reverb-effect later or is there really such a long sustain?

Cheers...
...Erny

[michi]

By the way, did you mix the recording with a reverb-effect later or is there really such a long sustain?

No tinkering on the recording. That's just how it sounds, the sustain really is that long. I goes on for at least 20 seconds.

You need to play this thing with small rubber mallets. Trying to play with fingers doesn't work very well because all you get are overtones, but little of the fundamental. Not possible to hit hard enough to get the fundamental going properly.

Cheers,

Michi.

[Trog]

Here is one that sells in Canada.
http://tribalthunder.com/oscar_drum.htm

[Erny]

No tinkering on the recording. That's just how it sounds, the sustain really is that long. I goes on for at least 20 seconds.

That´s interesting michi, 20 seconds is quite a long time!

You need to play this thing with small rubber mallets. Trying to play with fingers doesn't work very well because all you get are overtones, but little of the fundamental. Not possible to hit hard enough to get the fundamental going properly.

That´s different with the Klangauge, you can play it with your fingers and with felt mallets too, but it is louder with mallets.

@Trog: thanks for the link, this one is also sold in Germany and I played it already, compared it with the Klangauge and prefered the one I bought!

Cheers...
...Erny

[michi]

Just came across another version of this: http://kooldrum.com/

Quite expensive though…

Michi.

[Erny]

Just came across another version of this: http://kooldrum.com/

Quite expensive though…

Michi.

Thanks for this link too, the pricing is close to the Klangauge or even a bit lower!

Cheers...
...Erny