Looking for modal analysis software

Chet

Hi, I’m looking around for free modal analysis software. Basically, if you load a percussive sound like a bell or wood block into it, it will tell you the frequency, amplitude, and decay time of each vibration.

Mechanical engineers use this all the time to study vibrations of things like bridges and buildings. But they use expensive and fancy software.

I once read a paper by a researcher who was studying bells, and his paper came with some sample data for a particular bell. I remember building a Nord Modular patch that included a dozens of sine oscillators tuned to his data, and the resulting sound was amazingly realistic.

Now, I'd like to generate that kind of data myself for experimentation. Does anyone know where any free modal analysis software packages might be found?

Inventor · Posted: Mon Jan 10, 2011 3:52 pm Post subject:

This is not exactly what you are looking for, but I've been evaluating the Electroacoustic Toolbox, which is $500 but the eval runs for 30 days. It also times out and resets occasionally. It's got a scope, two kinds of FFT analyzers, a spectrogram, and an xy plotter. Maybe that will help. It's for Mac but there's plenty more packages like it for PC. You can save the data and analyze it with your own code as well. Hope that helps.

Les

elektro80 · Posted: Mon Jan 10, 2011 4:41 pm Post subject:

Wasn´t there 1 or 2 apps .. academic stuff.. that you could compile for various platforms? I´ve forgotten the names. Perhaps Sourceforge is the place to search?

Chet · Posted: Tue Jan 11, 2011 9:03 pm Post subject:

Thanks for the tips, I'll look into them.

I've found a spectral analyzer called Spear, which I'm going to try out. But it's not specifically a modal analyzer, so I'm still looking.

klangumsetzer · Posted: Wed Jan 12, 2011 1:42 am Post subject:

hello chet,

i have no experience with structural analysis but maybe this helps:

frame3dd http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:8Ub0GaoM--MJ:frame3dd.sourceforge.net/+%22Structural+Analysis%22+software+sourceforge&cd=1&hl=sv&ct=clnk&gl=de

Winstontaneous · Joined: Oct 31, 2008 Posts: 43 Location: Berkeley, CA

On his site, Harm Visser mentions that he uses PRAAT, a free speech analysis program.

He has made wonderful Physical Modeling patches for Tassman, including some that use back & forth modwheel action for bow simulation.