I'm going to have to differ.  Look up any of the many sights on the web and you'll see that there are two kinds of percussion instruments - definite pitch, (xylophones, Marimbas, Glockenspiels, Celestes, piano if you want to call it a percussion instrument, tympani), and indefinite pitch, (snare drums, bass drums, tambourines, triangle, wood block, cymbals, tam tam, etc.).  Certainly the fundamental tone of a bass drum will have a pitch but the overtones are not harmonically related to this fundamental which leads to the unpitched sound.  Certainly percussionists spend a lot of time adjusting these instruments but they aren't tuning them, they're more likely trying to get rid of any pitched sound.  I have recorded choral selections where a triangle with a pitch has been a real problem because the choir gravitates towards that pitch.  I have seen countless percussion scores and never have I seen an indication that a bass drum or snare drum should
 have a specific pitch.  I played percussion in orchestras and bands many years ago so I also have some experience in this area.

db



On Thursday, February 20, 2014 12:18:47 PM, John Haley <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
 
Something to keep in mind on the topic of bass and small drivers is that
>sometimes what you are hearing for deep bass tones is really the first
>harmonic an octave higher, which is often strong and can sometimes "mask"
>as the real thing where it is reproduced strongly but the deep fundamental
>tone is actually missing.  Our ears can be fooled into thinking that the
>real bottom tone is there.
>
>For me, nothing compares to a real subwoofer.  For many popular small
>speaker systems, what they are calling the subwoofer is really the woofer.
>The other great benefit of using a real sub, which I think still pertains
>in today's world, is that whatever driver is handling the midrange will
>often perform with a lot more clarity if that same driver does not have to
>move in and out a inch or so to produce the lower tones, while at the same
>time struggling to produce the much shorter wavelengths of midrange tones.
>
>As Tom said, bass tones can be very directional, but our sense of where the
>bass tones are coming from can be largely determined by their harmonics,
>including those generated by the attack of the note.  These harmonics are
>often high enough to be directional.  They ought to be picked up by the L
>and R speakers if reasonably full range.  I don't know what happens when it
>all passes thru a bass-management stage of a modern A-V amp.
>
>Best,
>John Haley
>
>
>
>
>
>On Thu, Feb 20, 2014 at 10:58 AM, Frank Strauss <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
>> Hi Tom-In response to what David said about bass drums not having a
>> definite pitch, I can tell you from the experience of playing in the drum
>> corps of a bagpipe band, that bass drums, as well as tenor and snare drums
>> most certainly have pitches, and much time is spent in the very good bands
>> with harmonizing the drum corps with the pipe corps.  This isn't going to
>> help you, because it is hopelessly out of production, but I use an Altec
>> Lansing ACS45.1 powered computer speaker system.  It has a right and left
>> speaker and a sub woofer that sits under the desk.  It sounds very nice to
>> my ears.  I have used it for PP shows and it fills a room nicely, and
>> people comment on the sound quality.  It makes sitting at the computer much
>> more pleasant.  It was succeeded by ACS340, which is around, but also out
>> of production, I think.  I bought a Klipsch G 17 Air, to use with a
>> laptop.  Amazon has it for $204, and they say it has a list of $549.  It is
>> quite an awful little unit.  The only thing nice about it is that it's
>> bluetooth.  No bass, no separation, and very volume limited.
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> Frank B Strauss, DMD
>>
>
>
>