Psycho-acoustic effects in church bells

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• Scott Orr (UCL Institute for Sustainable Heritage) and Bill Hibbert
• Tuesday 28 October 2025, 17:00-18:00
• CMS computer room, Faculty of Music (11 West Road, Cambridge, CB3 9DP).

If you have a question about this talk, please contact jbf43.

Abstract

The core of the seminar is a presentation and discussion on psycho-acoustic effects in bells. Scott will give an introduction on bells and how they are used as musical instruments. Bill will then explain a newly developed technique for visualising the complex modes of vibration in bells. He will then demonstrate how these modes of vibration give a strong sensation of pitch only loosely related to the modal frequencies (the so-called strike note paradox). The seminar will include a number of sound demonstrations intended to investigate modes of hearing, with discussion of who in the seminar experiences the various effects.

Biographies

Dr Scott Allan Orr is an Associate Professor of Heritage and Environmental Risk at the UCL Institute for Sustainable Heritage. An engineer with broad interests, his research primarily uses data-driven approaches to further understanding and management of heritage, with a particular focus on the historic environment. He is also an active carillon performer, composer, and advocate, and is currently a member of the Executive Committee of the World Carillon Federation.

Dr Bill Hibbert has been researching the acoustics and history of church bells for many decades. His doctorate (achieved in 2008 while working full-time in the IT industry in an unrelated role) was on pitch perception in church bells. He has a library of over 13,000 bell recordings used for ongoing research. He has carried out many projects to investigate and correct tuning issues in church bells. Bill is a church bellringer and also an experienced choral musician.

Zoom link

https://zoom.us/j/99433440421?pwd=ZWxCQXFZclRtbjNXa0s2K1Q2REVPZz09 (Meeting ID: 994 3344 0421; Passcode: 714277)

This talk is part of the CMS seminar series in the Faculty of Music series.

This talk is included in these lists:

• CMS computer room, Faculty of Music (11 West Road, Cambridge, CB3 9DP)
• CMS seminar series in the Faculty of Music

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