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Birdmusic wrote:So I noticed the rules mentioned how event supervisors “may” move the testing equipment closer for the pitch part. (Part II.f.iii)

Thing is, I’m afraid an event supervisor will decide this means they can choose to not move it closer, and on our instrument (copper pipe xylophone), if we want to play in tune, only 3-4 of the pitches register at 1 m. We tried using a cardboard box placed behind the instrument as a resonator but it doesn’t really seem to make a difference.

Do you guys have any recommendations for us? We are currently using a mallet made of rubber bands wrapped around a dowel. (This is necessary because the wooden dowel alone, while louder, causes the pitch to head towards the higher overtones)

Creationist127 wrote:

Birdmusic wrote:So I noticed the rules mentioned how event supervisors “may” move the testing equipment closer for the pitch part. (Part II.f.iii)

Thing is, I’m afraid an event supervisor will decide this means they can choose to not move it closer, and on our instrument (copper pipe xylophone), if we want to play in tune, only 3-4 of the pitches register at 1 m. We tried using a cardboard box placed behind the instrument as a resonator but it doesn’t really seem to make a difference.

Do you guys have any recommendations for us? We are currently using a mallet made of rubber bands wrapped around a dowel. (This is necessary because the wooden dowel alone, while louder, causes the pitch to head towards the higher overtones)

Unless the ES is unnecessarily cruel, they will probably move the test equipment over.
Scratch that. Unless they are incompetent inexperienced, they will move the test equipment over. If they don't, and you get a bad score, that is probably grounds for an appeal.

Carpenter wrote:Does anybody know what scores would have been needed to place at MIT?

markuswso17 wrote:What apps or programs are you using to measure the average pitch? Soinc recommends to use the Science Journal app by Google, but it include 0Hz as part of the average in data collection, causing the average to be lower than the actual note average. I know that you can repeat the note as many times as possible in those 5 seconds, but this is not an optimal situation because each start of a note will naturally be higher pitched than the sustain of the note. What have you found to work?

markuswso17 wrote:The rules state that: "The pitch measurement will be the average value during the 5 seconds.". To me that means that the average will be taken from the entirety of the 5 seconds, and not what looks like the average fundamental.

Riptide wrote:

markuswso17 wrote:The rules state that: "The pitch measurement will be the average value during the 5 seconds.". To me that means that the average will be taken from the entirety of the 5 seconds, and not what looks like the average fundamental.

My bad I thought you were asking from a competitors point of view. If you’re just trying to calibrate your own build then doing the crop thing works. From a proctors point of view I don’t think there’s anything they can really do short of taking the average over a time less than 5 seconds, which is clearly against the rules. No app will just magically not record 0 or strange overtones - it’ll be up to students to build a device that does its best to avoid this by sustaining the note for the entire 5 seconds without having to repeat it while keeping it at a volume that the app will register it at consistently.

Creationist127 wrote: Unless the ES is unnecessarily cruel, they will probably move the test equipment over.
Scratch that. Unless they are incompetent inexperienced, they will move the test equipment over. If they don't, and you get a bad score, that is probably grounds for an appeal.

Justin72835 wrote: This is true. Good proctors will almost always listen to you provided that what is being asked is within the rules. On that same note, always bring a copy of the rules to events like these. If you ask and your proctor says no, you can sometimes change their mind by showing them specific statements on there.